So the swamp cooler only lasted about half an hour today before it tripped. I'm experimenting with buttoning up the whole house and standing by my cooling tower, using it not as an evaporative cooler, but just as a source of cold that air blows around to cool off. It doesn't do a ton, but it's better than nothing.
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Swamp cooler out, thermostat says 93º
- Thread starter Scara
- Start date
I think the pump is partially blocked. I tried turning on the pump alone at one point, and that caused an immediate trip. I've been reminding the landlord on a near daily basis. If it's not fixed by Saturday (or maybe sooner) I will point out that he is legally liable. Pointing out legal liability tends to put a fire under landlords.
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2010
- Messages
- 7,751
Theres a Khuk for that you know! Got anything with a half inch spine
Its time like these that makes you glad that CAK's are warranted for prybars.
Theres a Khuk for that you know! Got anything with a half inch spine
Its time like these that makes you glad that CAK's are warranted for prybars.
My WWII is 1/2" at the cho. I don't own a CAK or even an AK yet.
I could climb on the roof and maybe get to it, but I'm told that someone is on his way right now to fix it. And it turns out the girls apartment next door (which used to be owned and managed by the same people) is in a similar situation, but their management company (whom I can only describe by use of profanity) has been saying "oh we'll send someone Monday" and then Wednesday roles around and they continue delaying it. I told her to point out their legal liability in this situation to get them moving, because if anyone gets so much as heat exhaustion they can be sued for failing to keep the apartment up to code and safe.
Long overdue..."hello?..just to let you know i am starting to show signs of heat stress, exhaustion, and perhaps stroke....i can feel a visit to the ER coming on soon where my insurance guys will be talking to your insurance guys as to why you caused them to cough up money which they would now like back from the folk who caused it all"..
I grew to hate the management company she's dealing with quite quickly. I'll check on her in a little while. Thankfully for her she isn't on the top floor/attic like me, so her place is probably a little cooler.
And the repair guy just got here. He hopes to be able to fix it, but he isn't a specialist in this. Hopefully it is just "excelsior straw" and it'll be easy to clear out.
Scara,
Hopefully it'll be resolved quick.
Those units, just in case it's not & you get desperate enough to go up yourself, are generally very simple to work on.
Under the direct supervision of a caveman, I've done it myself.
The filters on the four sides, if the older "straw" material, can shed & the individual fiber strands can plug up the water intake for the pump.
That's usually easy to clear out, if it's the problem.
I was born in St. George, heat didn't used to bother me when I was younger.
Going from Saturday to Tuesday without the AC here showed me how old I'm getting.
Denis
Hopefully it'll be resolved quick.
Those units, just in case it's not & you get desperate enough to go up yourself, are generally very simple to work on.
Under the direct supervision of a caveman, I've done it myself.
The filters on the four sides, if the older "straw" material, can shed & the individual fiber strands can plug up the water intake for the pump.
That's usually easy to clear out, if it's the problem.
I was born in St. George, heat didn't used to bother me when I was younger.
Going from Saturday to Tuesday without the AC here showed me how old I'm getting.
Denis
Scara,
Hopefully it'll be resolved quick.
Those units, just in case it's not & you get desperate enough to go up yourself, are generally very simple to work on.
Under the direct supervision of a caveman, I've done it myself.
The filters on the four sides, if the older "straw" material, can shed & the individual fiber strands can plug up the water intake for the pump.
That's usually easy to clear out, if it's the problem.
I was born in St. George, heat didn't used to bother me when I was younger.
Going from Saturday to Tuesday without the AC here showed me how old I'm getting.
Denis
I'm told I have a lot of distant-ish relatives in that area.
Sadly I don't think it's the older straw filter kind. They replaced the pump last summer, I think. I remember them doing something with the swamp cooler at least.
So it seems it's more than just a pump problem. The pump was really heavily clogged and has been cleared out, but now it trips the breakers even when being used purely in vent mode. They'll be back tomorrow with the guy who knows swamp coolers well to figure it out. In the meantime, I have changed my improvised swamp cooler to an improvised cooling tower. I've put the box fan level with it, and covered the top with a towel, and I just got back from a gas station with a 10 lb. block of ice that I've put in the water.
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2015
- Messages
- 316
How about a cheap window unit? Pawn shops always have 'em, not a bad back up in case that happens again. Lived in aparetments long enough to know ya need a back up plan sometimes. Good luck!
So time for an update. It seems that the pump may have been part of the problem, but the real problem was bad wiring. The wires leading to the cooler were old, and in poor shape. There were some with holes in them contacting the conduit feeding them into the cooler. This was causing smoke, some small flames and eventually a tripped breaker. Unfortunately this was discovered after their contracted electrician was no longer taking calls, so he won't be out to fix it until tomorrow. They will try and get him here first thing. In the meantime, a friend let me stay the night at his air-conditioned home last night, and my downstairs neighbors are letting me crash on their couch tonight. They were also having problems with their cooler, it wasn't receiving water. Turns out that all three coolers in the house run on the same valve, and it's in my part. So when we kept it closed because our cooler wasn't running, they couldn't cool their apartments. We keep it closed when the cooler isn't on because there's a leaky pipe that leaks down from the roof when it's open. So that's another thing to be fixed. I will say however that for the brief period where the cooler was running after the clogs were cleared, it was running better than ever.
Oh and my improvised cooler didn't do any real good.
And Wes, I could probably get one, but there aren't many outlets in my room, and I'm afraid it would probably just trip my breakers. I could however probably get one from Deseret Industries, kind of like Goodwill but found in heavily Mormon areas. But I've managed to make do in the meantime. Hopefully the cooler is fixed tomorrow. It would sure make for a good birthday gift.
Oh and my improvised cooler didn't do any real good.
And Wes, I could probably get one, but there aren't many outlets in my room, and I'm afraid it would probably just trip my breakers. I could however probably get one from Deseret Industries, kind of like Goodwill but found in heavily Mormon areas. But I've managed to make do in the meantime. Hopefully the cooler is fixed tomorrow. It would sure make for a good birthday gift.
