Apropos of nothing, but its been so quiet here I thought I'd say what Ive
been up to.

Fixing that dang ugly swamp cooler is what. I showed pix here last year, I
think.

I must have bought it 8-9 yrs ago and never - I mean never- did any sort of
maintainance to it. The cooling pads were completely encrusted in CaCo3
crust even to the point it was creeping under the paint in a layer 3 mm
thick. Over the years various home renovations created airborne dirt and
dust, which was sucked through the pads, making them a dirty, crusty brick.

So, it came to pass that on the hottest day of the year (so far) with the GH
receiving little or no benefit from said swamp cooler, I chose to replace
the cool pads. The motor still works great, but the air through the pads
was only a few degrees cooler than ambient temperature. Indeed, the GH in
full sun was at the same temp as it was on my patio in the shade (on July
4th that was 95F, might have been higher, I tend to block out bad news).
July 5th I found a hardware store that carried cooling pads, and working in
the horrid heat, for it never occurred to me not to - am I stupid or what? -
I set about tearing the cooling pads out of their panels.

Luckily the metal holding the pads in place were totally corroded and rusted
so bending it open was easy work, many times bending it by hand. The old
disgusting pads fell away from teh panels and now the real work began.

After several trips to the hardware store I finally got a wire brush that
mounted to my cordless drill to scrape the paint and CaCO3 away. An old
bottle of Naval Jelly helped a bit, replacing my 1st attempt to dissolve the
CaCO3 with vinegar. If I was smarter a layer of paint remover would have
moved the project forward faster. It was on one of these hardware store
trips that the man at the store said, 'you aren't working on this *now* are
you?' meaning wait till the sun goes down you idiot. But my heat stroked
countenance must had marked me as a liar when I answered 'Of Course Not!'.
He kindly allowed me to save face. (I have always depended on the kindess
of strangers.)

July 5th saw the 1st panel of 3 cleaned of CaCO3, the preponderance of
cruddy paint removed, a new layer of paint sprayed on, and the new pads cut
to size and installed. Placing that one panel back in the swamp cooler at 8
PM dropped the GH temp 5 degrees in 2 minutes. Yes, the swamp cooler was
still running at 8PM. Interior temps (operating w/o one panel - so it was
sucking ambient air into the GH), had gotten to 100F inside the gh. By 8PM
the interior temp had dropped to 85. Installing the one panel dropped it to
82, the thermostat's set point. July 6th saw the second panel repaired in
the same way, and today July 7th I'll complete the project, which I've
gotten pretty quick at, though the cordless drill isn't happy. I think its
suing for new rechargable batteries.

What are you doing this weekend?

K Barrett