Twinsprings Research Institute

Advantium Still Dead, Oster Alternative

Posted on November 6, 2015 by ellen

Despite the new TCO (Thermal cut off) the Advantium is still dead. Sad to say. There is some more testing I can do for the other TCO and various boards. Ebay has some of the parts that are not too expensive. May be a winter project.

In the meantime I bought the largest toaster oven I could find. It is an Oster Extra Large TSSTTVXLDG.

Oster TSSTTVXLDG

Oster TSSTTVDGXL-SHP

Amazon says that the less deep version (TSSTTVDGXL-SHP) is newer but the Oster site says they were both introduced about the same time. It looks a little fancier but the materials and the included racks and broiler pan are the same. The door handle is sleeker but not necessarily easier to use.

The version I bought has a 19.2 inches deep cabinet and the other is 16.7 inches. The model I purchased says its internal measurements are Width: 15.75″ Depth: 16.7″ Height (Heater to Heater): 8.91″. It has a rounded back with a bumper to keep it about an inch from the back wall.

The SHP model is specified at Width: 15.75″, Depth: 16.36″, Lower rack to upper heater: 6.85″. I measured the rack on my model and it is 15″ deep with 3/4″ behind the rack to the rear of the oven and about 1/2″ between the door and the rack. Amazon questions and answers indicate it is the same total internal height. I measure mine at 9.5 inches from crumb tray to the underside of the upper unit–although the bottom element is between these two surfaces so it is likely just under 9″ total. Because of the lower element, you could not lay a pan on the bottom anyway. I had to find the inner dimension of the first model in the Oster Questions and Answers instead of in the specs. Funny how hard it can be to find product information. Interestingly, the SHP model is sold at Walmart as TSSTTVDGXL-001 and has a 5 year warranty instead of 1 year.

This oven is quite a bit more flimsy than I expected. I can see why the door can shatter as stated in some reviews, it is not insulated glass, just one layer and does not have any trim. The oven itself will get very hot too. Have to use mitts just to open and close it when it is in use. It also requires 6″ side and top clearance for air circulation so it will leak a LOT of heat. I like the idea of a full size crumb tray. If something drips while cooking the tray is removable for cleaning.

I was very tempted to buy a half size commercial oven from a Restaurant Supply store for just over $500. It was 22.5 inches deep so would stick out over two inches from the front of the log cabinet. It was 220 like the Advantium instead of 120 and would have been better insulated. I might have cut out the back of the cabinet for a closer fit. But I have to budget somewhere and this $90 oven should work for us in the short term. Maybe the Advantium will get fixed. It certainly fits the cabinet better as I had to cut away part of the log side to fit it and now that raw edge is exposed.

A regular wall oven is way too deep for the cabinet. The narrowest one I could find was a Bosch which was very expensive and 23.5 inches deep. The cabinet is only 17 inches deep plus the width of the side logs for about 19″ total. Bosch makes a speed cook oven which is for sale on craigslist but it does not use halogen light, it is basically a microwave with a heating element and there are similar units–microwaves with “grills”–for much less cost from Sharp and some other manufacturers. It is only 21.5 inches deep but the owners want $975 for it which is more than I want to pay.

I could have switched to a full size stove where the depth might not matter as much, also found a nice 30″ wide dual fuel Bosch on Craigslist for $800 at 25.5 inches deep, much less than a normal stove that would be closer to 30″ deep but again, the cost was too high to justify right now.

I did check out Ikea built in ovens since they are usually smaller, but the built in oven was just under 26.5 inches deep!

So the toaster oven is our solution for now. It is too bad that the cut away for the Advantium is now exposed and looks so raw.

Oster Toaster Oven

Posted in Appliances, Maintenance and Repair | Comments Off

Door Trim Finally Repainted!

Posted on November 5, 2015 by ellen

Repainted Door Trim

The painters that Alpen sent had several setbacks before they could make it to the job. Apparently Alpen only has one vendor for the original paint job and one for repainting. Maybe that means that most jobs don’t need repainting–until recently. At least I would hope so.
I was ready for the paint job by mid August, but Alpen had not put it on their schedule. When it was obvious they would not make it by Labor Day weekend when we were leaving for a trip, I requested the week of Sept. 21st. But they were not ready and claimed other jobs were running long! They were finally scheduled for the week of Oct 5th but the painter had some health problems and didn’t make it until Oct. 16th. All of the interim weather was perfect but fortunately it was still quite nice when they finally arrived, and they worked part of the weekend to complete the job.
The painters thought that the prep for the original paint was not done correctly. The primer had not been sanded, or sanded enough and it seemed the paint was put on damp wood so it was curling up and blistering.
They could not get here until the week I was out of town. Normally I would not have had the work done then, but Dave was home and we could no longer delay the job as fall was quite advanced and winter around the corner.
The color is a bit duller than the original paint job, it is as if they used matte and the original was semi-gloss. But that is not much of an issue. In some places I can see the old paint peeling lines where the sanding didn’t erase it. But as long as the new paint does not peel, I am happy to have the doors painted.

Peeling paint on upper brickmold

Paint Detail

I called Lowes about the siding because we need to put it on ASAP and darned if it is a special order and to get the colored siding it will take three weeks. That puts us right at Thanksgiving! Who knows what the weather will be then?

Posted in Construction, Maintenance and Repair | Comments Off

Reorganization

Posted on November 2, 2015 by ellen

With cold weather around the corner, it is time to clear out the garage from summer projects and make room to store the car for winter.

