Monthly Archives: September 2023

Hot tub cover

News

Much to my disappointment I found the Hot Tub in a bad state again; the air mattress inside the cover was again removed and this time intentionally stored under the hot tub deck.

The result is that with any rain, a pool forms at the center, and as the cover then touches the hot tub water, insulation is reduced to a thin sheet of vinyl.

So I engineered the following solution;

This frame is made from pvc charlotte pipe, connected with T and one Plus connnector, forming a dome tent frame.

Obviously that won’t do anything when on top of the cover, but the next picture shows what it looks like now.

Now, when there’s rain, the water will drop off to the edge, where it cannot touch the water inside the hot tub as the cover is a few inches above the water level. Besides lowering my electric bill, it should also keep the white Coleman logo cleaner, as water immediately drips off to the sides. That makes the hot tub a little more inviting than a muddy brown cover pool.

Glueing this frame together wasn’t easy; the charlotte pipe is much more rigid than European PVC pipe, as the walls are 3 times thicker. But using my stove I heated up the pipes to bend them into a curve.

As the great Hannibal used to say ; I love it when a plan comes together.

Prepping for coolness

News

The new dual zone air conditioner that was supposed to be delivered Friday was delayed until Monday (don’t ask).

But I still needed to get some materials anyway, like a dual circuit breaker ( the old one was a 110V ) and new cable to run from the circuit breaker to the disconnect.

I also bought and mounted a bracket for the condenser. The lines for the master bedroom indoor unit will go under the house. The unit for the upstairs bedroom will be a ceiling unit, and the lines for that one will run from the upstairs bedroom, past the upstairs bathroom, down into the technical room. And there it will go through the floor, close to the grey disconnect box.

Tools for the trade

News

I just arrived at Ozuye (after a comfortable premium comfort flight thanks to my brother Arne) for some HVAC repair and installation. As with any job, having the right tools is essential, so on arrival I had the following tools delivered by Amazon;

On the left is a torque wrench. That allows nuts to be tightened with the right amount of force. In the blue case is a manifold gauge set, which allows me to measure the pressure on the HVAC lines.

Top right is a leak detector device, that can be used to look for leaks in the HVAC lines; it beeps when the nozzle is close to a leak.

Bottom right is an infrared temperature gun, so the temperature of the indoor units can be measured. It will also be useful to trace hot and cold spots in the home, as any surface can be measured from a distance.

The AC in the great room still works ok; I managed to get the temperature down to 75 from 85 within about an hour. But I suspect there could be a leak in that unit too, just less bad than in the master bedroom.

Tomorrow (Friday) the new dual zone AC unit will be delivered, which I will use to replace the one in the master bedroom and a ceiling unit will be installed in the upstairs bedroom.