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Everything posted by RDM
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Now we're talking!!! Sweeeeeet!!!
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OMG - what memories. The Pacer was right up there with the Matador. Our next door neighbor growing up in Ohio had a Pacer - for about a year. He gave away to avoid the ridicule he received when he drove it. Passenger's side door was 4" longer than the driver's door to make it easier to get in the back. The Pacer was the same era as our Chevy Chevette, which I learned to drive in. What a POS that was, until I rolled it late one night... That took care of that. The only thing good about the Chevette was that it wasn't my dad's red and white 65 Rambler with 3 on the tree. My 3 older siblings all learned to drive in the Rambler. Yet, somehow they all accused me of getting off easy because the Chevette was an automatic!!! yippie??? It had a 2 speed Powerglide tranny coupled to the infamous 1.6 liter Iron Duke 4. It could not get out of it's own way if it fell off a cliff, even with a 4.10 rear end. That was life in the late 70's post Arab Oil Embargo...
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Oh crud. Sorry to hear that. That lends to a lot of questions. Happy to offer a few more thoughts and can follow up offline if you ard/or Mr. Mappy want. Know a fair bit about AC units having done a fair bit of troubleshooting while living overseas in some harsh environments, and worked on our own here in NOVA too and saved a lot in the process. The mention of a bad coil points to a fairly old unit. Normally coils are either air tight, or not. If there is any leak in the system at all, with the pressures involved the freon will quickly leak out and the low pressure switch will turn off the compressor to keep it from burning up. The compressor is big bucks if it dies and is typically not repairable - they can only be replaced. There's two coils in an AC system - the evaporator coil (the one inside your house that gets cold) and the condenser coil (outside with the compressor, which gets hot). Which coil was quoted as being bad? Replacing the coil inside can be a major pain depending on the configuration of the air handler and the design of your system. Assume he used a sniffer to detect the leak? A freon sniffer is very sensitive and a good one can pinpoint the leak's exact location. Coils typically don't leak except after extreme age or if a unit is moved in such a way that stress is applied to the line over time. With a bad coil, and if the unit is circa 15 years old or older, and if the bad coil is the condenser coil, it may be more reliable and in the end cheaper to just replace the outside unit. Older units use R-22 freon, which is outrageously expensive as mentioned before. New units use R-410a, which is a fraction of the cost of R-22 (R-22 is 4-5X the cost of 410a). Plus, newer AC units have a much higher Seer rating - the higher the Seer number the better with the max being in the low 20's. By "better" we mean they are more efficient and draw less electricity and save money - perhaps a lot if the current AC unit is 20 years old or older. The difference in operating cost of a AC unit rated with a Seer of 15 verses a Seer of 20 is substantial (there's various charts you can lookup online). The newer AC technologies include variable speed compressors and larger condenser coils when allows lower fan speeds on the compressor unit outside with much less noise. We have 3 zones in our house and just installed a new outdoor unit a year ago. The difference in the lower noise when the two outdoor units (old and new) are running side by side is amazing. One older unit is circa 2005 technology, which is not THAT old - but the difference in technology is obvious. Our electric bill went down substantially with the installation of the newer more efficient unit, even though it has a higher cooling capacity. Lastly, if the solution is to replace the AC, suggest getting multiple estimates. When our until died last year, we got 3 estimates. One from the company that normally did our maintenance, and two from other reputable companies. Two of the 3 were comparable in prices (within 10% of each other) and the 3rd was more than 2x the other two. The company we went with was able to start immediately and provided references to back their work, who I called. Could not have been happier with the work they did end to end. The 3rd company that was 2X the other two readily acknowledged he was expensive and didn't seem to care that he was SO expensive compared to the others. He even told me that even at his price he had more work than he could handle. Good luck.
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Hummm - Interesting. If enough freon (R-22 or R-410) leaked out that it prompted the low pressure switch to shut off the compressor, then they likely had to pull a vacuum, evacuate the system and completely recharge it. If that's the case, you got off cheap for $300. The cost of R-22 is outrageous these days. Either way, glad to hear they got you back online.
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The other thing that goes with some frequency is the starter relay. Have an extra of those on hand too. It's about the same price as the start capacitor. Of course when our AC went kapooey back in July, it was not the capacitor. Being the last afternoon before the July 4th long weekend everyone was closed. We were fortunate to get an HVAC Company to respond and were happy to pay the $200 for the call. Murphy never strikes when it is convenient.
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Sorry to hear about your AC. Hope the HVAC guy can do the needy. FWIW, in most cases the issue with AC failures is a bad start capacitor on the outside compressor unit. The start capacitor is normally a round or oblong silver thing about 5 inches long with terminals on one end. You can get one at Grainger or online (Amazon or Ebay) for about $20-$30. Substantial savings over the HVAC guy. Need to know the rating requirements, which is stamped on the outside of the capacitor. Easy way to tell if the capacitor is fried is to look at the top end where the terminals are. If there's a bulge on the end, and/or signs of any liquid on the outside the capacitor case, it's bad. Likewise, if you put a voltmeter on the capacitor terminals and get an open reading, it's bad. It is a 5 min job to swap out the capacitors, but make sure you electrically disconnect the main electric service to the AC unit before opening the case. It is 240VAC, which is unforgiving. I normally keep an extra capacitor on hand for emergencies. Didn't have one on hand when our AC went out on the afternoon of 03 July just before the long weekend. Got ahold of someone who responded in an hour - to the tune of $200+. Ouch. Hope your fix today easier on the wallet.