I put this project on the fall to do list and it meant a week of moving cabinets from the garage into the “tool room” which will eventually be the family room/office and moving the tools from that room into the garage. Even with all the cabinets moved, we didn’t gain a wider spot in the garage than last year’s parking space. I would have moved a couple more pieces of furniture into the house but we ran out of energy with so many boxes that had to be moved to get to the furniture.
This was the tool wall, seen when the new window was being installed in this room.

Replaced Tool Wall

We had some of the extra rock wool insulation piled between the entry and this room and all of that was moved to the “play house” shed in the back yard. I will have to figure out another location for this insulation in the spring. I’m renting the play house space for the winter from my grandkids!

These are the cabinets we moved in. The cabinet being painted white is a project for my Mom.

Cabinets Moved

And we finally got most of my mom’s stuff that didn’t fit in her apartment consolidated and moved to the garage too.

Mom’s Extra Stuff

With all the stuff moved back and forth from garage to house and from house to garage, it seems enough reorganization has taken place to allow for a warm spot for the car when the weather gets bad and other projects to move forward.

Reorganized Garage

Posted in Maintenance and Repair, Tools | Comments Off

Where the Cold Gets In

Posted on November 2, 2015 by ellen

We finally had our first frost on October 28th. The end of October is very late for first frost, but we got more tomatoes from the garden because of it. And we are warming up for an Indian Summer the next few days. But winter is right around the corner. So I woke up early when the outside temps were the coldest and took some Flir One photos to find our cold spots.

Front Door at Floor

Upper Window and wiring space to garage

Utility room back wall–this wall gets no sunlight

Ceiling and side wall–no leaks!

Stove pipe

Master Bedroom Corner

Master Bedroom Wall missing some insulation

Crawl Space Vent Area

Existing Bedroom Corner–not much can be done here

Upper window missing insulation

Attic Wall Leak

Back Door

I’m not sure what to do about some of the leaks. But in the attic I can replace the fiberglass in the wall with rock wool and that should eliminate the cold spots. I’m guessing the fiberglass has come away from the studs there.

We can finish the insulation in the upper bedroom window. And try to figure out where that leak is happening in the master bedroom.

The opening to the crawlspace will always be cooler as it is drawing in warm air from the house, now that it is enclosed and “conditioned”. Seems to be a contradiction in outcomes to have the radon fan continuously drawing air through the crawlspace from the house and also having the house as air tight as possible. I suppose the ventilation system will even out this contradiction.

What about under the doors? Maybe some of this will be eliminated with the application of the air barrier on the walls. Overall though it seems we are looking at rather minor leakage at this point. So far even with nights in the 30’s we have not had to turn on the heat. My goal is to not have to turn on heat until the daytime temps are in the 30’s.

Posted in Air Intrusion/Thermal Envelope | Comments Off

Absolutely Amazing

Posted on October 29, 2015 by ellen

I planned to join my sister in Paris for a few days and stop over in Iceland on the way back. This was my very first trip overseas and I just wanted to see what it was like. If you only go once, Paris is the place to go.

Except for the pickpockets, I thought they were very tourist friendly, although it can be hard to find actual French food if you are in a tourist area like Ille de St. Louis. But we had good food at every restaurant and lots of fois gras because it is the French thing to do.

We had a whirlwind tour of Paris–led by my sister who has visited several times before.

Arrived Sat. afternoon–Dinner at a local cafe–I had orange roughy in a nice sauce and we shared a good bottle of wine.
Sunday–Early walk to Notre Dame with mass going on and a walk around the chapels. Paris Walks of the Montemarte district with a visit to the Cluny afterwards–unicorn tapestries stole the show.

Notre Dame

Moulin de la Galette–Montmarte painted by Renoir

Cluny–Unicorn Tapestry

Monday– Paris Walks of Ille Cite, and a separate tour of the Concierge, with an afternoon visit to the Orangerie museum to see the Monet water lily paintings etc. and a night dinner boat tour on the Seine past the twinkling Eiffel and the French Statue of Liberty.

Concierge–Reconstruction Marie Antoinette’s Cell

Musee de l’Orangerie

Monet

Boat Company

Seine at Night

Tuesday–Paris Walks of the Marias district and afterwards a stop at the Victor Hugo museum which was charming, lunch at a cafe of duck confit, then the D’Orsay with its big clock view of Paris and the Impressionists, including Degas ballerinas. Afterwards a dusk visit to the Arc d’Triumph and up the stairs to the top for a stunning view of the city and the Eiffel as it lit up. Fancy dinner at the Orangerie restaurant on Ille St. Louis.

Marais Old City Wall

Victor Hugo Chinese Fireplace

D’Orsay Clock

Degas

Ceremony at Arc d’Triumph

Flag through Arc d’Triumph

Wednesday–Early morning tour of Sainte-Chapelle–King Louis IX’s shrine to the crown of thorns relic he bought in a Crusade. Bus ride past the Bastille Monument to the Pere Lachaise cemetary where famous french musicians and scientists are buried along with Jim Morrison. Ran around looking for famous graves, like Lavoisier, Moliere, Chopin, etc. Found Jim Morrison’s shrine too. Similar to the love locks on the Seine bridges, the grave fence has ribbons and hairties looped through it. After a fois gras luncheon for two at Marly’s at the Louvre, we had a late afternoon and evening visit to the Louvre, where there is almost too much art. Saw the famous Winged Venus and the Mona Lisa where my sister’s ipad was picked out of her purse–sometime soon after in that room or the Grand Gallery. Bad last memory.

