Living Our Dream

Water Softener

Berlin, OH - Events of Monday, August 25, 2014

One of the things RVers put up with as we travel around the country is varying water quality. We have a whole-house water filter that is equipped with a taste/odor/sediment cartridge that really helps with water that may be less than desirable. However, this filter does nothing for hard water, which is a BIG problem in many parts of the country. Water in the southwest is very hard as is the water in Florida where we spend our winters.

Hard water can gunk up your faucets, cause laundry problems and leave deposits in the water heater that can actually shorten the life of the appliance. We're constantly having to remove our faucet aerators and soak them in white vinegar to remove the calcium deposits and to get them to flow properly again.

The solution is a portable water softener. There are several makes available, and we have been kicking around the possibility of getting one for a couple of years. Paul has been doing more research for the past few weeks, and we finally ordered one from Amazon.

We went with the On the Go portable water softener. Three models are available - standard capacity, double capacity and one for park models (quadruple capacity). Because of how much we use our on-board washer/dryer, we decided against the smallest unit because we wanted to be able to go longer between recharging. The park model version is obviously too big and heavy for RVs, so we opted for the double capacity version. The reason we chose On the Go is it gets good reviews and it uses ordinary table sale for recharging. One brand requires water softener salt pellets, which come in 40-pound bags which would be a pain to have to carry around in an RV.

A pre-filter to remove particulates from the water is recommended for the water softener. As we said, we have an existing whole-house water filter that removes particulates, but it is plumbed in after the city water hookup so it doesn't do any good for the water softener, which gets hooked up before the city water inlet. Therefore, Paul ordered a second water filter housing with a particulate cartridge.

Particulate pre-filter and On the Go water softener

There isn't much involved in the initial setup of the water softener. It just has to be flushed with clear water for a few minutes, then it's ready to go. However, Paul wanted to permanently mount the housing for the pre-filter so it wouldn't be banging around the wet bay, so that meant he had a little work to do.

One thing we really like about our Allegro Bay is that is has separate wet bays for the black/gray water drains and for the fresh water hookup. This is not only more sanitary, but it also provides plenty of room to store hoses and spare fittings. It will also give us room to keep the water softener inside the wet bay so we won't have to worry about it freezing. Even central Florida has an occasional cold night or two during January.

Paul started by cleaning all the hoses, adapters and fittings out of the wet bay to give himself more room to work.

Fresh water wet bay

He then mounted the pre-filter on the side wall near the existing whole-house filter housing.

Pre-filter mounted to side wall of wet bay

After that, it was only a matter of connecting everything together with a couple of short hoses.

Water softener and pre-filter all hooked up

What a difference the water softener makes! Everyone always talks about how much more lather you get from soap and shampoo with soft water; but the real difference is how squeaky clean skin, hair and dishes feel after rinsing. We can't wait to see if our clothes start looking brighter after several washings.

They give you test strips to measure water hardness. Most people say you'll know without testing, but it's nice to have the strips for confirmation. Paul tested the water before hooking up the softener and found a hardness of 11-15 grains. Without getting too technical, grain is unit of measure used to indicate of the amount of minerals dissolved in the water. Anything over 7 grains is considered hard. The water had a hardness of only 2 grains after the softener was installed.

Although it's extra weight to haul around and Paul will have to spend half an hour or so every few weeks recharging the softener, we really like it. It's one of those things you wonder why you waited so long to get.

Well, that's enough work for now. We have something special planned for the Labor Day weekend, so stay tuned.

More Projects

Berlin, OH - Events of Monday, July 14 to Thursday, July 17, 2014

We didn't do much last weekend except hang around the motor home. We also hung around on Monday; and while we were playing with Freeway, we noticed his duck, which is one of his favorite toys, was coming apart. Freeway likes cloth toys, but he is very hard on them. Margery frequently has to "do surgery" to sew them up, but the duck was pretty old and it was beyond repair.

A while back, Margery realized the duck was just about on its last legs, so she ordered Freeway a new toy to take its place. It is a dinosaur, and it's almost as big as Freeway is. We "retired" the duck and got out the dinosaur.

