Sob Story

by Scruffy and Tater on 7/20/2011, 2:08 am

The temperature yesterday reached 104 where we live.

Scruffy and I went shopping yesterday morning. About 10-15 minutes after we got home, we heard a strange noise. It sounded something like the garage door opening, but quite a bit louder. Scruffy said it sounded like it was coming from the air conditioner. He turned it off and then went outside to check. It was hissing. We called the A/C service people and they could get someone to the house in about 3-5 hours. The guy got there around 3:00. Our compressor blew. All the coolant sprayed out and a lot of oil. We just had that outside unit replaced 3 years ago.

We decided that we would stop getting the home warranty, and it expired on July 11. We regret that now. Fortunately the compressor is still under warranty, but we'll have to pay for the labor. Bummer! Not going to say how much....... way too much. At least it should be fixed by late this afternoon. In the meantime, we are staying with our daughter and her hubby. Inside our house was 87 when we left yesterday afternoon.

We've been thinking of putting a 30 amp plug out near the trailer. Our neighbor even said he would hook it up. If we had done that, we could have just slept there. I bet we won't wait too long to get that done now.

End of sob story. Oh, well, in the big scheme of things, this was a small problem ----- life is good. sunny

Tater

by robertz675 on 7/20/2011, 2:27 am

It is funny how air conditioners only break on hot days. What was the humidity like? At least you got a good sleep.

by TC on 7/20/2011, 2:28 am

That's what happens when the warranty runs out. AwwMan

You guys will wonder why you waited so long to install a 30A service once you have it.

TC

by Richard Mondavi on 7/20/2011, 2:53 am

Sorry to hear about your relatively new A/C going out. That is a real BUMMER, especially in this heat wave that is gripping the country. At least you had somewhere to go to stay cool.

by robertz675 on 7/20/2011, 3:05 am

I'll bet a 30A plug is on the agenda for the weekend.

by Scruffy and Tater on 7/20/2011, 3:33 am

Soon, very soon. We've wanted it for a long while. Even without an emergency, it will be nice. We could pack or unpack the trailer in cool comfort. Might do more local camping if we didn't have to be so hot getting the trailer ready.

Tater

by jetskier on 7/20/2011, 3:45 am

It's been mild here. Not to mention we have low humidity.

I've used the A/C for about 2 evenings this year at home. We have two units in three zones. It's nice to have when you need it, but I don't like the power costs.

My sister is on her way Wisconsin permanently. She's been warned about the heat and humidity. She'll be back. I think she's in Iowa now. Her husband took a job as a roofer of all things. That won't last.

by TC on 7/20/2011, 5:19 am

jetskier wrote:It's been mild here. Not to mention we have low humidity.

I've used the A/C for about 2 evenings this year at home. We have two units in three zones. It's nice to have when you need it, but I don't like the power costs.

My sister is on her way Wisconsin permanently. She's been warned about the heat and humidity. She'll be back. I think she's in Iowa now. Her husband took a job as a roofer of all things. That won't last.

Swamp coolers would work well out your way.

Wish I was in Bridgeport right about now. It's supposed to be 101 here today, that's actual temp. Heat index is supposed to around 117. In this kind of weather, you can hear the corn growing!

TC

by jetskier on 7/20/2011, 5:24 am

TC wrote:Swamp coolers would work well out your way.

Wish I was in Bridgeport right about now. It's supposed to be 101 here today, that's actual temp. Heat index is supposed to around 117. In this kind of weather, you can hear the corn growing!
TC

I had one in my other house, but it was a maintenance nightmare. Hard water is the issue.

Bridgeport would be nice. Haven't been camping there in a couple years. I need to make friends with some landowners out there. lol!

by TC on 7/20/2011, 7:23 am

jetskier wrote:Bridgeport would be nice. Haven't been camping there in a couple years. I need to make friends with some landowners out there.

We're friends. Unfortunately, there's only one or two spots to camp on over 200 acres. Only one to park an rv on. The next time I'm out that way, I'm going to cut out some more sage and put down gravel to expand the spot to accomodate more than one rv...maybe next year. My stroke put the kabosh on long trips this year.

