Late Maintenance

Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

It was over a month late for checking the battery water on the Castle’s batteries.  With the heat and the constant use of the solar power to recharge the batteries, they need checking every month. They were low but still above the plates.  Each cell took about two thirds of a cup of distilled water.  That is too close in my opinion.  The once a month routine needs to be kept and not let the OFM get lazy again.

Since maintenance was on the schedule already it was time six months ago to check the water heater anode rod and flush the tank.  The tools were gathered and the procedure began.  As the anode was being unscrewed from the tank, my super intelligent brain figured out that the water needs to be turned off. Whew that was close.

The anode screwed out just fine and it was obvious it was doing its job well.

After the anode was removed, the water coming out of the tank brought lots of slop out with it.  Then a stream nozzle was repeatedly shoved into the tank to blast more slop out. Here is one of the many pieces that came out.

After about five flushes the final crop was caught on the heater outside access door.

Slop Crop

After the slop was cleaned away, new Teflon tape was wrapped on the anode rod threads and the rod reinstalled.  Amazingly on the first try there were no leaks to correct. The tank was filled and all the air evacuated.  Then the heating element turned on.  It will be a warm shower tonight. YEA.

Later in the day a ride into Aransas Pass to go to the Lowes store was made.  AP usually has the lowest price diesel in the area.  This was a nice price after paying over $4 a gallon in New Mexico.

This next item was actually seen a couple of days ago and tonight the OFM decided to go ahead and show the silliness of the solar panel installation down near the Port Aransas ferry.  Notice how three of the four panels are shaded by another panel. Solar panels have to have DIRECT SUN to generate anywhere close to their rated capacity.  This is a really silly design.

The parts purchased at Lowes will help in the repairs scheduled for tomorrow during the heat of the day.  That story will be told tomorrow with pictures and reasons for the repairs. Meanwhile everyone work hard toward trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.