Tuesday, December 28, 2010

under the weather...

Felt a bit out of sorts today so laid particularly low.  Personal and systems maintenance the only task for the day.  Been noticing lately that my solar hot water doesn't heat up as fast as it should.  Turned things off and disconnected hoses - found that my thermosyphon was not syphoning.  The low valve out of the tank was clogged with sediment.  Only thing to do was remove the valve stem, poke a wire through, and let the water flow.  Got a brief blast as the valve cleared then buttoned up all the connections.  Now the water is back to circulating as it should - perhaps a hot shower tomorrow afternoon.  58,70,34,0,C

10 comments:

tffnguy said...

Get well soon. ;)

Boo Barksdale said...

speaking of systems maintenance, as we humans age we require more maintenance too, check your systems and make sure those valves are up to snuff too :-)
prescribe a little R & R for the new year.

Anonymous said...

I'm in eggnog recovery myself...feel better.

JLP said...

I always feel a little less than good right after Christmas. It may be caused by thinking about the $$ my wife spent on Kids and Grandkids!

Bruce S said...

Sounds like the colonoscopy worked on the shower. I hope all you need is a day off. Get well soon.

JCK said...

Hot shower. Makes everything all better. Happy New Year, John!

neil said...

TFL-TimeLapse-20101228

Bob from Athens said...

I had the same type of problem. I stuck a tee in where the valve is now and ran a short piece with a drain valve straight down with the shut off out to the side a couple of inches. Problem didsappeared and never, three years now, came back.

Scott said...

I am going to second what Bob said. I had this problem with a different kind of system and did something similar. Mine is a little harder to explain. I ran a line into the middle of a larger diameter pipe, I pulled water off of the top of the large pipe and installed a valve at the bottom of the larger diameter pipe. The sediment would come into the larger pipe and not be able to make the climb to the top of the large diameter pipe and would settle to the bottom. I was using much smaller pipe than you so likely you don't need my solution but I wanted to offer it anyway. If someone does try this you need to be careful about getting an airlock at the top of the large pipe so you need to provide a way to bleed that air off.

Andy V said...

A welcome timelapse, Neil! Missed them.

John - was wondering if there is any water left in your storage tanks?