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Swamp Thing (Part 1)
Jun. 4th, 2020 09:47 pmLiving in a desert as we do, evaporative coolers ("swamp coolers") are an effective way to cool things. They cost a lot less to install and operate, too. They do have their drawbacks, however, particularly if you have hard water like we do. Before we can get the cooler running again for this year, we concluded that we needed to clean it out, as the accumulated hard-water deposits (mostly calcium, we reckon) were getting pretty bad.
( A Lot of Crud )
After several days of work, we managed to get most of the crud off the grills. I came out one afternoon and was astonished to see how much Lisa was able to remove when she discovered that 3-in-1 oil also acts as a way to loosen the calcium that make it where she could wipe much of it off with a paper towel rather than having to chip it with the scraper.
( Cleaner Grills )
The area where we've been working in front of the house is now covered in bits of loose calcium build-up that we chipped off the cooler, so it's a bit of a mess. I reckon it will stay like that for a while until we get one of the periodic high winds.
This is only part of the clean-up story. The pan where the water sits in the bottom of the cooler was a mess, and as I write this, we're still working on getting it back to a state where it can be used again. I'll have more to say about this soon. Lisa has been doing a lot of work with power tools, while I'm handy to have around when heavy things need lifting. I hope we can get the cooler back together before the worst of the summer heat hits.
( A Lot of Crud )
After several days of work, we managed to get most of the crud off the grills. I came out one afternoon and was astonished to see how much Lisa was able to remove when she discovered that 3-in-1 oil also acts as a way to loosen the calcium that make it where she could wipe much of it off with a paper towel rather than having to chip it with the scraper.
( Cleaner Grills )
The area where we've been working in front of the house is now covered in bits of loose calcium build-up that we chipped off the cooler, so it's a bit of a mess. I reckon it will stay like that for a while until we get one of the periodic high winds.
This is only part of the clean-up story. The pan where the water sits in the bottom of the cooler was a mess, and as I write this, we're still working on getting it back to a state where it can be used again. I'll have more to say about this soon. Lisa has been doing a lot of work with power tools, while I'm handy to have around when heavy things need lifting. I hope we can get the cooler back together before the worst of the summer heat hits.