Sainte-Chapelle

Bastille Monument

Cemetery in the Fall

Chopin

Moliere

Jim Morrison

Marly Restaurant

Louvre art upon art

Famous painting

Thursday–I ventured out alone to visit Versailles on my last day. It was a bit too gilded for my taste, but it was an experience although I didn’t make it out to Marie Antoinette’s little village farm. It was rainy and lonely without my sister along and I bought a crepe on the street for dinner and went to bed. Next day I was off to Iceland.

Hall of Mirrors

In Iceland I landed about 4 p.m. but it took about an hour to stand in line for my car rental. I rented a little manual Hyundai and drove right to Blue Lagoon for a soak. I would have skipped this most popular spa if I had more time and stopped at places on the coast but it was getting dark by the time I got there and it was not too crowded. I had a lovely soak and a Gull Beer and then got back in the car to get to my room for the night. The room was upgraded because there were no other guests–so I spent some time with the owner having a lovely coffee and toast breakfast and talking about what to do that day. We talked about radiant heat and his revamping of the floors with pex but he uses the thermal energy that is delivered from a thermal plant–at 84 degrees–now that I think of it must have meant centigrade–so that is HOT. But the floor was just warm and felt great as radiant heat does.

I left after 2 hours of talking with 4 icelandic sweaters I bought from the owner of the guesthouse. It turned out they were the least expensive sweaters I saw, much less than others from tourist stops I made.
I drove through Selfoss to Floudir, because their hidden lagoon sounded like a good soak too but I got there too early and it was really cold anyway.
I continued to drive up to Gulfoss Falls which were not quite as big as Niagra but scenic and icy. They had a tourist store which was great for getting to the bathroom.
Turned around and came back through the same pretty countryside with icelandic horses and sheep dotting the hills and puffs of steam from various hot pools along the way. Had a lunch of a warm cheese pot and jam on crackers in Floudir.
Stopped at a yarn store where they spin their own yarn and use natural dyes. Bought a pair of booties and some yarn for a friend.
Hot footed it back to the airport to catch my 4:15 flight. Went past Reykjavik on the way back but it seems like any city, kind of dirty and crowded. At the airport I got some postcards, and a small bottle of wine which was legal to buy and bring onto the plane.

Blue Lagoon

Small Town Monument

Hot spring in Floudir

Gulfoss Falls

Icelandic Sheep

Icelandic Horses

Had a nice 8 hour flight back and watched a movie and read my Kindle. What an adventure! I would go back to both places. But maybe not until we get the walls built in the house. Oh well, back to work after another distraction.

Posted in Diversions | Comments Off

Master Bedroom Membrane

Posted on October 13, 2015 by ellen

Another part of the membrane project started in May was finished today. Mostly through the inspiration of our friends Jan and Mike Halla who visited last week. They said, what can we do to help? Mind you they were only visiting a day and a night and a morning. But not only did we get the tub in the house, we also put up membrane in the room I had prepared way back in early summer. I remember it being hot up there near the ceiling though and the weather is now a bit more cooperative.

Help with the membrane

Jan got the idea to put the wide section at the bottom so that the angled ceiling could be cut from a smaller piece and would be easier to handle. Good call; extra brains as well as extra hands. The double sided tape is covered with paper that is pulled away as the membrane is pressed up to the ceiling.

Mid ceiling tape hangs down

Inspiration started, I was able to finish in a few more days. The overlapped areas were taped with the special SIGA tape that is pretty easy to work with. Paper is pulled from the back and then as it is pressed against the seam all along the opening.

Ceiling Layers Taped

After taping the edges are caulked to the top of the wall with SIGA caulk. The caulk is visible in this detail picture of the tape around the plumbing vent pipe.

Tape Detail around Vent Pipe

The caulk can’t take any pulling from the membrane so in some places like this corner, it was necessary to push the membrane against the caulk until it dried enough to hold.

Caulk in corner

The next step is using the repurposed boards taken from free pallets to put up the furring strips to hang drywall from. Dave will probably get that done next week.

Repurposed Pallet Boards for Furring

We still have the flat ceilings to do and the hallway to the bedrooms which is a continuation of the master bedroom roof slope. In some spots we have to wait for the wiring to be finished before we can finish the ceiling membrane but the outside walls also will need to be covered with the membrane. We are eliminating most of the outside wall outlets to minimize wiring penetrations through the air barrier. It is great to see progress inside again thanks to our visitors!

Posted in Air Intrusion/Thermal Envelope | Comments Off

Fall is Here and What Now?

Posted on October 13, 2015 by ellen

It has been quite warm this week after a week of rainy days. But there is no doubt that fall is here. The trees are mostly turned what colors they do in Colorado and leaves are getting thick on the ground.

So summer didn’t produce the progress I dreamed of but it was a lovely summer and we can always regroup for fall. Probably the biggest accomplishment and one that took far longer than we thought was installing the used spa that I bought in April. It took all summer to get the area cleared, dug out for a slab, have the slab poured and then move and insulate the spa. There is still a problem with the low pump setting letting the contactor chatter. I will need to fix it eventually although I have a manual workaround.

We also prepared the front doors for re-painting which meant tearing off siding and putting up new foil faced polyiso where the old stuff was damaged. Then putting on the SIGA exterior membrane. We are STILL waiting for the door trim to be re-painted. I contact them every week for a month and they always have an excuse about why it isn’t done yet nor can they meet a promised date. It is crazy. But more about the doors later.

After digging for a new patio door step and putting in the fiberglass sill support, we also got the flagstone patio done and stone in the large patio area in preparation for the recycled rubber patio tiles.

