"if you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much room"

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

work, work and more work?

Yes folks, we are still in South Dakota working away and doing fine. I guess I have neglected the blog a little and I apologize for that. I'll try and do better. :-)
We are slowly getting back into the groove of our four 10 hour shifts per week and for some reason I am having a little more difficulty getting my "body clock" to adjust to Mountain time.
The weather here in the Black Hills has been warming up some but that has also meant afternoon thunderstorms most days. We have avoided most of the severe weather but it sure interferes with our motorcycle rides.
We have taken in some pretty scenery though, even on the stormy days.




One day last week I decided to make some homemade noodles. My Mother In Law is the champion noodle maker and she taught me all her secrets.


I doubt if I will ever be able to make them as good as she does but I get pretty durn close.

We have also been experience a problem with our Splendide "all in one" washer/dryer. The thing has never really dried the clothes very well. We would set the dryer selection for maximum time (2 hours) and the clothes would still be damp even after all that time. Our neighbors and friends Steve and Joan (FOSJ) were also having problems with their unit and had tried several things before calling for a technician to come and look at it. Talking to Steve I was hoping to correct mine with just a simple cleaning of the dryer vent and he suggested I take it apart and try that on the same day the tech was coming to fix theirs in case it was more complicated.
Yesterday morning was the day and I removed the unit from it's cabinet. The dryer vent was totally clogged with a big ball of lint and looked like it probably had never been cleaned. That was an easy fix but, as usual, nothing is that easy. When I pulled the unit out we found water under the unit and it had been leaking for quite awhile. Not a big leak but any water leak is a bad thing in an RV. I was able to get the service tech to stop in and he found the pump was leaking. He said we could rebuild it using a kit for under $40 (which he had on his truck) or he could order us a new pump for $120. He told me how easy they were to rebuild and gave me some pointers so I decided to give it a try and save a few $'s. The kit is just a new rubber gasket that seals the interior impeller shaft of the pump.
I removed the pump which was held on by two bolts and I had to disconnect two hoses and a couple of wires.


Once I had the pump in hand I removed the screws holding the two halves of the housing together. Inside the housing is the impeller that is screwed onto a drive shaft and after unscrewing the impeller you can remove the rubber seal which keeps the pump from leaking.





I cleaned everything up and installed the new gasket using the grease they provided with the kit. I put it all back together and hoped for the best as we gave it a test run. Whoo Hoo, no leaks and it is blowing hot air from the dryer vent!
I put the back in the cabinet and reattached the anchors that keeps it secure. We have done a few loads since then and the clothes come out warm and dry in 1/4 of the drying time as before and Rudee is happy to have a fully functioning dryer again.

The weatherman says the next several days will be cool and rainy so we are just planning on running some errands and "chillin" in the rig. I'll keep you posted.

10 comments:

  1. I also have a W/D combo, however I usually only partially dry the clothes and then smooth them out and hang them up on hangers and a drying stand. Works for me.

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  2. Come on down to Keystone at the Iron Mountain Road Store and say hi ..

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  3. Great repair,

    I heard if you add a dry towel to a load going into the dryer it greatly reduces the drying time for the whole load??? worth a try??

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    1. no problems drying now Wayne, in fact we have to put the dryer on the "half heat" setting or the clothes are almost too hot to touch when we take them out. :-)

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  4. We have the all in one Splendide as well. Ours wasn't drying very well after about a year, so we called customer service, and he emailed us a procedure to blow the lint out using certain settings. Works like a charm, now that we do that on the first of every month.

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  5. Can you provide us with some advice on the proper techniques to use when flagging down a mobile RV repairman??? We would also appreciate any thoughts on the proper apparel one should wear when the repairman enters the RV. 😀😀😀

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    1. let's see ..... first thing you have to do Jonell is holler and wave at him while you stand in your open doorway in your bra! Then have Dan chase him down the driveway waving, yelling and whistling. This technique is tried and true to get the repairman to slam on his brakes wondering who in the heck are the crazy folks and why is that half naked woman yelling at me??? LOL

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  6. Being a "handyman" is so awesome!! Sadly, I do not posses that skill set.

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  7. It is nice to hear from you again after so long and it is great that you are settling in. I am glad that you were able to fix your washer/dryer because mine has been having similar problems and I might just try what you posted to see if it will fix anything. Having my cloths dry faster would be wonderful. Thanks for stopping in!

    Nathan Riley @ Steemer Atlanta

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