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Based on NWS radar and real time lightning map, it looks like Warrenton is getting pounded atm. Very large section of pink on radar.
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Pouring here just NW of Vienna - hit the "Raining Cats N Dogs" level on our Vantage VUE. Only .70" so far for the day, but that's about to change significantly based on the training line inbound from the W.
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Lends to the old saying... "Lead, follow, or get out of the way. But first and foremost do no harm". He's really stepping in it with the approach with the potential to not only not help, but to further the chaos and mayhem, which does not good for anyone.
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FFW expanded significantly down the DELMARVA all the way to Richmond, Williamsburg etc.
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You've got a line developing just south of you headed N along I-95. Should get you in the action soon.
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Yup Yoda - Pouring here now just NW of Vienna. .3" in just a few mins. Deluge. Based on Sterling radar, this is not moving very fast too. Lawyers Road where we live will probably flood, for the nth time this year. Anything over about 1"/hr and it floods/closes.
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Indeed - it was amazing. The complete devastation was unimaginable. One of several events that kick-started my interest in this obsession we all call weather. The tornado just missed a hospital in downtown, Xenia, which would have made the death toll much higher. What is also surreal is the green Buick Electra 225 in the picture on the Capital Weather Gang photo... We had the same car at the time and drove it through Xenia after the tornado.
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Yes - I've only seen one live tornado in my life - in Kansas in the early 70's. However, as a teenager I will never forget seeing the aftermath of the Xenia F5 that obliterated downtown Xenia, Ohio in 1974. https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/04/03/xenia-ohio-tornado-f-year-anniversary/ You can still see parts of the path plowed through the center of downtown Xenia 46 years later. Our local fire department responded with mutual aid from 30 miles away. Our dad drove us through the aftermath 4 days afterwards. Only way we got past the National Guard was because he wore is Fire Dept turn out gear. Will never forget the devastation of seeing houses with a totally clean slab where even the toilet had been ripped from the foundation. Seen a lot of weather around the world and that is near the top of unforgettable experiences.
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I'm just NW of the two 5.55 and 5.57 readings IVO Vienna. There's some interesting lollies in there from July. It's going to be interesting when the data shifts from liquid to frozen and perhaps becomes more subjective (like the long standing debate about how frozen is measured at KDCA). Likely all of the data points for rain are electronically measured from outdoor "trusted" sensors. When we shift to frozen (hoping we get some in 20/21), the liquid equivalent from heated sensors will hopefully help keep the data from enabling too much slant stick measuring, and offset the "human factor". Noticed there does not appear to be data listed for KDCA and KIAD. Looked up the background and with the sponsorship by NOAA, would anticipate the major airports would participate. https://www.cocorahs.org/Content.aspx?page=aboutus
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Interesting indeed. Looks like it was developed by snow lovers. In the Precipitation options under Map Options 4 of the 5 options to select from have something to do with snow.
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FFW out for most of the area in a stripe from Annapolis westward all the way to MO. Interesting watch area.
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Fully agree on the boring stuff. If it's gona be hot, at least bring some excitement with it. And on the flip side - look at how dry it is out west. Not a drop over the nearly the entire W and NW.
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We got raked with this line in the Oakton/Vienna area. Easily the strongest TS event this year with gusts ivo 60? (a guess). Lots of trees down and power outages throughout our area and FFCO as a whole. Our power has been out ever since the outflow rushed through and still is - large tree took out the high-voltage lines on Lawyers Road that services our entire area. Thankful things cooled off when the line went through and it rained long enough to cool down the house. Temp has been steady in the low 70's ever since. Have a generator but not big enough to run the AC. Still no prognosis from Dominion on when power will be restored.
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Our Vantage Vue just hit 100. It's indicating an 80dp too, which seems high, compared to IAD.
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87/78/100 at 0920am is pretty amazing...
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I like it. It was a definitely a step up from my old Heathkit weather station I built myself in 1977. haha. I have the basic wireless setup with outside sensor assembly and inside base station. No cables to run - setup was pretty easy. The base station can pair with up to 4 outside sensor assemblies. Our Vue has thus far been reliable. It's about 9 years old now. The solar array is starting to get a bit cloudy. I looked at replacing it - $27 or so. Just been replacing the backup battery more often. Was looking at what is available on the market these days. Some units have a color display, which I guess would be nice. However, for my use at home - the Vue has done what I needed it to do. I'd buy another one.
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98/75/111 - Just came in from cutting the grass. Even with a canopy on my Kubota it's toasty out there. RH may be a bit high due to the freshly cut grass IVO the our PWS (Vantage Vue).
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80 already at 0830. Looks like a safe bet the streak of 90's will continue...
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Had a new cell popup just W of Oakton/Vienna over the last 15 mins. Picked up .34" in about 8 mins. Tapering off now... Impressive how quickly things are firing up still, although it was still relatively warm for this hour. NWS returns showing what appears to be a new line forming out near I-81