Home Improvement/DIY Projects

[Sheik]

That's wierd for that area I would think.

Some people get fancy and use those downdraft coolers if the house already has ducting for AC.

 

[Rev]

Some people get fancy and use those downdraft coolers if the house already has ducting for AC.

Yeah but I don't usually think of Colorado being a dry climate. West Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona are the prime spots for the evaporative a/cs.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Yeah but I don't usually think of Colorado being a dry climate. West Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona are the prime spots for the evaporative a/cs.

It is, though... I mean it is west of West Texas...

 

[Sheik]

Yeah but I don't usually think of Colorado being a dry climate. West Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona are the prime spots for the evaporative a/cs.

Idk. I thought you were commenting on where it was installed on the roof.

 

[Rev]

Idk. I thought you were commenting on where it was installed on the roof.

Nah. My family sold those things years ago. I've been around them for a good part of my early life between my grandfather, his brother, and my dad. Seen all of the installations.

 

[Cotton]

Some people get fancy and use those downdraft coolers if the house already has ducting for AC.

The biggest swamp cooler had in a house had no ducting at all. It just went straight into the house like that one looks like it doing.

 

[bbgun]

I did a Google image search of swamp coolers. It definitely appears to be one.

 

[Cotton]

I did a Google image search of swamp coolers. It definitely appears to be one.

It is one, no doubt in my mind.

 

[Smitty]

In keeping with my discussions of recently moving, since I went from renting a townhouse to owning a single family home with a yard again in 2024, I needed a new lawnmower, and, having been sick and tired of trying to restore my gas mower to usability after every period of disuse, and having spent over $100 on maintenance and it was still giving me problems, I bit the bullet and went and purchased a new electric/battery mower.

Now, the house has a sizeable crawl space, and the crawl space has a vapor barrier down on the dirt floor. It seems to me pretty dry and comfy down there.

What with garage space being at a premium since I want to park at least one of my cars in my two car garage, and the other bay taken up by crap like ping pong tables, kids bikes, storage shelves, and a beer fridge, is it possible or advisable that I can store the electric mower in the crawl space? Of course I won’t store the batteries in the crawl space, I’ll either leave them in the garage or move them inside.

This is NC, it’s not extreme here but we are expecting snow tonite and it does get into the 20s during winter not uncommonly. Not gonna be 40 below, but, is it safe to store the electric lawn mower in the cold under the house? Like I said it does have a vapor barrier.

 

[Cotton]

In keeping with my discussions of recently moving, since I went from renting a townhouse to owning a single family home with a yard again in 2024, I needed a new lawnmower, and, having been sick and tired of trying to restore my gas mower to usability after every period of disuse, and having spent over $100 on maintenance and it was still giving me problems, I bit the bullet and went and purchased a new electric/battery mower.

Now, the house has a sizeable crawl space, and the crawl space has a vapor barrier down on the dirt floor. It seems to me pretty dry and comfy down there.

What with garage space being at a premium since I want to park at least one of my cars in my two car garage, and the other bay taken up by crap like ping pong tables, kids bikes, storage shelves, and a beer fridge, is it possible or advisable that I can store the electric mower in the crawl space? Of course I won’t store the batteries in the crawl space, I’ll either leave them in the garage or move them inside.

This is NC, it’s not extreme here but we are expecting snow tonite and it does get into the 20s during winter not uncommonly. Not gonna be 40 below, but, is it safe to store the electric lawn mower in the cold under the house? Like I said it does have a vapor barrier.

I don't see why not as long as you secure the batteries somewhere else.

 

[UncleMilti]

I don't see why not as long as you secure the batteries somewhere else.

Yeah the only worry there are the batteries. Keep them in a stable temperature controlled area and you are good to go

 

[Cowboysrock55]

I don't see why not as long as you secure the batteries somewhere else.