Freeway and his new toy, Barney

Freeway LOVES the dinosaur. We call it Barney since it's purple. By the second day, Freeway figured out how to pick up Barney so he didn't trip over it and so the feet wouldn't block his vision when he was carrying it.

Even though living and traveling in an RV full-time may seem like vacation everyday to some, life on the road still involves maintenance and repairs. When we're stationery, we do some of the more involved projects. On Tuesday, Paul decided to tackle one of those.

We have been having a problem with water and ice accumulating on the bottom of the refrigerator section of the Samsung RF197 residential refrigerator Paul installed about 2½ years ago. This is a known problem with earlier versions of this refrigerator caused by a design flaw that allows the drain tube to freeze up. The tube is supposed to take water from the ice that melts off the cooling coils during the defrost cycle and drain it to a pan under the fridge where the water can evaporate. With the drain tube blocked by ice, the water has nowhere to go and overflows into the refrigerator section. Because the freezer is directly under of the refrigerator, the floor of the refrigerator is quite cold so some of the water freezes.

Samsung has a new aluminum clip that goes on the defrost heater coil and extends down into the drain tube to keep the drain tube from freezing. New refrigerators are being shipped with the clip already installed, and Samsung will also install the clip at no cost if customers experience the drainage problem while the refrigerator is still under warranty. Unfortunately, our refrigerator was made before Samsung started using the clip, and it was already out of warranty when the problem started.

It only takes a few minutes about once a week to mop the water out of the bottom of the refrigerator with a dish cloth and remove any ice, but that was getting old so we decided it was time to install the new clip that's supposed to fix the problem. Paul chose to do it himself rather than to pay for an expensive service call from an appliance repairman.

The part number of the clip is DA61-06796A. Paul ordered it from ApplianceParts365.com for $1.97 plus $6.50 for shipping. Their service was very good with the part arriving in about 4 or 5 business days.

Paul decided to replace the clip on Tuesday because the weather was predicted to be relatively cool. To get at the cooling coils, you have to remove a plastic cover at the back of the refrigerator; and to get at the cover, you have to remove the food and all the shelves. Since we only have a couple of small coolers, most of the food would have to sit out for an hour or two, so Paul didn't want to do the work on a hot day.

Shelves and food removed showing the panel at the back of the refrigerator

Installing the clip turned out not to be as big a job as Paul feared it might be. The only problem was that a small piece of the foam insulation that is attached to the back of the plastic panel broke off because it was stuck to the ice that had formed in the area around the drain tube. Fortunately, Paul was later able to tape the piece of foam back into place with some high/low temperature aluminum duct tape he happened to have. Keeping the foam intact is important because it also helps direct the flow of cold air.

In the photo below you can see the black defrost heating coil with an ice dam covering the drain tube below it.

Ice dam below the coils

Paul melted the ice dam using Margery's hair dryer, and he melted the ice that was down in the drain tube with boiling water. He then installed the new clip.

New clip installed

Everything went back together fairly quickly, and within about 2 hours of turning the refrigerator back on, it was back down to around 40º. After several days, there was no sign of water in the bottom of the fridge. Here's hoping the clip keeps doing its job.

Paul likes to keep busy by working on little projects, but he definitely prefers upgrade projects to repairs. Unfortunately, Paul recently had another repair that was a little more critical than the refrigerator. One morning there was a pop as he was flushing the toilet. After the pop, the flush valve didn't close when he released the pedal, and the water valve didn't shut off. Uh-oh. Fortunately, Paul was able to pull the pedal back up with his toe to close flush valve and shut off the water. When he took the pedal assembly apart, he found the return spring had broken.

Unfortunately, you can't buy just the spring. The spring is only available as part of a spring cartridge, which consists of the spring and a lever in a plastic housing. Tamper-resistant screws prevent dis-assembly of the cartridge because the spring is under fairly high tension. Paul ended up ordering the cartridge from Factory RV Surplus where he got the ladder parts. Their price for the part wasn't the cheapest, but total cost of the part ($24) combined with shipping ($14) was competitive with other vendors. When Paul called them, they said they had the part in stock and that they would ship it the next day. Because they are located fairly close to Berlin in Elkhart, IN, the part only took one day to arrive.