TC

by oldelmer1 on 7/20/2011, 1:36 pm

Tater,

A suggestion, if you neighbor will connect it up for you, you might think about putting in a 50 AMP plug, that way, if you ever decide to upgrade to a 50 AMP camper, you will already have the power there for it.

Just a thought.....

by Scruffy and Tater on 7/20/2011, 3:32 pm

They weren't talking about 50 amps at the time, but I guess if he knows how to do 30 amps, he would know how to do 50. I will ask Scruffy about this, although I doubt if we will ever upgrade to a 50amp camper.

Tater

by Admin on 7/20/2011, 6:31 pm

Mine blew at the first of the summer,,, 300 bucks worth.
You can easily swap the 30 amp breaker out for a fifty when the time comes, and the plug in on the other end. Just run the wire big enough to handle fifty.

by Maxtor on 7/20/2011, 6:59 pm

We hook up our 29rlbs to a 20 amp circuit at the house, and the 15k a/c works fine. I think the adapter from 30amp to 20 amp cost about $5 at Ace Hardware.

by Mopar_Earl on 7/20/2011, 8:27 pm

Admin wrote:Mine blew at the first of the summer,,, 300 bucks worth.
You can easily swap the 30 amp breaker out for a fifty when the time comes, and the plug in on the other end. Just run the wire big enough to handle fifty.

As long as you run 4 wires or you won't be able to install 50A RV service later. 30A RV service only uses 3 wires since it's 120V. The 50A is 240V, which needs the 4th wire. You'll need a spare space next to the single pole 30A breaker in the panel to fit the double pole 50A breaker later.

Earl

by Richard Mondavi on 7/21/2011, 12:36 am

Our DD and SIL live in Columbia, MO and their A/C went out a couple of days ago. The heating and cooling company gave them an estimate of $3500 to $5000, depending on the brand of A/C they choose, for a new A/C system. They are getting a second opinion today.

by North7 on 7/21/2011, 12:49 am

Tater, I had thought about installing a 30A plug for quite a few years and finally got around to it about 2 years ago. Not sure why I didn't do it sooner as it's so nice to turn the AC on when packing for or unloading from a trip as well as when cleaning.

It was less than $100 for the materials and probably took me about 30 minutes to drill through the concrete basement, wire the plug, and install and caulk around the box. I had an electrician friend stop by and wire it into the panel for me as I don't like to mess around in the main panel Laughing

I'm sure you'll be like me and wonder why you didn't do it years earlier!!

by Scruffy and Tater on 7/21/2011, 5:25 am

Richard Mondavi wrote:Our DD and SIL live in Columbia, MO and their A/C went out a couple of days ago. The heating and cooling company gave them an estimate of $3500 to $5000, depending on the brand of A/C they choose, for a new A/C system. They are getting a second opinion today.

I hope they aren't staying in that hot house. Ours got up to 87, and the A/C repairman said he's been in some homes where it got into the 90's.

It would have cost $6,000 to replace that A/C unit. Since it's only 3 years old, we decided not to replace it. We figure we're getting off pretty good with $1,800. $600 of that was freon.

Tater

by Scruffy and Tater on 7/21/2011, 5:28 am

More sobbing - Wink

Our coffeemaker quit working this morning. Our COFFEEMAKER!!!!!!!!!!! Scruffy went out to the trailer and brought in the coffeemaker from there. Much calmer now. Laughing

Tater

by TeamPlumlee on 7/21/2011, 6:16 am

wow...what next!!??? If it's not one thing it's another. Hope your luck changes.

by Roadrash on 7/21/2011, 6:22 am

I feel your pain as I can not live without AC and coffee. Cool

. When we returned from Tn. at the end of May, my central AC was broken. Pluged the WC into the garage and had a place to sleep. Managed to repair the AC (broken wire on the contactor) the following morning. cheers

Heat index 105 today. affraid

by Scruffy and Tater on 7/21/2011, 6:33 am

Well, let's see - our LED nightlights in the bathrooms quit working. Bought them on the same day. Must have reached their expiration date. Wink

by BobnPi on 7/21/2011, 9:35 am

It's supposed to be 101 here today, that's actual temp. Heat index is supposed to around 117. In this kind of weather, you can hear the corn growing!

