Honey, I almost blew the end off the house?
Life in Mexico is just one "eventos" after another, like a long chain of things, some great, some good, some bad, some just plain stupid and/or ugly, but it's rarely boring. In fact, I'd go so far as to proffer that Alzheimers in MX is almost unheard of, with all the mental exercise you get daily, challenging your most extreme imaginations, how could your brain go lame?
So, a bit of a continuing story from the recent trip time. As mentioned, the pilot light at the casita went out, turned out the flex hose from the propane tank was leaking and the tank was empty, so $300 pesos of recently filled propane was gone into thin air.
I decided to check my heater and sure enough, mine was beginning to leak as well so I had Chuy the maintenance guy replace it. When he finished he had trouble getting the pilot light to stay on and the main burner wouldn't fire up. But, after a time and some tinkering it fired up and he went on his merry way as did I, secure in the knowledge that my world was right again - or so I assumed.
About 3 hours later I was out on the upper deck watering my bougainvilleas and filling the fountain etc. and on the second pot I noticed what seemed to be mist or smoke or something coming off the stream of water? - well, being the astute guy I am I figured something was wrong, so I shot the water stream out over and into the pool and it was steaming like crazy? Like a dummy I stuck my hand in the water (NOT astute) and it was scalding hot - now, that's odd? - it's not often you get scalding hot water from your garden hose?
I thought for a few seconds and took off running for the main propane tank and shut it off - I was definitely NOT going near the water heater if what I suspected had happened. I went back in the house and turned on the kitchen cold water faucet and it was hissing and spitting like a wild cat. I went upstairs and opened the shower and the sink and it was almost pure steam coming out of them for at least 10 - 15 minutes. Finally it all calmed down and I let it all set for a couple hours and started back into the mystery.
First I had a guy plumb the hose outlet on the upper deck about 3 years ago and he connected to the cold water pipe next to the water heater. In MX, all water heaters are outside, I assumed it was less efficient that way (duh) during the winter you heat the great outside - must be a MXN thing because they also don't have much insulation in them? They replaced that heater about 2 years ago and I had poked around it and discovered that MXN water heaters do NOT have an emergency popoff valve on them like NOB, so they're a ticking pressure bomb waiting to explode. Hmm, now that might be why they're outside, so when they blow, or leak, it's not inside, I suppose there is a twisted logic somewhere in there?
Turns out that when Chuy put the control back together something stuck and the burner had been running full "steam" (pardon the pun) and was so hot it was heating the incoming cold water pipes and that was what backed up into the hose, so the hose and I became the "emergency popoff valve". I'd bet we were within a gnats hair of blowing the whole thing, and probably the end of the house in the process. Fortunately St. Ed, the patron saint of water heaters (named after a plumber in ancient Rome, sainted by an exploding water heater) spared us the calamity. So, another call to Chuy and more tinkering and he got it all back to normal (whatever that is?) and I've had hot agua for a week with no disasters.
The only casualties seem to be the plastic shower head which was partially melted and had enough "junk", boiled out of the pipes, deposited in it to choke a chicken, so I pitched it and most sadly, one of my prettiest bougainvilleas, an orange one puckered and deflowered within days, so now here on the "dia de los muertos" (day of the dead) my boggy is muerto.
In Mexico, you just never know how much fun you're going to have each day until you open it up like a big surprise package and see what is waiting for you, I guess that's why I call it "The Great Adventure".
So, a bit of a continuing story from the recent trip time. As mentioned, the pilot light at the casita went out, turned out the flex hose from the propane tank was leaking and the tank was empty, so $300 pesos of recently filled propane was gone into thin air.
I decided to check my heater and sure enough, mine was beginning to leak as well so I had Chuy the maintenance guy replace it. When he finished he had trouble getting the pilot light to stay on and the main burner wouldn't fire up. But, after a time and some tinkering it fired up and he went on his merry way as did I, secure in the knowledge that my world was right again - or so I assumed.
About 3 hours later I was out on the upper deck watering my bougainvilleas and filling the fountain etc. and on the second pot I noticed what seemed to be mist or smoke or something coming off the stream of water? - well, being the astute guy I am I figured something was wrong, so I shot the water stream out over and into the pool and it was steaming like crazy? Like a dummy I stuck my hand in the water (NOT astute) and it was scalding hot - now, that's odd? - it's not often you get scalding hot water from your garden hose?
I thought for a few seconds and took off running for the main propane tank and shut it off - I was definitely NOT going near the water heater if what I suspected had happened. I went back in the house and turned on the kitchen cold water faucet and it was hissing and spitting like a wild cat. I went upstairs and opened the shower and the sink and it was almost pure steam coming out of them for at least 10 - 15 minutes. Finally it all calmed down and I let it all set for a couple hours and started back into the mystery.
First I had a guy plumb the hose outlet on the upper deck about 3 years ago and he connected to the cold water pipe next to the water heater. In MX, all water heaters are outside, I assumed it was less efficient that way (duh) during the winter you heat the great outside - must be a MXN thing because they also don't have much insulation in them? They replaced that heater about 2 years ago and I had poked around it and discovered that MXN water heaters do NOT have an emergency popoff valve on them like NOB, so they're a ticking pressure bomb waiting to explode. Hmm, now that might be why they're outside, so when they blow, or leak, it's not inside, I suppose there is a twisted logic somewhere in there?
Turns out that when Chuy put the control back together something stuck and the burner had been running full "steam" (pardon the pun) and was so hot it was heating the incoming cold water pipes and that was what backed up into the hose, so the hose and I became the "emergency popoff valve". I'd bet we were within a gnats hair of blowing the whole thing, and probably the end of the house in the process. Fortunately St. Ed, the patron saint of water heaters (named after a plumber in ancient Rome, sainted by an exploding water heater) spared us the calamity. So, another call to Chuy and more tinkering and he got it all back to normal (whatever that is?) and I've had hot agua for a week with no disasters.
The only casualties seem to be the plastic shower head which was partially melted and had enough "junk", boiled out of the pipes, deposited in it to choke a chicken, so I pitched it and most sadly, one of my prettiest bougainvilleas, an orange one puckered and deflowered within days, so now here on the "dia de los muertos" (day of the dead) my boggy is muerto.
In Mexico, you just never know how much fun you're going to have each day until you open it up like a big surprise package and see what is waiting for you, I guess that's why I call it "The Great Adventure".
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