Entropy

Relax in southern comfort on the east bank of the Mississippi. You're just around the corner from Beale Street and Sun Records. Watch the ducks, throw back a few and tell us what's on your mind.
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terkio
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Re: Entropy

Post by terkio »

I purchased a stainless steel strainer to use as a basket to sit it in and keep major debris from clogging it up.
A nice hillbilly stainless steel strainer is a washing machine drum.
I have started dismantling a washing machine, a work for rainy days.
The starting motor AC capacitor is another nice part to scavenge. I needed it on a salvaged air compressor.
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

terkio wrote: Fri Apr 30, 2021 4:20 am
I purchased a stainless steel strainer to use as a basket to sit it in and keep major debris from clogging it up.
A nice hillbilly stainless steel strainer is a washing machine drum.
I have started dismantling a washing machine, a work for rainy days.
The starting motor AC capacitor is another nice part to scavenge. I needed it on a salvaged air compressor.
The previous owner of my house had his old sump pump sitting inside a steel bucket with a few holes punched in the bottom. The old bucket had the added benefit of making a loud racket when the pump pulls air, easily heard from inside the house.

After a few decades sitting down in the ground water, it rusted apart. The stainless steel strainer should outlive me.

I notice that the modern sump pumps are OK sitting on the sandy floor of my crawl space, while the 1/2 HP had a better bottom design with closed flat bottom and side entry ports, the 1/4 HP just has a grill on the bottom that allows fine sand to pass through. I noticed that the 1/4 HP was pulling up more sand with the water discharge. Now sitting up on the bricks it should pull mostly water.

Thunderstorms forecast today..... bring on the rain. :lol:

JR
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mediatechnology
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Re: Entropy

Post by mediatechnology »

So where does the water you pump out wind up?
In the State highway drainage system?
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

mediatechnology wrote: Fri Apr 30, 2021 3:02 pm So where does the water you pump out wind up?
In the State highway drainage system?
I'm still waiting for the rain... less than one inch forecast for tomorrow. :-(

My latest upgrade to 1-1/4" discharge hose gets me 100' of run out distance.

Just before this reset, I had the discharge hose dumping water directly into the front rain ditch, now I am running it into the back to front swell (gentle ditch) cut in side yard. Either way the water is out and well away from under the house. The check valve prevents hose water from leaking back under the house. 100' of hose water can add up. Previously I used a elevated loop to prevent water run back, but the actual check valve is more positive about controlling back flow.

I have been thinking about pumping the water into a storage cistern by my raised bed so I can save it to water plants with later. Right now it ends up going out through the 3' diameter culvert running under the highway in front of my house. I guess I could pick up a 55 gallon drum to get started.

===

I finally got my Y screw driver bits so I can take apart the upper housing of my previous 1/2HP pump to search for a clogged air vent. Maybe later today, or not.

JR
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

new entropy incident.

My garden watering can (that is actually blow molded plastic) just sprung a leak... This can't be more than a few years old. I considered putting a self tapping screw into the pin hole to seal it up, but closer inspection revealed a crack in a seam, that would just split wide open if I tried to screw into it.

Clearly not worth fixing, but should have lasted longer IMO.

JR
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mediatechnology
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Re: Entropy

Post by mediatechnology »

Had to replace the clothes dryer drum belt Sunday.
I think I've changed just about every rotating part, bearing surface, and the gas valve coils at least twice on this 20+ year-old machine.
I have a good stash of parts so I didn't have to order any.

It slipped so much the drum would barely turn...
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

Good job... I don't want to jinx mine by mentioning it, but my dryer keeps on truckin.... I considered updating it when I replaced my washing machine a while back, but nah, don't fix it if it isn't broke.

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JR.
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Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

Still not enough rain to test my new improved sump pump install... :oops:

JR
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mediatechnology
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Re: Entropy

Post by mediatechnology »

This Sunday's repair drama began about 10:30 Saturday night when my wife reported that the hall bathroom was flooding.
The lavatory's faucet hose between the cold valve and the nozzle had popped open.
Unfortunately it's a proprietary Price Pfister part not available at big box retailers.
I decided to cut out the bad hose and then slip a larger oversized vinyl tube over the defective hoses' crimp.
I used the crimp as a hose barb and secured the ends with worm drive hose clamps.
It's a good temporary fix while I wait for the OEM part.

This is what a new one looks like...
The whole gizmo is quick connect.

Image

I bought the replacement from Locke plumbing once again avoiding Amazon.
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

Last nights 1" rain was enough to register down in my crawl space, but not the float threshold is set too high.... and pump was leaning over.

Too wet right now to drag it out and mess with it.

====
I have a new entropy incident to debug.... my fancy remote indoor/outdoor thermometer stopped reading the outdoor sensor... The sensor has its own LCD display and looks 100% so for some reason the receiver is not reading it.

I pulled the batteries from everything to reset it and see if it will heal itself but this is disappointing. I have gotten used to looking at temp before going outdoors and the barometer/weather prediction did not totally suck.

Too busy to waste too much time on this either right now.

[update] After several hard remove battery resets I got the remote to sync up with the base unit. The bad news is I had to reset almost everything again, the good news is it remembered the correct time zone offset (-6). It will probably take a few extra days for the barometer to self calibrate. [/update]

[update2] lost sync again with the remote temp transmitter. Replaced the batteries with new, even though the old ones measure good. This sucks because evidence points to the base station. [/update\

[update3] The remote did not sync up by itself with the new batteries, but after I did another remove the batteries from the base station reset and that resync'd. I'm not going to bother fixing the date and time, until I see that the outdoor temperature keeps working.

The ground water level down in the crawl space was finally high enough to turn on the sump pump... I may revisit this weekend to reconsider the float threshold level a little lower. [/update]

[update4] I really like this remote thermometer when its working... The new batteries did the trick, while I just measured the old batteries at 1.6V each should have have been OK. Overnight the base station updated the correct time and date from satellite or whatever, so now it's all good. I hope it stays that way. [/update]

JR
Last edited by JR. on Fri May 14, 2021 7:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
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