Trip meter 0
Friday January 3, 2014
One thing about Ajo- there is no Walmart here. While traveling, we have found Walmart to be a fairly good way of keeping up with our prescription meds. There are only a few national chain stores that our insurer will recognize, so for better or worse we are tied to finding a Walmart once a month. By 8 AM we had the car loaded up for the 1-1/2 hour trip to Buckeye, AZ and the closest Walmart. The trip took us north, up AZ route 85, to I-10 and then a mile or two east on I-10 to the Sundance Towne Center. Everything went smoothly enough and by 1:30 PM we had groceries and meds and were headed back.
We arrived back at our winter home by 3 PM and were unloading our groceries when we noticed a wet spot under the water heater compartment. Sure enough, it was dripping a slow drip. This is the same appliance that I'd had to pull out in Luddington, MI, to replace the electric heating element, during a rain storm last May.
During my last encounter, I was very disappointed to find that the Motorade line that circulates hot engine coolant to a heat exchanger in the water heater was crowding the hot water output line and fitting going to the coach.
Why the manufacturer hadn't just relocated the place where the Motorade line entered the back of the cabinet, was a mystery to me. Instead the installer built this jumble of parts- Grrr! Joan was sick, and it was raining and COLD last time so I just closed my eyes and reinstalled it.
Today it is 59 degrees and the sun is shining- so I resolved to fix it. Besides- the little plastic elbow in the picture above had finally cracked and started to leak.
Here is what I came up with.
I'm sightly worried about the high temperature of the water that will sit in the flexline, but it was such an elegant solution, I think it's worth a try. Finding the brass elbow with 1/2" iron pipe threads on one end and 1/2" compression threads on the other here in Ajo was a coup, and allowed the use of the flexible stainless faucet connector line.
We have finally set the date for our trip down to Puerto Pensaco on the Mexican Sea of Cortez. Our next door neighbor, Barb, wants to go with us, so we need to buy some Mexico car insurance on Monday.
Joan and I have found the climate here to be about as perfect as winter could be. The days are in the high 60s to low 70s and the evenings cool off to the mid 40s to 50s. We watch the super-cold weather pummeling the northern states and honestly feel sorry for those folks. We do remember heading for the snow when we were in our 20s and 30s and having fun with the 4 wheel drive pickups- getting stuck and un-stuck. Seems like- no it was, ages ago. Now days our fingers start getting frostbite at 40 degrees! We are warm weather wimps and proud of it!
Your Traveling Friends
Jeff and Joan
Having to do repairs in the middle of a storm could not have been fun. I can understand how you must be feeling or have felt when the same piece of equipment started giving you problems again. It can really make you feel like just buying new equipment. Fortunately, most of those problems aren't as big as they seem at first.
ReplyDeleteWilfred Andrews @ LB Plumbing and Heating