Weekend Project Update.

This is an update on a couple of projects that all seemed to hang fire at about the same time.

The driveway - All the curbing that needed to come out is now out.

Curbing Out For Escape Path

Thanks to Carlos and his son George. The electrical box that had been uncovered is now covered and protected by a slab of concrete.

Turn Off by the Gate

We're now ready to bring in two 15-yard loads of chippings, smallish pieces of rock that will be the fill for the driveway, both the new part and a new layer on the existing part.

Found Good Signpost

 We even have a sign that will be going up showing which way to go to use the driveway.

I raided my leftover pile and found a good length of fence tubing that will work great as a signpost. I even managed to find a cap for the post after it's installed in concrete. that'll keep rainwater from going in the post and rusting it out from the inside.

Custom Sign

Here's the sign that will be mounted to the post. I had it made down at CGI Graphics on Seventh Avenue. They're the same outfit that made our 'Beware of Crocodile' sign a few years ago.










The Solar Heater Pump - The service kit has been ordered, shipped, and received by You Have Mail in Medley, Florida. Now, I'm just waiting for the kit to be shipped down here. I'm hoping to get it this next week.

It should be a piece of cake to reassemble the pump. Doug and Twyla will help me with it to make sure that the motor isn't being overdriven by the solar panel. The Controller box should solve that problem.

The LG Refrigerator - I had reached the end of my troubleshooting skills and still hadn't solved the problem with the fridge. It wouldn't hold a charge. I figured there was a leak, but///

Anyway, I posted on FaceBook looking for some advice on what to do with a dead behemoth of a fridge. One of the answers came the next day from Nairobi Rancheron (501-604-6145, and on FaceBook), who works on refrigerators and A/C units He thought it was worth trying to repair it.

So, he arranged for a truck and some strong-backed young guys to move the fridge to his workshop. I think that was Saturday a week ago. He thought he'd be able to have it ready by the next Saturday.

Well, what do you know? He called up Friday morning and said it was all repaired. Nairobi got the same crew to move it back. I'll hand it to him, it works great. Turns out there was a leak in the condenser, which he resoldered. After a complete recharging process, and replacing the filter and a few other minor things. It's as good as new. It's cold, and it makes great ice. My hat's off to Mr. Nairobi. He has my highest recommendation.

Finally! A Heater For the Pool

You know there's times when it's just too cold to get into your pool. I'm talking wintertime, folks. Frigid temperatures, like when the pool goes down below 80℉, like down to the mid-seventies.

Such was our case. A pool heater seemed like a mighty fine idea. One problem, though, was that I didn't want to spend a fortune on a heater, nor did I want to make it any more complex that necessary.

I did quite a bit of research over the past three years or so. Not continuously, but every now and then. Kind of a casual, laid-back sort of research. Anyway, it seems that most of the heating systems out there, at least for in-ground pools, want several things.

One, spend lots of money. Two, use your main pump so you can move massive amounts of water. Three, it needs to be complex. Adding a system to the pool after it's up and running is hard.

Those three caused me pause. That's why research went on for so long. Well, one of the reasons anyway.

I began to think about the cost. Was there a way that I could install a pool heater without breaking the bank, and that wasn't overly complex and didn't require me to modify the existing plumbing unnecessarily?

I noticed in my research, that there was a wide difference in heater system prices for above-ground pools, compared to in-ground systems.

Little by little, I began to wonder why I couldn't adapt elements of an above-ground pool to my in-ground pool. I realized that there was no reason I couldn't do just that. The pool doesn't know if it's above-ground or not.

I was taken with the idea of using an above-ground heater, especially the long strip types, with narrow little tubes for the water to run through. I had the roof space available, so why not?

I had thought of using large vinyl tubing to heat the water, but putting it into coils, for some reason, seemed like a lot of work to me. I have a roll of about 200-feet of 3/4" black tubing, so that wasn't the problem. For some reason, I just couldn't get motivated to do my heater that way.

The more I thought about the issue, the more the strip appealed to me. The one that captivated my attention was twenty foot long by about two or three feet, and it only cost around $150.00 US.

