Our RV Adventures

First thing this morning, well, after having my coffee, I pulled the Splendide washer completely out of its cubby and rolled it out into the kitchen.

I took the top off first to see if I found any problems up top, but nothing looked wrong. So my next step was to put the top back on and turn the whole thing upside down. And after taking off the bottom panel, I immediately saw the problem. And I understood what had the caused the water leak.

This had bothered me initially, since all I had done was pull the unit partway out, and take off the back panel to check the drive belt. Nothing I did should have affected anything to do with the water or drain hoses. But when I found this, I understood.

This is the output hose from the drain pump that empties the water out after the wash and rinse cycles. I guess it had pulled loose when it was stretched tight when I had the unit partly out.

I feel better now that I know what caused the leak. But the repair will have to wait until tomorrow because I needed to get ready so we could head out lunch and some errands.

Jan and I drove up to Webster about 2pm, bent on having lunch at the local Cheddar’s, another of our favorite local places. We had thought that by not getting there until about 2:30, we would avoid any wait.

We were wrong.

We had an almost 20 minute wait, and they were still on a wait when we left about 45 minutes later. Guess Sunday’s not the best time to come to Cheddar’s if you’re in a hurry. Luckily we weren’t

Jan got her usual Key West Chicken and Shrimp with Green Beans and Baby Carrots, while I got my usual Veggie Plate with a bowl of the Chicken Tortilla Soup, again with Green Beans and Baby Carrots for me too.

One thing kind of funny was that since we both have the Green Beans and the Baby Carrots, we’re aware of what menu says the calorie count for each is – 60 calories for the beans, and 40 calories for the carrots.

But today, the menu still said the carrots were 40, but now the beans were 80, not 60 calories. Now that’s a 33% increase, so what’s up?

When our meals came I did notice that the serving size of the beans seemed to be somewhat larger, but not a third larger. And maybe they tasted better too. Finally, out of curiosity, I asked our waitress. I think she was puzzled that we even noticed, but she said she’d ask.

She came back a few minutes later and smiled as she said that they were surprised anyone noticed. She confirmed that the serving size had been increased and that they were using more bacon in the recipe. Well, more bacon makes everything taste better.

What can I say, I notice things.

Our next stop was on up the Interstate to the Home Depot to take a look at things we want to upgrade or fix, and the prices. We’d made a list of things at the house the other day, so wanted more ideas.

Then it was over to the house for a few minutes to drop some things off. The house looks pretty good, for being almost 40.

I do need to get my hedge trimmer out and even up the foliage in front of the bedroom window.

Coming back toward Santa Fe, we made a quick stop at the storage room to drop off/pick up a couple of things and then it was back home for the night.

Tomorrow it’s back to work.

Thought for the Day: 

“The answer to anyone who talks about the surplus population is to ask him whether he is in the surplus population; or if he is not, how he knows he is not.” — G.K. Chesterton

fjhfh

Once the heavy rain let up this afternoon, I went outside to disconnect the washer/dryer vent so I could pull the unit out and check out the drive belt situation.

I also brought in the dolly/frame that I built up a while back to facilitate the removal and installation of our Splendide unit. Since It’s in two pieces, it’s small enough that I can carry it in one of our storage bays.

Using it makes it really simple to pull the unit out of its hole and then roll it out into the kitchen to work on it.

But at least to start with, I was only going to pull it part way out and turn it around to access the back panel. That way I could leave the water and drain connections hooked up while I was working on it.

Since I used a jigsaw to widen the opening the last time I worked on the unit, it now just takes a couple of minutes to pull the unit out. And then it was a couple of screws to remove the back panel to let me at the belt to get the part number to order a new one.

And the belt was fine. Not broken, or even off the pulley, and by turning the pulley/drum by hand, not slipping either. So why was I hearing the motor running without the drum moving.

So I dug out an extension cord, plugged in the unit, and reached over to the front to turn on the dryer. And it worked perfectly, with no problems. I even started and stopped it a couple of times. Still worked.

So I decided to slid it back in the cabinet and run a small wash load. I didn’t bother to hook up the dryer vent, since I just wanted to be sure the motor/belt/drum combo was actually working.

So throwing in a couple of towels, I started a wash cycle. And after hearing the water entering the drum, suddenly water started pouring out from underneath the unit.

Bummer!

I hit the OFF button and the water flow quickly stopped. And since the water did stop that meant that the leak was internal to the washer. If the leak had been with the hoses coming  in, the leak wouldn’t have stopped when the washer stopped.

At this point I was done for the day. Tomorrow I’ll have to pull it completely out and take a closer look at the hoses. Hopefully I just pulled something loose when I was fooling with it before. We’ll see.

Thought I’d show you how well the Wyze cameras that I set up at the house work in the dark. Here is how it looks with the Infrared (IR) LEDs turned off.

Not much to see.

But when I put it in night mode, here’s what it looks like.

A big improvement.

Readers will remember the problems with my phone hotspot turning off due to a power outage and shutting down my Wyze cameras at the house while we were on our recent trip.

One of our readers, Arthur, suggested that I solve the problem by using an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) to keep the cameras running while the power is off. And if I had it to do over, I would.

But now that we’re back and by the house every day or so, I’ll just reset the system by hand for now. But thanks for the suggestion, Arthur.

Thought for the Day: 

Life is simpler when you plow around the stump. 

  asd