Yeah plus most crawl spaces stay fairly warm. Obviously they can't get below freezing. The warmth from the ground combined from the warmth from the house above usually keeps them at a decent temp. But I guess every crawl space is different.

 

[Smitty]

Electric pressure washer recommendations?

Home use, will be a few times a year. Driveway, siding, patio, stone walkway. Maybe other things like bikes or cars, if I have the right nozzle for it (don’t want to be taking paint off the car). Also I have wooden pillars on the front porch and they’ve accumulated some dirt/grime/mold. Would hope I could safely blast the dirt off, but they are painted and I don’t want to strip off the paint either.

Do I need more than 2000 psi? Also I see many people saying the more gallons per minute the better, that it’s almost more important than PSI. Are any brands a lot better than others? I see most of the electrics at a reasonable price (under $300) have less than 2gpm. Most are like 1.2 gpm. I see Westinghouse has some 2700/3000/3200 psi models that are 1.76 Gpm. Are they recommended or should I go with a greenworks, Sun Joe, or Ryobi instead?

 

[UncleMilti]

Electric pressure washer recommendations?

Home use, will be a few times a year. Driveway, siding, patio, stone walkway. Maybe other things like bikes or cars, if I have the right nozzle for it (don’t want to be taking paint off the car). Also I have wooden pillars on the front porch and they’ve accumulated some dirt/grime/mold. Would hope I could safely blast the dirt off, but they are painted and I don’t want to strip off the paint either.

Do I need more than 2000 psi? Also I see many people saying the more gallons per minute the better, that it’s almost more important than PSI. Are any brands a lot better than others? I see most of the electrics at a reasonable price (under $300) have less than 2gpm. Most are like 1.2 gpm. I see Westinghouse has some 2700/3000/3200 psi models that are 1.76 Gpm. Are they recommended or should I go with a greenworks, Sun Joe, or Ryobi instead?

If you just want something that will clean your house, clean your sidewalks etc you can get by with a 1700-2100psi electric washer.
The electric pressure washers have come a long way, but it still kinda sucks to have to drag a 100’ cord around to run your washer.
Gas powered are my choice, but the engine noise is tiring if you use them more than an hour or so.
Any name brand normally has a good warranty so that’s what I normally use to weed the different brands out. Electric I like SunJoe. Gas I like Dewalt, or really anything with a Honda engine should be money.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Any welders and/or 220v knowers-abouters out there?

Trying to teach myself to weld on a 1982 AC-only welder in my dad's old shop. Machine wasn't acting right and I noticed our old employees had it cranked up 50 or so amps higher or so than it should be just to strike an arc. Called the manufacturer and they said it could be so old that corrosion is preventing proper output, or the receptacle could even be faulty.

Now I do suspect the outlet might have been somehow flawed, especially after I messed with it. (Was very hard to unplug as the center part of the outlet was pulling out of the box.) I tried to measure it with a multimeter and it arced on me, so I left it alone and called an electrician -- this is 220v after all. But it's taking a few days before he can get here and I'm impatient.

Another thing, there is a 110 wired into this box below it. I've running my little stereo off that plug when I'm back there. I'm thinking this isn't even code-legal.

More complicating, this is an old commercial location in a building that is probably from the 1950s or something and could even be 3-phase wiring. (I'm no electrician and just learning about this.)

And ideas/advice, other than call a pro before you electrocute yourself? @UncleMilti @Sheik @roughneck266 @anyoneelse?

 

[UncleMilti]

Any welders and/or 220v knowers-abouters out there?

Trying to teach myself to weld on a 1982 AC-only welder in my dad's old shop. Machine wasn't acting right and I noticed our old employees had it cranked up 50 or so amps higher or so than it should be just to strike an arc. Called the manufacturer and they said it could be so old that corrosion is preventing proper output, or the receptacle could even be faulty.