Some time ago, David Wright and I went together on an order for a solar system. This consisted of a two-foot by four-foot solar panel, metal support frame, to attach it to a pole, and a small, low-volume 12-V d.c. pump. That was a good setup to order. The boxes containing the ordered bits sat in my workshop for several months.

The other thing I had done to get ready was a bit of pool modification. I didn't do it, but I had asked our contractor, Mario, to include two ports in the pool for a heater system, They did just that and ran it to the pump house. That was all. You can see in the photo below, the little holes I'm talking about.

Little Holes

Not those on the left. That's some troubleshooting that was going on to track down an internal leak connected with the waterfall. The ones I'm talking about are on the right side just left of the black power panel box. See those two little holes? That's it. That was the extent of the prebuilt for the heater.

So, when I finally did get serious about the pool heater, I bit the bullet and ordered a twenty-foot heater strip. I was concerned because a couple of the reviews of it had stated that the 'non-standard' fittings created major problems, and the people couldn't understand why they used such oddball fittings. I figured that I could cobble something together that would work. Half of what we work on down here is cobbled together.

Shift forward a couple of weeks and Easy Shipping to Belize shows up at our gate with the rolled-up heater and some other stuff. Wow. Time to get serious. Especially since I had the help of Denis Patterson, our neighbor from across the street.

Denis and Vivien, his wife, were staying in our Mennonite house since their house was rented long-term and they didn't want to disturb their tenants. Denis and Vivien are from Alberta, Canada, and are nice people (aren't all Canadians?).

The Repair Shop

Denis and I took a break from the project to take care of a project of Denis'. His on-demand heater at his house had stopped working. We needed to get it running in short order so his tenants didn't rebel.

It may not look like it, but this is the best TV, stereo, and water heater repair place in town. When Denis first took his heater there, they said, "No. We don't fix them things no more." Ok. So, Denis and I went on an adventure to find who could.

We tried Nairobi Rancharan's place. Nope, He doesn't do heaters, only refrigerators and auto A/C units. I've taken my Isuzu there. He thought there was a guy down the street by a vacant lot, and to the left, who did that. On we went.

Turns out after a couple wrong turns, that you had to go through the vacant lot to find this guy. Nope. This heater has electronics in it. He only repairs the kind with a pilot light. He thought there was another shop down by the little park near Memo's Auto Repair (who I've never used). Memo's looks more like a bar than an auto shop, but what do I know? A couple of guys sitting on a bench out front thought that this guy was a little past the park and to the left.

Turns out he was. He was upset that we got there early. He didn't open till 9:00 AM. But, to our benefit, (he was talking to us through his bedroom window), he put on some shorts and came out to talk with us. From the way he talked, he seemed more educated than some. He repaired all sorts of electronics and computers, but not heaters. He even had a website (E & L Electronics) and has a small e-store for parts. Who knew?

When he turned us down, we were at a loss. Denis decided to go back to the first place, with hat in hand and beg them to look at it. So, that's what we did.

The TV Technician

Back at the shop, we went inside to find the TV technician busy modifying his hoodie to hold some small speakers. I can't imagine wearing a hoodie in this environment, but whatever. He hollered for the water heater technician, "Hey, Water Heater!" The water heater technician just happened to be coming through the door with a cup of coffee. "Yup, we can fix it," he said.

Now, keep in mind, this was the same guy who, the day before, had told Denis, that they no longer worked on heaters. It was like that conversation had never occurred.

Here's the Stereo Lab

Just before we left, I snapped a shot of the Stereo technician's workspace or lab. Ain't it wonderful?

The great end of the story is that the water heater guy called Denis the very next day and told him the heater was ready to go. Turns out the Solenoid had gone bad. Miracles do happen.


Now, on with the main story. Denis and I went up to Lano's Hardware and picked up several lengths of PVC tubing, fittings, glue, brackets and all that sort of stuff. I had also brought along one of the key fittings from the heater, expecting to spend some quality time figuring out how to cobble together something that would join the heater to my ½" PVC tubing.

I showed Vien (Mr. Lan's nephew, who runs the sales counter at the store) the fitting. He took one look at it after I briefly described what I wanted to do, and said, "I know what will work," and quickly disappeared into the back of the store. He returned with two fittings. One, a coupling, slid snugly over the fitting of the heater, and the other, a ¾" to ½" reducer. That was it. A perfect solution. A little epoxy, to ensure that it doesn't separate and we'd be good to go.