I have also been on the lookout for materials that will lower the total cost of the remodel. It is an expensive house already and there is a lot more to do.

We did finish all the small areas that needed caulk and insulation and got the insulation inspection done by the city. It passed easily and the inspector said he could hear how well insulated it was, because the sound was deadened. I thought that was interesting.

We are about three quarters of the way through putting the interior membrane on the ceiling and installing the furring boards. Still have to decide how to do just part of the ceiling areas where there is a channel for wiring until after the wiring is completed.

Despite the lack of progress, here is what I am thinking for next steps.

We have a whole room taken up with leftover insulation and tools right now it tends to not be very well organized or stay that way. We have half a garage taken up with furniture. I’m thinking of moving most of the furniture inside and all of the tools and extra insulation into the garage. It seems to be fine that we have the furniture that we have inside now and we could use the storage cabinets that are currently sitting empty for some of the packed boxes from the move. We would have access to stuff we need that currently is packed away.

If Alpen ever gets around to repainting the door trim then we will have to get siding up right away as the membrane is only good for about 6 months without being covered.

So both spring and summer lists are still active although items relating to the above accomplishments can be crossed off. Now that I think of it, I put together the partial bathroom for the family visitors in July too. That project never made it to a list.

4. ~~Insulate remaining openings~~
5. Install battens (furring for ceiling)–some
6. Install membrane/air barrier–some
7. Polyiso in crawlspace joists
8. Plan ventilation system–some
9. Resolve door issues–STILL pending
10. ~~Get insulation inspection~~
11. ~~Foam sheathing cracks/tape~~
12. Drywall exterior walls
13. Patch concrete (floor) and caulk edges
14. Clean and polish floor. Got cleaned but you would never know it now–not polished yet.
15. Interior walls
16. ~~Pour concrete slab~~
17. ~~Install spa~~
18. ~~Excavate spa slab area~~

Summer list minus the items already finished when it was posted!

2. Install chiller to cool the house enough to work in it on hot days. This was a bust. I am working on another design though.
3. Rewire thermostats to add both heat and cool to their functionality. Only did one so far but then the cooling was not installed.
5. ~~Prepare for new rubber tile patio and french door stoop.~~ Actually finished the door stoop.
6. ~~Think about how to screen french doors.~~ Thought about–I really want hidden screen doors. Looking for bargains now. I bought two so far.
7. ~~Figure out overhang for exterior doors.~~
8. Remove siding from front of house. Just enough to get doors re-painted.
9. Replace polyiso in exposed areas, wrap and install new siding. Eventually
10. Order pieces to rebuild trombe wall. Not yet. I have to dig up the rotten bottom board and replace with fiberglass edging first.

I am not sure it really helps very much to make a list. We work most of our days but we are slow and Dave has been doing outside projects that I should describe sometime soon.

Posted in Planning | Comments Off

New Tub and Faucet

Posted on October 12, 2015 by ellen

Another amazing Craiglist find; thank goodness people in the Denver area use it regularly. I did not see so many and such variety of offerings when I lived in Arizona. Although it seems that most of the city’s best deals are in the southern and eastern suburbs, there are several near Arvada as well. Searching Craigslist is kind of an art in itself since the categories are open to interpretation and often items I look for under “materials” which are mostly building materials although sometimes actual sewing material is posted, often wind up in other categories.

This tub and faucet were in General for six days by the time I happened upon it. Luckily it was still available and I was able to snag the deal. The tub was advertised as “porcelain” but I could not get the seller to tell me if it was cast iron. He only said it was “about 100 pounds” which could not be cast iron. On the other hand, he didn’t think it was fiberglass. I thought maybe porcelain on steel? But he was wrong. It is molded plastic/acrylic, probably over a fiberglass shell, but still a very expensive tub. It has some scratches that I think can be buffed out. Getting it into the truck was harder than 100 pounds worth. We had to tip it on its end and drive the truck under it to lever it up onto the bed. I’d say it weighed more like 3oo pounds!

Craigslist Tub

When our friends the Hallas visited they wanted to help with the house and we asked them to help carry in the tub. So here it sits in its approximate place in the Master Bath. It is a little wider than I planned for, about 33 inches wide and 68 long. I have room for the length but might have to extend the wall outward to make room for a shower door. As it is placed now, the shower door could be 24″ wide, which is really OK, but I prefer at least 32″ between the shower and tub. I may raise the tub on a small platform to move it a bit further away.

Tub in Master Bath

The tub is nice but the faucet alone is worth far more than I paid for both. It is a solid brass and chrome Kohler Antique Floor Mount faucet that retails for over $1700 new. It was missing a knob though and I thought no problem, I would buy a set of inexpensive Pfister replicas. But when I realized the quality of the faucet, I decided to look for the actual replacement part. WOW! I finally found a discounted one on ebay for $92. The faucet also came with the tallest of the chrome risers–another $300 retail. They are missing the bases but I’ll come up with another base option, it will be behind the tub anyway.

Freestanding faucet with new handle

As long as I was shopping for the handle I looked for the matching sink faucet. It retails for a whopping $883.85! ($750 on Amazon) But Amazon had an “open box” version for $200 and I ordered it. I even got the six inch $24.95 escutcheon plate included. Plus it came with the drain.

Matching bath faucet

Although an expensive combination, paying about $400 for these items is quite a bargain.

Posted in Plumbing, Reduce Reuse Recycle | Comments Off

More Old Hickory and Handcrafted Log Bed

Posted on October 11, 2015 by ellen

Well, why not more Old Hickory? I found two chairs and a table on Craigslist for a reasonable price. They were in Larkspur about an hour away, but it was a lovely day and I enjoyed the drive. I think they were “finds” that were resold and not used by the owner. But I will use them! I may end up recovering them someday–although cow hide patterned material is a nice touch.