Now I do suspect the outlet might have been somehow flawed, especially after I messed with it. (Was very hard to unplug as the center part of the outlet was pulling out of the box.) I tried to measure it with a multimeter and it arced on me, so I left it alone and called an electrician -- this is 220v after all. But it's taking a few days before he can get here and I'm impatient.

Another thing, there is a 110 wired into this box below it. I've running my little stereo off that plug when I'm back there. I'm thinking this isn't even code-legal.

More complicating, this is an old commercial location in a building that is probably from the 1950s or something and could even be 3-phase wiring. (I'm no electrician and just learning about this.)

And ideas/advice, other than call a pro before you electrocute yourself? @UncleMilti @Sheik @roughneck266 @anyoneelse?

Did you check each leg of the 240?

if it’s 240, you should have 2 legs of 110/120v. Normally you’ll see 4 wires…ground, neutral, black and red. If the building is old sometimes it’s 1ground, 1 white, 2 black (hot).

It could also be single phase which will only have 2 wires and a ground.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Did you check each leg of the 240?

if it’s 240, you should have 2 legs of 110/120v. Normally you’ll see 4 wires…ground, neutral, black and red. If the building is old sometimes it’s 1ground, 1 white, 2 black (hot).

It could also be single phase which will only have 2 wires and a ground.

Thanks for the reply.

That's what I was doing when it arced. Still not sure why that happened, but yeah, I was checking the two hots and the ground. One leg and the ground didn't show anything (unless I just didn't make good contact, possibly because the outlet was bad/had come loose). The other one arced on me.

I haven't taken the receptacle apart to look at the wires inside -- that's the next step, if I even want to do it. So the 3-phase has the four wires? Wouldn't it have to, in order to have the neutral to run the 110v outlet below it? In other words, more than just the two hots.

I didn't take the cover off the ancient breaker box to look inside (of course all the labels on the breakers couldn't have been more wrong) but it looks like the common tab thingy was used to join a 20 and 30 amp breaker together. Nobody would do that today, but I think it's okay functionally.

I know the welder isn't a 3-phase specific device, so this is confusing to my ignorant layman brain. Why couldn't this be a simple dedicated circuit like I see on all the videos?

 

[Sheik]

Electrical is not my thing.

If it’s not switching out 110v plugs, switches or lights, I’m not messing with it.

 

[roughneck266]

Thanks for the reply.

That's what I was doing when it arced. Still not sure why that happened, but yeah, I was checking the two hots and the ground. One leg and the ground didn't show anything (unless I just didn't make good contact, possibly because the outlet was bad/had come loose). The other one arced on me.

I haven't taken the receptacle apart to look at the wires inside -- that's the next step, if I even want to do it. So the 3-phase has the four wires? Wouldn't it have to, in order to have the neutral to run the 110v outlet below it? In other words, more than just the two hots.

I didn't take the cover off the ancient breaker box to look inside (of course all the labels on the breakers couldn't have been more wrong) but it looks like the common tab thingy was used to join a 20 and 30 amp breaker together. Nobody would do that today, but I think it's okay functionally.

I know the welder isn't a 3-phase specific device, so this is confusing to my ignorant layman brain. Why couldn't this be a simple dedicated circuit like I see on all the videos?

240VAC is still single phase. You shouldn't have gotten any sparks no matter which wires you went across with a meter unless you made a mistake and had the meter on ohms maybe, even then it shouldn't have done it. Did it trip your breaker?
The 110 outlet coming out of it is definitely not code. While it is technically half the hots from a 240, it isn't a good thing to run it that way, because the breaker will definitely not function correctly like that.
If you can post some pics of the outlet, I can tell you where you should put your meter leads to check the voltage, but it sounds like there is definitely voltage there unless the sparks tripped the breaker.

 

[roughneck266]

I just noticed that this isn't at your home. It is possible that this is a three phase 220 VAC welder since it is at a shop. Even so, if you can shoot me some pics, I can help you with it. I Work on 3 phase up to 11.2KV every day.