Entropy

[mediatechnology]

Since my last post here I've had to deal with multiple storms and downed trees, power outages, multiple near-simultaneous appliance failures etc. The usual stuff.

In late March I had to replace a 15 year-old washing machine and when I did bought a matching dryer to replace the 20+ year-old one sitting beside it.
The washer was delivered in late March, the dryer had to be brought in from the manufacturer and was delivered April 1st.
I had a funny feeling at the time about the April Fool's delivery...

Saturday I discovered that the dryer had failed.
It's gas and wasn't heating after just 2-1/2 month's use.
Having repaired the last dryer at least ten times and this model being very similar my thoughts immediately went to a damaged igniter.
Sure enough the igniter was chipped and had fused open.
The igniter installed in the dryer wasn't the same type or part number shown in the manual.
It was coiled not the usual type that looks like a Weller soldering gun tip.
Apparently they are prone to failure and the manufacturer went back to the old type.

As "luck" would have it I had two spares.
Unfortunately the new dryer uses a different mounting bracket for the replacement and I don't have one.
So I was forced to buy another igniter which I'm waiting for Amazon to deliver.

I could have had this replaced under the dryer's 5 year warranty if I wanted to wait a week or more for a tech to show up.
I passed and decided to do the work myself.

Since I had a load of wet clothes I MacGuyvered a clothes line from a dog tie down between two trees and took advantage of a dry sunny day.
As I was going full hillbilly and hanging out laundry my neighbor and a large group of her lady friends decided to tour her backyard and woods.
I heard them giggle as they were humored at my being transported back to the 1960s hanging out my underware to dry.
Our neighborhood isn't exactly dialed in to the trailer park lifestyle and I'm probably the only one flying laundry within 5 miles.

Towels dry in about a half hour in the shade in Texas heat.
As I'm now enjoying the smell of fresh laundry I decided to run and line-dry another load.
I'm thinking "why don't I do this more often?"
So I ran another load...

Once I get the part it will take all of 5 minutes to install.

[emrr]

At least the downed trees weren’t total, and there was something to string between. My mother still hangs everything out, definitely the only person anywhere near her.

[flyboy71]

Living like the amish I see. A local hardware store near me sells clothesline pulleys.

[terkio]

I am amazed to realize that I may be the only one in a 5 kilometers radius to dry my laundry using a clothesline.
It is so easy and relaxing to do so whenever weather conditions allow it.
My drier is handy for rainy days, it is not a must have.

[mediatechnology]

So I got the dryer igniter and installed it in about 5 minutes.

Forgot to mention that the same day the dryer failed my 16 year-old scanner got balky. Seems the lamp has to calibrate now for every scan.
The replacement, an Epson V600 Photo, was delivered in about 2 days and up and running.
Since these sort of things usually come in "threes" I'm wondering what else failed that I haven't found yet.

I'm going to line dry sheets this week.
I think my wife and I will sleep better after the air dry "ozone infusion."

[JR.]

I have a new product fail, or product fixin to fail.

I just checked and I only purchased this back in July so not very robust



It is a solid state peltier based dehumidifier so avoids the typical compressor moving parts to wear out.

That said it still uses a fan to blow air across the cooled peltier heat sink.

That fan has started making its death knell noises. Sounds like bearing/bushing chatter in the fan motor.

If it turn it off and on again after a few minutes rest the fan is quiet (normal) again.

I suspect it will be cheap to fix, but not sure it's worth it. It barely makes a difference to my indoor humidity.

JR

PS: I went to the manufacturer's website and could not find any warranty information.

[mediatechnology]

My wife had a little pink peltier refrigerator for perfume and the cold side promptly rusted it's hardware.

I bet the fan is a DC box fan but if it doesn't actual lower Rh I can see why you wouldn't bother.

At the moment we're adding humidity here. The house is around 24%.

[JR.]

my main room is sitting at 40% right now. The real dehumidifier running overnight doesn't grab much moisture. During warmer weather it could pull a quart or two each night.

Sadly looking at my old order history I notice that I purchased a different small peltier dehumidifier back in 2015 that met a similar fate. I guess I'm a sucker for peltier technology....
===
For now with the fan set on low speed it is running quiet. They claim it is quiet enough that you could run it overnight in the bedroom. That is another lie.

I have a temp/humidity sensor right in the path of my heat pump indoor unit and it shows 78'/28% RH as compared to 66'/40% RH less than 10 feet away in the same room... I suspect that difference is a temperature correction factor thing.

JR

[JR.]

Well I took the POS apart and it was a PIA with mostly snap together plastic sides..

I got the motor unsnapped so I can read the label. It is a 12025 series (common size) 18V (uncommon voltage) DC brushless fan.

So far no luck finding the same fan... closest is one 18v open frame fan, but no box fans with the correct voltage. Mostly 12V and some 24V, 18V not so much.

cest la vie

JR

[AnalogJoe]

I should look into a de-humidifier, I have a ton of books, and although it is not very humid here, some of my books sometimes end up warped due to humidity.