Chair and table

Although authentic Old Hickory, the scale of these chairs is a bit larger than the obviously older ones at the table. Not a huge problem though.

Arm chair at dining table

I probably am running out of room to add more Old Hickory furniture. But I can use the side table in the bedroom with the handcrafted bed that I bought this summer but still have to move out here. The bed was made by our Spencer, Indiana neighbors, brothers Lewis and Steve Fender. They have created a park like shelter at their lake with log furniture in it, several beautiful carvings, turnings like bowls and ladles, pine cone sculptures, and all types of wood furniture.

Queen sized Log Bed with Dave and Lewis

The center log section is what inspired the bed. It is a special maple grain that is rarely seen. So Lewis and Steve chose several types of wood from their Indiana forest to create the headboard: black walnut, ironwood, poplar, oak, hickory and probably a few more. The footboard is covered in poplar bark, the arch is oak and the posts are sassafras. The bolts holding the rails are hidden under iron leaves cut out and shaped by hand.

Log Headboard

The rear of the headboard shows how the log sections were glued together with small wood tongues.

Headboard Construction

I fell in love with the bed when they first made it but they had an offer for $2500 that I could not imagine paying. I found out later that offer fell through and I was reluctant to offer much less. But it turned out that they donated the bed to the Owen County Historical Society as a fund raiser and to get it out of their workshop to make way for other projects. As a donation to the Society I offered $500 and they accepted!

Moved to Spencer House

Boy was this thing heavy and getting it to our house was quite a feat. Thank goodness Lewis helped us and we used his truck. We will have to drive our truck out or the RV with a trailer to get it home but I’ve done that before, right?

I’m thrilled to add this to our home and my friends are glad we are going to use their creation in our master bedroom. It is unique and beautiful–truly a work of art! This is a carving they made about the same time of an almost life sized cowgirl. I think the fish and steer on the walls are theirs too. Very talented guys.

Cow Girl Statue

Posted in Design Style | Comments Off

Dead Advantium

Posted on October 11, 2015 by ellen

Unfortunately this morning I was going to melt the butter and sugar on some cinnamon flat bread in the Advantium and the control panel was completely blank. Dave had done some roasting in it just yesterday and didn’t notice it malfunction. The first thing we checked was the circuit breaker and reset it but it did not restore power to the oven. Oh no, what now.

Dave mentioned that it might have a fuse so looked up fuses in Advantium ovens and it does have one on the relay board. So we began to take off the control panel to get to it but it was VERY difficult. The screws for the panel cover are located on top but also on the bottom under the grille. But the grille is also screwed on its top underneath! So we had to unclasp the grille, breaking one from the bottom of course and then reach a screwdriver up under the grille to remove the control panel screws, then lift and tug the panel off and then unscrew the grille.

Next was removing the touch panel and the panel behind that. Which left access to the fuse on the relay board. But when checked for ohm reading with the multimeter, it looked like the fuse was fine!

Relay Board Fuse

Then we had to remove the entire oven from the cabinet and take off the top and right side access panels. I took off the left too just to get a better look at that side. The oven has four TCO–or thermal cutoffs. They are for the top halogen, the bottom halogen, the oven cavity and the magnatron. The only one that can reset itself is the magnatron. The others must be replaced if they trip. The oven cavity will trip on an overheat condition. Generally there is a fault code on the panel for this, but it can also keep the oven from powering at all.

The gem found on the internet was the Advantium Technical Service Manual. Some manual sites require a membership to download a manual but this one does not. It is so much easier to search the document if you have the full pdf. I was looking for the fuse/TCO information. I found the dis-assembly instructions to get to the cavity thermal cutoff on P. 32.

Remove thermal fuse on damper

Remove cover plate over thermal fuse

This is how these instructions resulted on our oven. The “fuse” is a component connected at the end of the two red wires.

Thermal Cut Off fuse disconnected

I ordered a new fuse assembly Part Number WB27X10335. I found it at Parts Select as well as on eBay and Sears Parts Outlet. eBay was cheapest but I wanted fast shipping so I used Parts Select. The total with 2-3 day shipping was the same as the part at Sears–$28 and change. I hope it will get here quickly.

I am not sure if this part tests the same as a fuse with an ohm reading. But it did seem to be “bad” using the multimeter.

Bad TCO

One post suggested jumping the TCO and applying power to see if the oven showed power without it. But since the oven was disconnected applying 240 volts was going to be difficult so I just ordered a new part. Hopefully this is the problem.

Apliantology had a discussion about removing and replacing the fuse–but on a different model that seemed much easier to disassemble. I signed up for this site to see the photos but it required an expensive subscription. But the print explanation tells why the cavity TCO could be the issue.

The Thermal Cutout Fuse is heated by air exhausted from the cooking chamber of the oven. If there is a food fire or other other overheat condition, this fuse is supposed to temporarily open, Thereby bringing all operation of the oven to a DEAD STOP. Emphasis on the DEAD, i.e. electrically dead. Problem is, these little fuses are poorly designed/constructed such that they will remain open when they are supposed to close as the oven cools off.

Actually the TCO’s are considered single use–but the explanation of an overheat condition in the technical manual says the oven should show an error code. Obviously it can’t if a bad fuse makes the electricity be totally turned off. We’ll see if this is the part that is needed. If not there are two more near the halogen lamps. These lamps are very expensive so hope I don’t have to get into the compartments to find the TCO’s or have to change the lamps.