I had expected to spend at least an hour rummaging around trying to find something that would solve our problem. Sometimes, things just work out right, you know? Denis and I took our purchases and headed back to Casa Winjama and our project.

Where the Heater is Going

Here's the area of the roof where I thought of placing the heater. It's on the order of being 30-feet long so there should be no problem placing the heater there.

Proposed Track for the Tubing

I thought that with the heater strip laid out on the roof, that I'd be able to run the tubing over the roof parapet and along the top of the frame for the pool shade enclosure, over to the pump house and in through a hole somewhere to the inside of the pump house.

Over the parapet

In fact, the parapet is where we started the tubing work. You can see we're getting it assembled in good fashion. We have three tubes, one for incoming cold water, one for outgoing hot water, and one to hold the wires from the solar panel to the pump motor that we're locating in the pump house.

Running Down the Roof

The PVC tubing is now running down the length of the roof of the pool enclosure. Good progress.

The Heater Laid Down

Here's the heater in it's position on the roof. It works fine right there. I might add a framework to support the heater and the solar panel at the proper 15° for our latitude, but I'm not sure that it's really going to be necessary.

Looking the Other Direction

You can see we also have the solar panel more or less in place. Nothing is crowded and everything is in place with plenty of unimpeded sunlight for most of the day.

The solar panel is in shade in the morning till about 8:00 AM. So, the pump doesn't start till then, but that delay allows the water remaining in the tubes to heat up so that when the pump does start, it's moving hot water to the pool.

Add caption

Here you can see everything in more or less it's final places. You can also see the join between the PVC tubing and the heater fitting. There's also a union fitting on each leg to make separation of the heater from the PVC tubing easier, because when the pool warms up enough that the heater is no longer needed, it will be rolled up and both it and the solar panel will be lowered off the roof and put in storage in the pool utility room till the succeeding winter when it's needed again.

The Pump In Place

This is a view inside the pump house again. It's showing the pump on a shelf I installed, all hooked up. The black line has the wires coming from the solar panel through the roof and through the power panel to the motor.

Pump Detail

There's also a controller circuit in the little black box,since removed. It didn't work right and proved to not be necessary. The tube sticking up from the pump with a blue-handled valve on it, allows us, as needed, to prime the pump (brings to mind an old Kingston Trio song - Desert Pete). We even have a funnel on hand just for that purpose.

I also installed a switch (the old-school looking round thing), in case we need to shut the pump off during the day. I also will be adding a 15-amp fuse to protect the pump motor, just in case.

Final words on the project. Yesterday was its first full day of work. For a couple of weeks now, the pool temperature has been hovering around 79℉, barely able to make it 80℉ during the day. Well, yesterday, the temp was up to 81℉. Not bad for one day's work. We think it will take two to three days to get the temp from 79℉ all the way up to 84℉. Perfect till summer kicks in.

Pardon me. I've got my trunks on, a cold beer, and I'm headed to the warm pool. life is grand!

It Just Goes To Show You

Nothing ever seems to work out quite the way that you think it might.

A week or so ago, the A/C on the Isuzu began to get, shall we say, warm. In other words, the A/C began to fail by degrees (pun intended). It got progressively warmer in the cockpit. At some point I decided it was no longer functioning, so I turned it off, relying only on the vent and fan.

The girls, Secret and Bela, normally love to go for rides with me. I'm convinced now that the only reason they want to go is so they can sit right in front of the A/C vents and suck up all that cool air. They both began to look at me suspiciously, as if I was purposly screwing up the air supply.

I wasn't, honest. It failed. That's all.

A couple weeks prior, Bruce had told me about a shop on the highway near his house, that recharged A/C units for a nominal fee. I tried to find it, but with the highway construction going on in that area, looking was severely hampered.

A couple of days ago, I called Bruce and asked if he would go with me to try and find this elusive A/C fixit joint. He said "Sure," so I hot-footed over to his place and we went to find it.

