Topzide
Platinum Member
A couple good size ice blocks sure wouldn't hurt either!
Mine is new, just installed last summer, so it has a fully-programmable variable-speed pump. I'm still learning what programming works best, but last summer I let it run 24/7, on a very low speed for the overnight.I had a 7 day timer with the old pointer-style thumb screw ON-OFF pins for about 20 years. It was at least 20 years old when I salvaged it from my old job. It was nice, but several times a summer one of the thumb screws would loosen and the pump would run for 24 hours until the next OFF pin. So last year I purchased a 1 day timer with the little push in tabs every 15 minutes and installed that. Also made an ON-OFF-AUTO switch on the external side of it. That way I could force the pump to stay on if I wanted. That timer motor took a dump last week.
So I ordered a better quality 1 day timer with the 15 minute tabs and a built in ON-OFF-AUTO switch. That should arrive in the next few weeks.
In the meantime, I've been turning the pump ON when I leave and OFF when I get home every day. I don't need it on 11 hours a day!
Anyhow, now that it's getting hot out, I'd rather run the pump at night to cool it off. I'm looking forward to using the little push tabs on the new timer. It's so easy to adjust the schedule VS the thumb screws and/or setting the clock ahead/behind.
When my father died in 2002, my mother started periodically hinting that she'd like to sell the house and move into an apartment. Never did, remained there until her passsing at 96 last fall. She enjoyed gardening and being outdoors, I have to say she'd be bored silly in an apartment. She did hire someone to do yardwork, snow clearing, etc. when she hit her late 80s.This is why my 87 YO mother is still in the old homestead. When my father went into the nursing home she said she wanted to be out of the house by fall... I looked around at 100+ years of accumulation and thought "holy"
He died before that could happen and she decided to wait a year before making any permanent moves. 7 years later she still lives in the house my paternal grandfather built in 1927, and we're doing our best to keep her there as long as she can.
What you need to do is rig up a sprinkler to the pump so the output is spraying up in the air and thus cooling down via evaporation.Yeah, definitely programming the pump to keep running tonight, and leaving the solar cover off!
That would definitely help, but create other problems with water chemistry.What you need to do is rig up a sprinkler to the pump so the output is spraying up in the air and thus cooling down via evaporation.
EYE BLEACH! Just imagining such a thing I need plenty of eye bleach.Walmart. $24.98 and 10 ft long!
I got one a few years ago and put it at the end of driveway. Wife & I got in it nekkid one hot day, nice until just our luck friends we hadn't seen in many years drove up!
Luckily there was a hibiscus in bloom close at hand so we could make it into the house. Those friends haven't been back since! View attachment 876438
Waaay too buggy here to even think of such a thing. Plus none of our gardens are in the least bit secluded from the road. Pass the eye bleach!!Got some friends that wanted to celebrate naked gardening day until the FedEx truck pulled up.