Posted in Appliances, Maintenance and Repair | Comments Off

Contactor Chatter

Posted on October 2, 2015 by ellen

The contactor is a switch that is used for high power applications. In this system it is normally closed until power is called for by the heaters through the PC board. Acura Spas expert Joel told me the chatter meant that there was something wrong with the pressure such that it could not decide whether to stay open or closed. The situation meant that the pump could not be run on low or it would burn out.

New Contactor

The pump runs on low to filter the water and also during the heating cycle. It is very quiet on low which is nice. It is manually switched to high to have the jets more active for exercise in the spa or for the theraputic action of the water.

Joel suggested I read about spa hydraulics and get back to him after I did some troubleshooting on my own, including lowering the pressure on the pressure switch, cleaning the filter etc. Of course I had already cleaned the filter so I got out the new one that was included with the spa sale to try to install it and it didn’t fit! I turned out that they bought a slightly larger filter and got it to fit by removing one of the rubberized rings on the unit’s end. I don’t think it matters whether the ends are attached. But I ordered a new set that I think are the correct size, just in case.

On a pool the filter housing is airtight, but on a spa it is not. It took me some time to figure that out and stop worrying that something was missing from the filter housing. It was again videos from you tube that demonstrated changing a filter and the components were all the same ones I have. So no pressure was being lost in the filter housing.

I lowered the pressure switch as Joel instructed but that had no effect, and I bypassed it with a jumper wire to check to see if it was bad, although Joel said he hardly ever sees them go bad by themselves. That was not the problem.

Pressure Switch

I wondered if there was a leak on the suction side of the piping and noticed a bit of water under the spa after I had run the pump on high so I started to take off the siding and the wire and the insulation realizing that if there were a leak it would be pretty hard to get to! But the pipes were completely dry. Joel told me a leak would not cause this problem anyway. I just got the idea from reading about suction side pressure problems.

Finally I was playing around with the topside control and decided to set the time which worked, and then I set the temp on the pump and immediately the contactor stopped its chatter! I was really surprised. But it seems that the temp set at 46 could not decide whether to call for heat or not. By setting the temp above the temperature of the water–about 70, the heaters were able to answer the call for heat and the switch could operate normally.

I was so relieved! I still had to test whether the heaters were working, they both had power to them, but I turned off the power to reinstall the cover. When I did that I found another wiring diagram inside the cover that I had not even noticed!

Wiring diagram

After closing up the spa pack and pump motor I turned the power back on and there was chatter. All I had to do was hit the temp switch and it stopped. Then I went out to check the temp this morning and decided 90 was set too low. When I turned on the pump to raise the temperature the contactor started to chatter again. Setting the temp higher didn’t help, so I turned the pump to high and back to low and it stopped chattering. There still seems to be a problem of some kind. I’ll talk to Joel again and see if we can figure it out.

Temp on Topside Control

Of course a couple of other minor problems still exist. I realized the indicator light for 220 has a broken wire–unfortunately I also broke the second wire so I just left that light off with the wires taped separately of course. And the indicator lights for the heater also are not coming on. Not sure if they are also broken or if there is a disconnected wire. One set of wires going to these lights is not connected to the board and even from the diagrams I cannot tell where they connect.

I also have to put the siding back on the side I removed! But tonight we babysit for the grandkids and we will be able to use the spa if it is not raining–only six months after I bought it. What a project.

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No Power to Spa Pump

Posted on October 1, 2015 by ellen

At first I thought that the power problem could be something the electrician could figure out for us. But they could not send someone over right away so I got out the multimeter to check for power. I found the power to the spa was correct and it was hooked up correctly. So when the electrician called I said I would call if I needed them but it looked like the equipment needed work.

We have Acura Spa Systems equipment in the spa. I was pleased to read about this company before I purchased the spa because even though the shell maker is out of business, the equipment manufacturer is going strong and has a Do It Yourself philosophy.

Megatrol Spa Pack

Megatrol Internal Wiring

Acura Megatrol Wiring Diagram

I found they provide great support through Joel, who has been building the equipment and supporting it for 34 years. He came to my rescue to help troubleshoot the system and was able to help me diagnose the problem.

I was hoping it was just a wiring problem. Something not connected that should be. So I followed the wires in the diagram from the website to be sure they were all where they were supposed to be.

I was definitely getting 220 to the supply and from the supply to the contactor and from there to the board. But there was no power going through the board to the pump plug in.

Joel had me go back to the beginning and trace all of these points with the multimeter to assure himself that the board was actually not delivering the power. I first purchased a new contactor, as the old one was rusted inside and I thought it was an easy part to replace.

Old Contactor being removed

New Contactor

But when Joel was helping me trace the power to and from the new contactor that we realized it was probably not a problem with the contactor, but the board itself. RATS that new board set me back almost $500. A whole new spa pack with the double titanium heaters we have would have been just over $900 but Joel discouraged replacing the whole thing. I would have been a lot more work and almost twice as expensive.
Joel needed the information about the spa pack to send the right board. But it came pretty quickly which I appreciated since I hated to let the water sit unfiltered for too long.

Model Information

I watched some videos on replacing a PC board in a spa pack and it was not too difficult to unplug everything from the board and unscrew the old board then place the new one. A couple of details were not completely evident, the heater connections at the bottom of the board had to be installed before the board was in place because they are below the heater cylinder. That meant pushing the wires down out of the way to get the board in the right place to screw in which took me awhile.

New board in case without wires hooked up

Finally I got the board in and tested the power and there was power to the board but none coming out AGAIN!