Spring cartridge

Paul installed the new spring cartridge as soon as we got it on Wednesday. Although the part is expensive, the fact that it is a pre-assembled cartridge makes it very easy to install. Just pop the cover plate off the side of the foot pedal, remove two screws from the water valve and move the valve aside. The spring cartridge sits behind the water valve. Just slide out the old cartridge and push the new one into place. Then reinstall the water valve and pop the cover plate back on. Done.

With those repairs out of the way, we were looking forward to something more interesting. Stay tuned.

A Couple of Projects

Berlin, OH

When Lora and J. Michael travel in their RV, they use a soft-sided crate for their 80-pound boxer, Gunnar. They had previously loaned the crate to someone whose dog ended up putting several big tears down the middle of the front screen. Lora subsequently sewed up the tears to repair them; but on one of our outings over the 4th of July weekend, Gunnar figured out how to break through the stitching where the screen was repaired. Lora and J. Michael got back to their trailer to find Gunnar snoozing in the middle of the floor instead of in his crate. Fortunately, he was a good boy and didn't get into any trouble.

We had some shade screen left over from making a new fabric skirt for the tow shield we use when towing our Equinox behind the motor home. The shade screen is similar to the original screen in the crate except ours has smaller openings in the weave. Margery volunteered to try to repair the crate using the screen we had on hand and to return the crate to Lora and J. Michael the next time we see them.

One morning, Paul got the screen out of the storage bay then measured and cut a new piece for the dog crate. After pinning the new screen into place, Margery set up her trusty Singer Featherweight sewing machine outside on the picnic table and got busy.

Margery sewing new screen onto the dog crate

The results look pretty good. Here's hoping the repair holds. It should because Gunnar normally isn't destructive, and he isn't obsessed with getting out of his crate. The previous repairs must have just attracted his curiosity.

Repaired dog crate

While Margery was sewing, Paul walked down to the office to pick up a package that had arrived with supplies for another project. A couple of months ago just before we left Florida, Paul heard a crunching sound while he was climbing the ladder on the rear of our coach. When he checked it out, he found several of the plastic end caps that hold the ladder rungs in place were badly cracked.

One of 4 cracked end caps on our ladder rungs

Further inspection revealed numerous other end caps had smaller cracks like the one in the center of the cap shown in the photo below.

One of the smaller cracks in numerous other end caps

When Paul researched the problem online, he found the ladder components used on our motor home are very common and are used on many RVs. He also found out that cracking of the end caps happens fairly often, especially after the plastic has been exposed to the sun for several years. The good news is the screws that hold the rungs in place are long enough to go completely through the vertical rails of the ladder. Even if the cap would be completely disintigrated, the screws would probably still support your weight, although the rung would be pretty unstable if both end caps were gone. Because it is a potential safety issue, you may want to check the end caps for cracking if you have a ladder on your RV.

After going to two Camping World stores (one in Florida and one in Alabama), a couple of large RV dealers in Alabama, one large RV parts store in Alabama, and after checking numerous online RV parts suppliers, Paul found no one seems to stock replacement end caps even though breakage is a fairly common occurrence. Paul finally found replacement end caps at Factory RV Surplus. Since there were only a few end caps on our ladder that weren't cracked, and those were badly weathered, Paul decided to replace all of the end caps. They are kind of expensive at $5.50 a pair, but he figured it was better to be safe than sorry. Our ladder has 9 rungs, so the total cost to replace all the end caps was around $60 including about $10 for shipping.

Because we were leaving Alabama and were not going to be in one place long enough to receive a package, we waited until we got to Berlin to order the new end caps. The service from Factory RV Surplus was excellent. Paul ordered the end caps right before the July 4th weekend, and they arrived shortly after. Each pair of end caps also includes new screws - four shorter screws to hold the pair of end caps to the ladder rung and two longer ones to hold the rung to the ladder uprights.

End caps with new screws

As Margery was finishing up the sewing project, Paul started removing the ladder rungs and replacing the end caps.

Paul replacing the ladder rung end caps

Worst of the broken end caps

It only took about an hour to finish the ladder repair. Now Paul can feel a little more confident when he has to get up onto the motor home roof.

Another advantage to being on the upper level of the campground other than having better Verizon reception is being able to see the sunset. The evening after we finished our projects, we were treated to a beauty when the clouds from earlier in the evening lifted just as the sun was going down.

