Another Speed Queen filling like it should

[washman]

Spending the next 10 days at Dad's house in sunny, hot humid Florida. He's been grumbling about not having a full fill on the SQ so I volunteered to correct it. Just got done, doing a load now. He's blessed to have much softer water than I have so a little A&H goes a long long long way. Also I had to level the machine just slightly as it was dipping in the front a bit. Used the shop vac to clean out the dust and debris the contractors left behind during the 6 month saga of having the kitchen redone due to a leaking pipe. That is another story though.

I also fixed 2 ancient phone jacks where the cord would not stay plugged in and this was affecting his Vonage service. A month ago, he had to replace the original Moto VT1005 adaptor with a newer, smaller more friendly VDV23. I cleaned up the Ethernet cables, labeled them, shortened up some so it will be easier to diagnose.

ALso had to redo the vent tube coming out of the Amana gas dryer as it got pinched and ripped in the process so we got some semi rigid stuff at Lowes and redid that plus I put on a new vent hood. It's a basic hot/warm dryer, nothing fancy but it's been here since 2002 when he got it new. Still works but I take my stuff out when still damp and let the FL sun do the rest.

 

[allan]

Your dad is very blessed to have you as a son.

 

[frigilux]

Good job, Ben. Have fun in sunny Florida, and don't melt in the heat!

 

[washman]

No kidding frig, heat is amazing here.

started mowing at 7 AM to beat the heat. Forecast is mid 90's all week long. Can't do the ocean thing due to elevated bacteria levels so I have plenty of cold beer from various sources to take care of that!

Back home however, they set a record low temp.

 

[mrb627]

Florida?

Where in Florida are you?

Malcolm

 

[washman]

malcolm

he's on the treasure coast side, north of Jensen beach. His house backs up to Club Med resort golf course.

I'm halfway tempted to run some purple power on the condenser coils on the outside unit and flush out the drain pan. Of course that means shutting it off something I dare not do in the middle of the day.
Poor thing runs a lot in this weather due to very low roof and not much insulation up there. Being that most houses here are on slabs, the ductwork is up in the attic area.

His house, along with many others, were built back in the day as guest houses for Club med, before they had on site dorms or motel rooms. As such, you can find closets with locks on them as well as dinky kitchens that really were no more than kitchenettes.

On the appliance side, the kitchenaid still runs well but needs a lower rack as 4 tines are rusting. It's 12 years old this year and he uses Powerball Tabs from Finish with good results. As noted, his water is much softer than mine. A quarter cap of A&H does a full load here. I'd need a whole cap back in PA in the SQ.

The only carp is the mower. THat effing snapper rider is a five star POS. Well not totally, it runs fine and the hydrostat is nice to use. Problem is, it simply does not cut well at all. The deck lacks the hi vac design that our old Ariens had and also due to cost cutting, the blade spindles are about MTD grade and thus do not spin sufficiently to really pull up the grass and blow it out in an even dispersal. It took well over 1 hour to cut, trim, and edge. WIth a 38 inch deck and the deck inside the wheelbase, you simply cannot get close to obstacles thus the need to the trimmer.

We had issues with the blades early on, they started separating in sheets due to crap steel and/or heat treating. I called Snapper and they send a new set free of charge but 3 months later as dad was sharpening them, another layer of blade came off. He ended up going with Gator blades which are impressive and much better made but again, going back to the piss poor MTD deck design they only make a slight improvement in cut.

You cannot buy an Ariens rider today that is actually made by Ariens. Unfortunately. WHat they offer are glorified Huskquvarna units at Lowes and Home Cheapo.
What gets me is this thing has 18.5 horses whereas the Ariens managed to cut in rural Indiana with 13. Heck, for years we mowed with a Penncrest 8 HP rider and never once did I feel underpowered. I have no idea why the horsepower race in riders these days. Same thing with a cast iron axle. The Ariens had a steel axle and it did the job just fine. I'd rather see 1 inch spindles with roller bearings that can be greased along with some solid blades that can take high RPM like an hold Wheel HOrse or Bolens instead of this useless crap today.
LIke appliances, residential riders have fallen big time in quality and durability.

 

[washman]

Will have some pix

uploaded when I get back. I took some of the AC, GE range, WD and the generator as well as the redone kitchen.