Power going IN

No power coming out

But I had forgotten one small step. Turning ON the pump switch at the topside control panel! Once I did that–at Joel’s direction, the pump power was restored. Then I hooked up the pump while Joel was on the line and it worked. However on low speed the new contactor chattered. So another problem to work through emerged.

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What about that Spa?

Posted on October 1, 2015 by ellen

The day before we arrived home the electrician was ready to hook up the electrical to the spa so he did it and when we got home it was already hooked up. It couldn’t be tested until there was water in it or the pump and equipment would burn out. So one of the first things I did when we returned from our travels was to have the spa filled with water.

Spa Fill

Our well would probably be able to produce enough water to fill it but I didn’t want to have to use our filter for so much water and still it would have too much calcium and dissolved solids so I ordered 1000 gallons from a water delivery guy. The original spa owners told me they always got it filled all at once so thought that seemed like a good idea.

Water truck

The water delivery guy is a neighbor–so it was pretty easy for him to swing by with his truck to fill it on Sunday afternoon. Plus we had a nice chat while he was filling it.
I had already applied for the inspection on Monday, but remember the surprise I thought it would be if the spa didn’t work once it was hooked up and tested? Well, you guessed it–the pump did not work. It had a Psol error code on the topside control and no power to the pump.
The inspector came but he couldn’t do anything because the pump was not running–but he did authorize the trenched electricity so we could fill it in.
Since then I have been working out the issues with the non-operable spa pack! Typical, right?

Posted in Inspections, Landscape, Spa | Comments Off

Moving at 94!

Posted on October 1, 2015 by ellen

In the RV

My mom is 94 last May. She broke her leg in January just after surgery to improve her circulation–she was probably still under the influence of pain meds. So she had to move to assisted living. That took away lots of her independence and it was difficult for my brother as he is not yet retired. He was visiting her every day off and also taking her to the doctors and handling her bills. I’m retired and the climate here in Colorado is so nice, plus we have the grandkids to keep us smiling. So thought it would be great if she could come live near me.
It has been quite an adventure. Almost a week of packing her stuff and eliminating what we could not move. Two days in the RV hauling her stuff in a UHaul trailer, and then moving into the new place in mid-September and all the work to get unpacked and settled.
So she has moved into an assisted living home in Arvada that is about 15 minutes away from me. She can come over for dinner and we can visit frequently. Here I have just set up a “senior” remote for her TV. I’m so glad she is closer now! Even though she had to leave the area she has lived for almost all of her 94 years–the Chicago suburbs. And she misses our other cousins and my brother too. But I tell her she gets to see ME more often!

New Home

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Where in the world you been so long?

Posted on October 1, 2015 by ellen

Our Indiana House

The first of September we drove the RV to Indiana to visit our first passive solar owner built house in Spencer, Indiana. We go out a couple of times a year to visit and do maintenance on the house. We used to rent it out but the damage and lack of rent payments cost us way more than we collected and for the last five years it has been our vacation home.
Besides some plumbing and drywall patching from a leak last year, we had to address the issue with the garage siding.
The garage has had a problem with rotting front siding. There was a nice gutter system but when Dave got up there to investigate, the new metal roof was too short and water was running behind the gutter down the siding.

Garage in Spencer

We used the RV to get up high enough to have a solid platform to replace the rotted siding boards. We used exterior paint that we had on hand, so the garage front is now two tone, but the gutter was reinstalled UNDER the roof by leaving out the trim piece. Hopefully that will be enough to keep rain from rotting the new siding.

New siding

After almost two weeks of fun in Spencer–we have lots of good friends in the area who we love visiting, we drove up to Chicago to move my Mom to Colorado!

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Keyed Alike?

Posted on September 1, 2015 by ellen

At first, I thought all the doors were keyed alike. I don’t remember why but I must have tried more than one set on a door and they worked. I had not asked for keying alike but it made sense sending all five of the doors to the same address etc. But then I picked up a set of keys that did not work on the front door. Hmmm.
I asked Alpen about getting the locks keyed alike and they said that a locksmith would have to change the tumblers if we wanted them all the same. Should have asked for keying alike upfront I guess. But yesterday, when we were getting ready to leave for a trip, we tried the sets of keys on all the doors and found that some of them ARE keyed alike!

The front door and the master bedroom door and one of the french doors share the same key, the back door and one of the french doors share the same key, and I have one door left and one set of keys that don’t work on it! Nor do they work on any of the other doors of course. So we are a bit confused. Must be another mistake! So Alpen will probably not be pleased to hear it either.

Door Keys

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Insulation Inspection Done

Posted on August 31, 2015 by ellen

First thing this morning I arrived at the building department to check if the building permit was expired. The online information said it expired on 8/24 so I was worried that the inspection I scheduled on Friday after I finished all the little insulation leftovers would not happen today. I was wrong. That was the original six month date, but every inspection extends that by 180 days and our last one was in early May. Whew.
I also had in mind to to add the new windows and doors and the siding projects to the existing remodel permit. These two items were not in the original project budget and I was worried that there might be an issue about how much we actually put into the house. It is worth it to spend $1000 now to get credit for the whole remodel when it comes time to sell. Plus I think the building department has been so helpful and flexible I thought they deserved more of our hard earned money!
So with that added to the permit, we are now justified in spending all the extra money we had not originally counted on. Yet both items will improve the LEED qualification for the house.
The inspector showed up about mid-morning and I explained the insulation we installed. He said the house even sounded well insulated, sort of dulled the sound of our talking in the rooms. So he passed us but said we needed to get the electrical done before we could cover anything up with drywall. We were trying to design the electrical to eliminate outlets and switches in the outside walls. But I did leave some wires for one outlet because I was having a hard time trying to get them out and decided to leave them to get insulation in that spot. He also told me that they no longer do drywall inspections just electrical, structural, plumbing and final left.
I didn’t take any photos of the last parts of the insulation install, but here is one from earlier work.