Berlin Sunset

We spent the next few days relaxing and running a few errands including stops at Walmart, Walnut Creek Cheese and a few other places. As we said, we don't have a lot planned for the summer, but we're bound to find something to do. Stay tuned.

Motor Home Project: Refinish Cabinet Doors

Bushnell, FL - Events of Monday, January 20 to Tuesday, January 28, 2014

So far this winter, we certainly haven't been doing as much sightseeing as we had hoped. For one thing, we have seen just about everything of note within about an hour's drive of Bushnell, so most of our sightseeing will require a longer drive. Therefore, we have been content to chill out around the motor home rather than take all-day sightseeing excursions.

Speaking of chilling out, that brings up another reason we haven't gotten out much - the weather hasn't been all that nice. Cold fronts have been passing through fairly frequently, so the weather hardly has a chance to warm up before the next front brings clouds, rain and more cold temperatures.

We haven't even gone out to eat much because our budget hasn't recuperated from our expensive New England travels last summer and our weight hasn't fully recovered from all the treats we indulged in during our Christmas visit to Pittsburgh. We're still working on breaking the pound barrier. LOL

Hanging out around the motor home gave us plenty of time to enjoy the paperwhite narcissus Lora and J. Michael got Paul for Christmas. The kit included the bulbs, a pot and planting medium. Paul planted the bulbs shortly after we got back to Bushnell, and they started blooming about three weeks later. We both love the beautiful white flowers and the intoxicating fragrance that fills the motor home.

Paperwhite narcissus blooming in the motor home

As we have said before, Paul usually can't sit still for long and eventually gets motivated to tackle a project. One of those was refinishing several of our motor home's cabinet doors. Paul isn't sure what type of finish Tiffin used on our cabinet doors and drawer fronts (he thinks it was nitrocellulose lacquer), but it is not very resistant to moisture or to skin and cooking oils.

The cabinets in the kitchen get used a lot and have had the finish around the knobs softened by repeated contact with water and oils. When the finish is soft, cleaning it gradually removes the finish leaving the wood substrate dull and unprotected. Wet hands and splashing water in the bathroom also caused the cabinet doors in that area to develop a cracked finish and permanent, white marks.

One of our cabinet doors showing cracks in the finish and white marks from excessive exposure to moisture

We finally got tired of looking at the unsightly marks on some of our cabinet doors, so Paul decided to start refinishing them. Before refinishing, however, the old finish had to be stripped off. Stripping old finish isn't difficult, especially since our woodwork is natural maple with no stain. However, removing the old finish can be tedious, and its almost always messy and smelly. Therefore, Paul had to wait for nice weather so he could do all the work outside.

We had 10 doors and one drawer front that needed to be refinished. Since that was too much to get done in one day and since days that were good for refinishing were only happening one or two at a time, Paul split the work into several sessions doing only a few doors at a time.

After removing several of the doors on Tuesday, Paul applied paint stripper and spread it around with a brush.

Applying paint stripper

A little more stripper had to be applied every few minutes to keep the sun and breeze from drying the stripper out before it had time to soften the old finish. Fortunately, the stripper was very effective, so it didn't take too long to soften the old finish enough to be scraped off the flat areas with a putty knife.

Stripping softened finish with a putty knife

After the majority of the old finish was scraped off, Paul then worked on the contoured areas with a Scotch Brite abrasive pad soaked with a little of the stripper.

Removing finish from contoured areas with abrasive pad

Repeated wiping with lacquer thinner removed the gooey residue of paint stripper and dissolved finish. It took a lot of paper towels and a lot of solvent to get off all the residue.

Paul's favorite wood finish is Minwax Wipe On Poly. Wipe On Poly is a polyurethane finish that is easy to apply, fast drying, highly moisture resistant and is very durable.

Minwax Wipe On Poly

Paul usually applies two coats of finish sanding lightly between coats with a Scotch Brite abrasive pad or steel wool.

Wipe On Poly is available in both gloss and satin finishes, but Paul prefers to use gloss even when trying to achieve a satin finish like the wood in our motor home. The satin Wipe On Poly is more difficult to get a consistent appearance because the degree of gloss of the satin finish is dependent on how well you shake the can before applying the finish and on your application technique. Therefore, Paul uses gloss finish and reduces the shine after it dries with a Scotch Brite pad. An abrasive pad used by itself will result in a matte finish, and a little paste wax added to the pad while sanding will result in a satin finish.

