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As I said yesterday, today was a ‘rest up’ day from my rooftop AC coil cleaning. And it was definitely needed, since I woke pretty sore this morning. Mostly I think from getting down on my knees and back up several times as I was working around all sides of the AC unit.

One blog reader ask why I didn’t use something stronger to clean the coil, something stronger like Greased Lightning, or our favorite strong cleaner, Awesome.

Awesome certainly has its uses. In fact it’s the best thing I’ve found for getting dead, stuck bugs off the front cap of the rig. Just spray it on, leave it for a few minutes, and then spray it off.

But be sure to get it all completely off, because it will start to eat your paint. In fact, Awesome recommends you don’t use it full strength at all, but dilute it first.

The reason I didn’t want to use it for cleaning the AC coil, is that all these cleaners are highly alkaline, and if you don’t get every last drop out of every nook and cranny, it will start eating the thin aluminum fins, just dissolving them away.

I’ve seen this happen before on a home AC unit. The homeowner had put in a new underground sprinkler system where one sprinkler head sprayed slightly on the outside unit.

But he also had a setup that automatically added liquid fertilizer to the spray. And that fertilizer was alkaline, as most are.

After a couple of months his AC just quit working. When they had it checked out, a large section of the coil fins had just disappeared, and if you rubbed your finger over the rest, they just disintegrated at your touch.

But the 409 I used is perfect for breaking loose the dirt and gunk without harming the coil.

Wrapping up, it’s the end of an era. The last VHS VCR will roll off the assembly line the end of this month. Funai, known as Sanyo in the US, is still selling about 750,000 units a year, but that’s dropping steadily, and they’re having more and more problems getting parts.

Last VCR

The last VHS tapes were made in 2008, but the supply stored away in warehouses has kept them on the market for years after. And the last movie on VHs was The History of Violence, and was released in 2006. So it’s been all downhill since then.

We got our first VHS recorder, a Panasonic, in 1980, paying, I think, around $800 for it.

It looked just like this one.

Of course I couldn’t keep my  hands out of it.

These units only had a fast forward/rewind mode that didn’t let you see the picture as you were using it. But within a couple of months I had come up with a way to add a wired control box with an on/off switch and variable speed knob.

With the 20-30 foot cable stretched across your living room, it would let you fast forward through commercials as you watched the picture in fast mode. The knob let you speed up or slow down the mode.

I was working at JSC-NASA at the time, and after word got around, I installed these on a lot of other people’s machines, making enough to more than pay for our VCR. Nice.

Thought for the Day:

Common sense is like deodorant. The people that need it most never use it.

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Either that, or I have a screw loose. (Shut up, Nick)

I was up on the roof by about 9am this morning, a little later than I had hoped, but it was still only 76 degrees out, so not bad.

You can see how dirty the coil is before I started.

After I got both the cover and the sheet metal off, I first taped over the hole that drops down into the bedroom with Gorilla Tape.

Then I used a legal-size clipboard to cover over that to provide a firm base.

After that I used more Gorilla Tape to seal that off.

Next came a garbage bag and more Gorilla Tape to top it all and make it as waterproof as possible.

Now I  sprayed the coil with 409, let it soak for a while, and then sprayed it again.

Then using a soft brush I started brushing upwards, pulling as much gunk as possible out the top of the coil.

Then I used my hose spray nozzle to flush as much stuff out as I could.

Then I started by over with the 409 soak/spray nozzle until I could see daylight through the coil itself.

Finally I was ready to start putting the sheet metal coli enclosure back together. It’s important to get this done right and tightly sealed so the unit is not is not pulling in hot outside air along with the cooler air that is being recirculated through the coach.

So I took my  time  to be sure that I was getting every screw (there are over 20) back in place. I also sealed all the corners and edges with Gorilla Tape to make sure it was as airtight as possible.

And of course, after all that attention to detail, I had one screw left over.

From where I don’t know. There weren’t any empty screw holes left. So maybe they were breeding down in the bottom of the bag?

Then I put the cover back on and I was done, the job only taking me about an hour.

By now it was starting to get hot, especially since the last 15 minutes or so were in the direct sun. So getting down from the roof, Jan and I sat outside in the shade with a nice breeze.

While we were there, Rick and Janet O’Connor stopped by to get acquainted, since they had seen me up on the roof.

Finally coming back inside about 10:45, I took a shower and then a nap for about an hour, since I really was even supposed to be up yet.

The only other big project on my schedule before we leave on the 31st is to get out the pressure washer to wash and wax the rig.

Tomorrow is definitely a ‘rest up’ day.

On another front, Landon is Cool!

Thought for the Day:

“. . . you have no longer any cause to fear danger from abroad. . . . It is from within, among yourselves, from cupidity, from corruption, from disappointed ambition, and inordinate thirst for power, that factions will be formed and liberty endangered. It is against such designs, whatever disguise the actors may assume, that you have especially to guard yourselves. . . .” – Andrew Jackson

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