Roxul Insulation in Walls and Ceiling

And the ceiling has been covered with 1 1/2″ reused polyiso. Unbelievably almost all this load of polyiso has been used on the house and some on the spa.

Used Polyiso

Here is what it looked like on the kitchen and living room ceiling before we put up the SIGA air barrier.

Ceiling Covered with Polyiso

After the door issues are taken care of and the siding is on where we had to pull it off, I believe the next step is the wall framing. That will be a huge step in the right direction.

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New Door from Alpen

Posted on August 30, 2015 by ellen

The Alpen guys came over on Friday and installed a new door panel in the front door. This is a better deal for me than trying to have them paint the old one on site. The old door had a rough finish in places, as if the door was not cleaned all the way when it was painted. We even thought the old one was warped a bit, but I’m not sure whether the door was actually warped or whether it appeared warped in the first install. Alpen has been good about fixing all issues, even if some of them may have been caused by the installers.

Removing the glass from the old door

They used the same pane of glass that was in the first door. All it took was removing the screw plugs and then the frame from the glass around the insert. Then they inserted the glass into the new frame and replaced the screws and screw covers. Finally they dabbed paint over the screw covers so they match the trim. They also removed and installed the lockset in the new door.

Painting the screw covers

Riley told me that dabbing the paint on actually works better than brushing it. The paint has small bubbles in the finish and dabbing it replicates these bubbles. Even if a blob forms it is better to dab it as the blob will fall and will blend in better than a brush stroke.
They left me the rest of the touch up bottle. There are a couple of little places that I will touch up with it after the painters come and redo the brick mold paint that is peeling. And I’ll have an extra bottle–one came with the original doors, for if we scratch one or otherwise damage the finish later.

Riley also had some extra pieces of weather stripping to install on the french doors where the old ones had been cut too short so that there was a gap at the bottom where the doors meet. I was upset that I could see light through that gap–if I can see light then the holes were big enough to let in several cubic feet of cold air in winter, not to mention bugs and even mice! He left the gasket a bit long so I can trim it if it is too long, but it will cover the bottom opening better. I can see a pinprick of light though and think I might dab a bit of caulk in the bottom of the gasket to seal that up.

Next time they come, he said he would bring new strike plates to replace those that are scratched by the lock screw that is not set deeply enough and they will bring a countersink for the metal piece on the edge of the door to bore the hole a little so that screw will be flush with the door. Once the doors are painted, we will buy and install the siding, hopefully before the snow flies.

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Door Sealing Completed

Posted on August 27, 2015 by ellen

The back door sealed up nicely after spraying foam into the cracks in the polyiso layer and creating a level plane.

Back Door Sealed

I used almost all of two rolls of SIGA Wigluv 60 tape to surround the blue SIGA Majvest air membrane. The membrane is overlapped and taped on both edges.

Master Bedroom Door Sealed

The front door was sealed first, but I didn’t take a photo of the completed area until the whole job was finished. We are planning to remove the rest of the cedar siding too and redo the insulation we can’t reach from inside and replace the siding with the stucco cement board panels. But I was just trying to get to the point where the doors can be repainted.

Front Door Sealed

The doors are ready for painting. Just want to add a short overhang using the fiberglass corners.

Patio Doors Sealed

A closer view shows that the sealing is comprised of air barrier and tape surrounding it. Notice the tape around the light fixture outlet. On one side of the back door the tape overlapped the blue air barrier completely, so I probably could have just used tape. I left the other side and will wrap it when I replace the adjoining wall’s siding.

Closer view of sealing

The paint on the doors is chipping off pretty badly so I can’t wait until the painters can come and repaint them, probably in a couple of weeks.

Posted in Air Intrusion/Thermal Envelope, Energy Efficiency | Comments Off

The Most Difficult Door

Posted on August 27, 2015 by ellen

I had Efficiency Matters return to frame in the back door with 2 x 6’s. The wall there was so crooked that the first installation had the door sticking out 2 inches at the top inside and almost 2″ at the bottom outside. Not sure how I was supposed to seal or side or drywall that! I thought the solution was to straighten the wall with 2 x 6’s and re-install the door.

Crooked Door

The new installation though did not solve the problem of lining up the new door to the plane where the siding will go. That is because the wall is crooked. Setting the door so that the bottom hit the plane of the siding meant that the top had to be out of line. Notice the old polyiso sticks out over the brick edge of the door.

Polyiso not in line with door

This left me with the problem of figuring out how to line up the new polyiso behind the door so that the siding can be installed in one plane. I noticed that on the right side of the door, they had installed the polyiso INSIDE the 2×4 in the corner. They had spray foamed it into place. So I realized that I had to inset the new polyiso inside the 2 x 6 door frame and under the upper wall frame to line it up. In order to do that I had to tear out the two supporting 2 x 4’s above the door. Luckily all they support is the drywall framing and we can do without them.

New Polyiso

I had to remove the awning frame to take off the upper siding and I split the boards to get them out from underneath the 2 x 6 trim on the top. Underneath is some polyiso where the old wall plane was so I’ll have to abut the siding under the trim and up to the old polyiso. But it is at least mostly in one plane now.

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