Growing? Or Popping? lol!

We put in a 30Amp breaker last summer when I was keeping the Cat at home. Fridge stayed cold and ready and that was the main reason we put it in. Cooling the inside down for packing was an added bonus. My neighbor has a huge pecan tree that hangs over my Cat and after much scrubbing and cleaning I decided to rent a place for inside storage. The storage facility has 120 plug available so I can charge up battery and keep the fridge cold. It also has free water, air, a dump station, and NO pecan trees. rap

It's nice to know the 30A is there in case I ever need it again. Plus, I have a 5K Honda generator if needed. It's really loud and I don't think the neighbors would like it much. My closest neighbor would not mind, as during the last ice storm we had that knocked out power for a few days, I let her mooch power off my generator. We both have natural gas heat so we were toasty warm, only having to power the fan in the heater.

I'm really tired today after pulling an 18 hour day. I tend to ramble when I'm tired. I can talk for days about nothing much in particular. .... ....

Ok, DW just came backoff

in and ordered me to stop boring you all and go to sleep. I think I'm going to.... Sleep

by jetskier on 7/22/2011, 5:35 am

TC wrote:
jetskier wrote:Bridgeport would be nice. Haven't been camping there in a couple years. I need to make friends with some landowners out there.

We're friends. Unfortunately, there's only one or two spots to camp on over 200 acres. Only one to park an rv on. The next time I'm out that way, I'm going to cut out some more sage and put down gravel to expand the spot to accomodate more than one rv...maybe next year. My stroke put the kabosh on long trips this year.

TC

I have a tractor that clear sage nicely. It's only 1.5 hours away from your land. We can work on a trade. Maybe you can install a 30amp plug or two... lol!

by Scruffy and Tater on 7/31/2011, 8:46 am

robertz675 wrote:I'll bet a 30A plug is on the agenda for the weekend.

Our neighbor, the one who said he would install 30amps, asked Scruffy when he wants to do it. Problem is, Scruffy has so many things going on right now he just doesn't have time. sunny

by Scruffy and Tater on 7/31/2011, 8:59 am

Here's an update on the sob story -

A/C was fixed the day after the compressor blew - works great!

Scruffy went out to buy bird seed and came back with a new coffeemaker (don't worry, he remembered the seed, too).

Did I mention our oven? We invited our daughter and her hubby over for Scruffy-grilled steaks on her birthday. Ah... steak and baked potatoes. Had the potatoes ready to put in the over, when the stove timer said the oven was ready, I opened it - it wasn't ready (cold as a cucumber). Scruffy didn't want to cook them outside, so I fried them. Circuit board was shot - fixed now.

Two of our outdoor security lights have been acting up for quite some time. They finally quit working, so Scruffy replaced them yesterday.

We wonder if we had a power surge or something. Didn't have a power failure because none of our digital clocks were blinking.

Anyway, we think everything is in good working order again.

A/C and range/oven are 220 - clothes dryer is 220 also - it is still working fine.

Whatever happens, life is good. sunny

I need a vacation!

Tater

by Maxtor on 7/31/2011, 9:25 am

The great thing about any problems us retired people have, is that we have the time to fix the problems, without worrying about doing the project after coming home from work. I remember coming home "after dark", and having to fix something that was broken. Not fun.
Life is good... sunny

I am glad to hear you have your a/c fixed. We know about 104 degree days... Do you have humidity where you are? That would make it much worse with humidity. affraid

by Portagie1968 on 7/31/2011, 11:40 am

Maxtor wrote:We hook up our 29rlbs to a 20 amp circuit at the house, and the 15k a/c works fine. I think the adapter from 30amp to 20 amp cost about $5 at Ace Hardware.

Living dangerously on the edge. I burned mine up doing that.

by Maxtor on 7/31/2011, 12:13 pm

Portagie1968 wrote:
Maxtor wrote:We hook up our 29rlbs to a 20 amp circuit at the house, and the 15k a/c works fine. I think the adapter from 30amp to 20 amp cost about $5 at Ace Hardware.

Living dangerously on the edge. I burned mine up doing that.

You must have inferior electricity down there. lol!

by Portagie1968 on 7/31/2011, 1:08 pm

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