North West BS Thread

Another Redding transplant? We're every where!

I don't miss growing up there when Swamp Coolers were the best most people had. Left in 2007 to Sacramento area, and then up here in 2018.

F this heat

 

‘Ol Ducking saying water temp is 95/96. It’s awful! Until like 3 am when air temp is down in the 80’s....

 

We are steady at 111, I don't think we will hit the 115/116 that was predicted. Thankfully.

 

Same here--high of 91. Feels refreshing compared to yesterday's heat. Either way, stay cool folks.

 

That's crazy weather - I feel your pain from Ft Worth Texas (the feels like temp state).

 

I figure the truck temperature is strongly influenced by proximity to the engine. Impact occurs even when moving

 

Tell me about your Yuma experience. Did you work there? Or live there?

 

Left there in 1990 and never went back.

 

I moved here from AZ because I dislike sunshine. Let me explain.
Ran a project in Death Valley and had temperatures over 137. Ran a project in Florence the year a new record was set for the most consecutive days when the high was never below 120. Worked framing housing tracts in Phoenix, we would start at 4:30 and not take breaks so we could get off by noon. Also have worked in Yuma and Tucson.
This heat wave here in the PNW sucks.
I want to stay acclimated to foggy drizzly days in the 50s and 60s. I hope everyone can stay safe and as cool as possible.
The moral to the story is;
“Things are never so bad that they can’t get worse.”

 

I was sent there twice. Six weeks at a time in the middle of summer for training. Working on the flight line 10hrs a day. Like 90+ at 6am. There was a brick wall next to the hangers that we had to walk next to in order to get to work. It was miserable if you were out drinking the night before.

Fun story one year a reservist unit was tapped for supplying bodies. They sent me 3 newer guys. Being reservists they weren’t used to how things operated. One day they took 90 minutes for lunch and the rest of my guys didn’t get food. So when they got back I was ready. I had our external hook test set ready to go. It’s name was “Fred”. I made them alternate carrying Fred while we ran laps around the FL. After X amount of laps I then instructed them on how to perform said checks until they could do it from memory”under pressure”.

They learned a lot that six weeks. Ended up leaving and going back to their unit ready for their first deployment.

 

Amen!
Our AC stopped working today. I’m good. Used to crappy conditions. Wife and kids are trying to figure this out. 99% sure it’s the capacitor. None in stock anywhere. Amazon did the switcharoo on me with delivery dates at checkout. No delivery till the 6th. Called two companies locally. Earliest service appointment is the 16th of July. Other guys told me first week of August. One company on the internet just says”not excepting new customers”.

 

I had a capacitor go out once (couple years ago) and motor wouldn’t start up, just sat there and hummed.

I took a pencil and stuck it into the top of the unit and used the eraser end to push start the fan. I was able to get it to run like that for a day until I could pick up the capacitor at a parts shop.

 

That's crazy! Mine went out last year. I had guys in in two days for estimates, and installed next week. Couldn't imagine being out that far without ac. I grew up without ac, so it know it can suck. We slept outside a lot because the house would still be cooking when it cooled off outside. Never want to go back after having a place with central air.

 

See that’s why I’m not 100% positive it’s the capacitor. I do know the fuse at the electrical box outside is good. The lights aren’t on. My fan wouldn’t start. One time walking away from it I heard a faint hum for a split second then it stopped. I pulled the cover, pulled the fan up and spun it. It’s free so that isn’t it. Have a guy lined up to check it out on the side if this capacitor doesn’t fix it.

our last house before this didn’t have AC. It’s taking some adjusting but we should be fine.

The doggo isn’t to thrilled though lol.

 

I refuse to ask what “emergency” service prices are right now. I’ll spend a crap ton of money on some dumb stuff…but I hate paying extra money for “after hours” or “emergency” service.

 

I'll take foggy and drizzly 50-60s EVERY DAY over this heat.

 

Our cooling system went out completely on Friday, casualty of an improperly installed blower motor back in December ... not enough air flow to draw past the coils, which then froze, which then made a wet mess that shorted out the control board. The heat bothers me less than the compounding problems stemming from the poor fan install.

 

Sounds like a cap to me, is it bulged out at all? That's a good sign of one failing, but not always.
Call around motor repair shops if you haven't already, those guys are notorious for hanging on to used parts.

 

It doesn’t appear to be deformed at all.
That’s a good idea. I could call around tomorrow and see if I can find a good used one. Going to clean the coils while I’m working on it too. Clean up this area while I’m in there also.

 

Yeah, looks good from my house.
You're in the Portland area right? Here's a few shops I pulled up on good ol' trusty Google.

Make sure to kill the power and discharge that cap if you're replacing it.

 

If you have an older analog style multimeter, you can check to see if the capacitor charges up. There must be lots of references on line. Capacitors in microwaves crap out and they have videos on checking the cap.
As mentioned earlier, if there is power on the motor and you rotate the shaft it should continue and run. The prime function of a capacitor is to provide a phase shift on the winding so it’s magnetic field gets it to start rotating in a particular direction.
(I would rotate the motor first then apply power, rather than vice versa). If you heard a hum and then it was stopped, was the motor HOT? If it was it might be cycling on an internal thermostat. The internal thermostat would be the opening the winding and removing the voltage and if you spun it then, nothing would happen.

 

I’ll never forget one year ours went out. Opened up the cover to find a mouse had gotten in and had shorted the capacitor. Well, it was more of a negative image of a mouse across the terminals and some hair.

 

Couldn't of happened to a better critter!

 

Take a picture top down so you can see around the connections. That typically where I've seen them bulge/ooze.

 

Good thing we’re living up here in the PNW, where we don’t need refrigeration!
lol

 

Well we have needed it the last few days up here

 

Will do. I killed all power yesterday before I started messing around.

Thanks for that info. I have a meter I could check power on the capacitor tomorrow while I’m waiting for parts.
My working theory is the capacitor isn’t charging enough/at all to start the motors which is why the attempt to start was so short. Now that was prior to reading your message so that makes sense too. Everything was obviously hot yesterday but the motor didn’t seem to be hotter then say the surrounding metal. Also no smell of burnt electronics. I don’t know how long it hasn’t been working. Could have been an hour..could be 10-12hrs before we noticed it. I’m assuming on the lower side.

There are no bulges/ooze on this one. So if it failed like I suspect it didn’t burst causing a leak.

Thanks for all the help guys! I definitely appreciate it!

 

Offered to help a buddy lay sod today, forecast is 111°. Wish me luck!