Reducing the gloss with an abrasive pad and a little paste wax

Paul managed to find several nice days and partial days where he was able to dodge wind, cold and raindrops, and he finally got the refinishing done the following Tuesday. The refinished doors and drawer look like new again, but they're actually better than new because we know the new polyurethane finish will be much more durable than the original.

We're still hoping for some nicer weather soon so we can do some sightseeing. Stay tuned.

Getting Settled

Bushnell, FL - Events of Thursday, December 5 to Tuesday, December 10, 2013

After pulling into Blueberry Hill on Wednesday afternoon, we worked on settling in the rest of that day and the next. When we stop for longer periods of time like this, we usually do more than we normally do for stops of only a couple of weeks or less. For example, we turned the pilot and co-pilot chairs around to make our living space seem a little bigger and to provide extra seating. We also got out our patio mat, our outdoor chairs and a small outdoor table. The other thing Paul did was to get the bikes out of the car.

On Thursday, we walked up to the clubhouse to take our trash to the dumpster and to check for mail. On the way, Paul stopped for a photo of ibis hunting for food along the banks of the retention pond.

Ibis hunting food along the banks of one of the ponds

Since Freeway had been cooped up for several days while we were traveling, we stopped at the dog park to let him run. As always, Freeway had a good time chasing his ball.

Freeway jumps to try to catch his ball

Freeway playing fetch

Freeway plays hard, and he usually gets thirsty. Blueberry has thoughtfully provided a spigot and water bowl for the pups.

Freeway gets a drink

We got an e-mail from Sam's Club saying they were having their annual Holiday Open House with samples of appetizers and other holiday foods on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Since we needed a couple of items from Sam's anyway, we headed there on Friday to check it out.

We enjoyed numerous samples, and after we finished our shopping, we also each had a Nathan's jumbo, all-beef hot dog at the snack bar. It was so crowded, we had to wait about 10 minutes for the hot dogs, and then we had trouble finding a table.

We also made a quick stop at Walmart in The Villages for a couple of essential items. As crowded as Sam's Club was, Walmart was worse. After driving up and down several rows looking for a parking place, we finally gave up and parked at the far perimeter of the lot. We did our shopping, and made our way back to Blueberry Hill where we relaxed for the rest of the day.

Margery caught up on laundry on Saturday, and Paul worked on a couple of minor projects around the motor home. After church on Sunday, we relaxed most of the day.

One of the projects Paul worked on was making a spacer for our Euro recliner. As we get older, we find the chair is just a little bit too low for us, and we have been sitting on a pillow for the last year or two. The company that makes the chair also makes a spacer ring that goes under the base of the chair to raise it up, so we must not be the only ones who find it too low. The only problem is the spacer costs $80 to $150, depending on where you order it.

Paul tested raising the chair by various amounts by using blocks of scrap wood and found raising the chair an inch was just about right. That is about the same amount the commercially available spacer raises the chair. You wouldn't think an inch would make much difference, but it does.

When we were out on Friday, we stopped at Lowe's to get some wood so Paul could make our own spacer ring. He glued together two layers of ½-inch plywood, cut a ring using his hand-held jigsaw, sanded the ring and painted it black.

Paul spray painting the almost completed chair ring

On Tuesday, he finished off the ring by making a couple of brackets to hold the ring to the bottom of the chair so we could move the chair easily without having to move the ring separately.

Chair base before the spacer ring

Chair with spacer ring added

The result is a more comfortable chair for less than $15. Now we can relax in our recliner without sitting on a lumpy pillow.

Tuesday was our day for putting up our Christmas decorations. Some RVers go all out with their decorations. We prefer to keep things simple with just a few.

Margery hanging the Christmas wreath outside our rig

On Tuesday, we also went for a bike ride around the campground. Numerous RVs have arrived in the past few days, but the real influx won't happen until after Christmas.

We'll probably continue in relaxation mode for the near future. Our blog posts will be a bit less frequent, but we'll still have periodic updates.