Well, it turns out there were a couple of other reasons why I couldn't find the place besides the construction... One, Bruce had told me to look for a white house with a chain link fence. Turns out the house is yellow and white. And two, There's no way to get to the house from the highway. You have to approach it from a side street. Sort of sneaking up on it in a way. Oh, and a third reason - No sign. Not that that's unusual by any means here in Belize. Many businesses have no outer indication that there might be a business at that location.

So, OK. Bruce's directions might have muddied the works a bit. We found the place all right and the proprietor (Nairobi is his name) came out with his gauges and stuff to check out the A/C. Right away, after I started the car, he broke out his stethescope (an old length of green garden hose), stuck one end on the A/C compressor and the other to his ear.

His quick diagnosis was that the bearing in the compressor was about to fail big-time. He gave me a card for a guy (Eustace Dawson, 501-610-2835) in Belize City who makes frequent trips to the states and returns with parts, new and used, for all sorts of vehicles. I don't know if he has a sign out front or not. My guess is... uh, no.

Anyway, I asked if he had a compressor for a '96 Isuzu Rodeo, 3.2 liter engine. He did. All I had to do was deposit the money to his bank account, and head over to BPMS (Belize Post and Mailing Service) sort of the UPS of Belize, pay for the COD freight and pick up my compressor. Which I did. Of course, in reality, that took about two days to complete all the transactions, but it got done.

So then, I went up to Rick's, my mechanic, to see if he could install the compressor for me. He could, and he gave me a ride back to Casa Winjama. Once again, we're without wheels.

In the mean time, while all this is going on, Carlos, our Caretaker, told me that Terrence Leslie, the small engine expert, was next door working on Mike's boat motor. I called Terrence and asked if he would stop by when he was done.

Our generator, a 6.5kW (or is it Kw? I looked it up on the Intertubes, and saw it both ways) wheeled affair, hadn't been started in a year or so (my laziness entirely) and the fuel in the tank was a good three years old.

Terrence and his son loaded the generator into the back of their SUV, and I said, since you're here, I think the pool pump needs new bearings too. He had replaced them about four years ago, so it was time. They took the pump as well. That was on Wednesday.

Friday morning, Terrence comes with the generator and the pump, both in primo condition. The generator fired up on the first pull. So, in that regard, we're ready for the coming hurricane season. I made myself a slew of promises that I would test it regularly, etc., etc.

We then took the pump to the pool pump house where I greased up the 'O'rings for the pump pipe unions and we hooked it up and turned it on. Nary a leak. I think that was a first. And Quiet. Wow! I remember, the first time Terrence replaced the bearings on the pump. Before he worked on it, the bearings were actually screaming. The racket was unbelievable.

Everything I had read about the pumps was that the bearings were very critical and had to be ordered specially from Hayward and all that. Total BS. They run fine on Chinese bearings. In fact, after Terrence replaced the bearings the first time, it ran quieter than it did when the pump was brand new. And now, this time was no different. Quiet. The only thing different was that I got it done before the old bearings could scream. They merely moaned.

Generator's taken care of. Check. Pool pump is taken care of. Check. Isuzu's taken care of. Almost.

Back to the Isuzu. At about the end of the Friday pool party, about 5:00 PM, Rick showed up at the gate with the Isuzu. He said it was a good thing I had bought the compressor. The old one was definitely on the verge of seizing up completely and would not have worked long at all. But, he had run out of time for Friday to charge the A/C system. I had asked him to bring the car back Friday afternoon so we would have wheels for the weekend.

Rick is a Seventh Day Adventist, so he's closed on Saturday, their Sabbath, but he said if I brought the Isuzu by on Sunday, he would be able to charge it for me. Everything is looking rosy.

Well, almost everything. My computer, hasn't been able to access the Intertubes for two or three days now. I've been trying to do everything through my iPod. What an exercise that has been.

This morning, I fired up my PC, wanting to extract my email configuration data, and, lo and behold, it's connected to the Intertubes! So, first thing I did was jump up and crank out this post.

I have no idea why the PC was unable to connect for so long. Everything else could do it easily. Dianna's laptop, her iPad, my iPod. Who knows?

So, it just goes to show you... what, I'm not sure, exactly, approximately, or even vaguely. You just have to be ready to respond and 'stay flexible, but don't go limp.'