Some blunt words.

 

P. T. Barnum said, “There’s a sucker born every minute”.

 

Would he have uttered some of the clichés we hear all of the time?

“You get what you pay for.”

“Buying used is buying some one else’s trouble.”

“They sell millions, so they must be OK.”

“It’s common knowledge, every one knows that.”

 

If you nodded your head to even one of the above, you may be a lost cause.

P. T. would have loved you.

 

If you have read through the pages of this website you will note a common theme. The plan to do it on the cheap is not the whole story. I use the scavenger and budget approach largely to illustrate a point. You can save money by recycling discarded items and by doing many things yourself. You can also save much by doing some research and buying wisely and forgetting those little bits of anti wisdom above.

 

There may well be some examples where paying more and getting greater reliability, and quality, is so. I am trying to think of some as I write this.

Rolls Royce comes to mind. I wonder why they don’t use them for taxi fleets. They do make engines for aircraft. Maybe the same quality goes in to the car.

Reliability and quality is more likely to favour mass produced items, cheap and made in the millions. Mistakes here are much more costly, to the producer, than those of a messed up high end product aimed at the few who like to spend more. Selling in the millions can also be a marketing bonanza if you find the right promotion, and quality and reliability are not issues likely to come back and bite your rear end before you get rich. Bottled water and water filters are a couple of examples.

 

I have never bought a new car. I understand the pleasure others get from doing so. The new smell, no one else has messed with it and it is just so shiny and clean. Just don’t expect your purchase to be necessarily trouble free because it is new. Where do you think that lemon came from, which is being sold second hand?  I have always thought that the reliability of new and used would be about the same. Do your home work, buy the car used, at a third of the new price, about three years old,  and if it does have a problem you are way less aggravated.

 

Popular branded products may not be the better buy. They are certainly marketed better. We all like to sing the virtues of products or services we have paid for. The more we paid, the more virtue we might be inclined to see. To state otherwise, might require admitting  the occasional mistake.

 

Now, we were talking about water tanks!

These innards from tossed dishwashers might have a few possibilities. Apart from possible use as a shower base I got to thinking about refrigeration.

It could just make the interior of a good fridge. Top loader is always best for efficiency but you could also make one with a conventional door.

Surround the stainless interior shell with urethane foam. The liquid stuff in a can could fill spaces left by the two inch sheet material. Aim for four inches thick.

The base of the shell could become a substantial tank of ethylene glycol and water mix to act as  holding plate. The evaporator gets immersed in this holding plate. The Freezer section is now the bottom of the fridge. The top would be used as the fridge part and the moderate thermal conductivity of stainless steel should keep this section at the required temperture with a little planning.

Such a system would probably be fine with a couple of days between compressor runs. Without the need for a cycling compressor you have possibilities other than heaps of solar and storage batteries.

Bugger! Bugger! Bugger!Bugger!
Why didn't you post this 4 days ago and why didn't I read it earlier, just bought a bladder tank from Whitworths, I am sure I could have turned up a dishwasher from the op shop at the dump or a whitegoods repair shop.
Great lateral thinking BB, hope it goes well for you.
Bugger! Bugger! Bugger!Bugger!

Dishwasher innards for water tanks.

Before we talk about tanks, best you have a look at the above picture. You need the right tools for any job whether electrical, cabinet making, metal working etc. Without Robertson you better have a good supply of swear words messing about with all that inferior stuff with screws falling off the end of the driver, requiring two hands and your lips to work and stripping driver tips and screw heads galore.

The green and the red size drivers above would deal with 95% of the jobs in most households. The other three sizes are used much less often. In fact, I only discovered the tiny orange size a couple of weeks ago.

Click here  if you would like to get the good stuff for yourself. You will get good screws and likely pay less for them as well.

Now to tanks.

Just getting started.



The pic above shows the whole tank with the bitumen sound proofing on bottom and sides.
If you used the whole thing it would be about 180 litres. I put four rubber gasketted stainless bolts in the holes at the side of the bottom section to make water tight and gave it a test.




Here it is with 50 litres of water. The floating petals are so you can see the water level which is 15 cm deep.
I am thinking of 30 cm deep and about 100 litres so will cut off the top half of the tank.

Tank is 53 cm wide and space under my bus between the rail and bus side is 50 cm.
Will bend top section of tank a bit to fit. 30 cm depth brings it to the level of the bottom of the battery box so road clearance and protection should be ideal. The dishwasher door has a stainless panel which should make a good tank top, but I may not need it if I fold the unused sides at the top over.

These tanks look so good, I am already thinking ahead for using one as a shower base, sitz bath.
Might make a good septic tank for VDE.


OK, The tank is cut down to size, so now for the detail. I cut up pieces fron the  dishwasher water filler to use as an antisplash exit  point shown below. The hose to the sink will insert in the plastic grate, tank will be ventilated here, water level measured and it is the easy entry point for those two teaspoons of liquid bleach and an eye dropper of iodine. Water filters, humbug, and besides they might become a health hazzard. There was never an upset tummy or an unpleasant taste with this method for twenty years on the boat. Water was stored in the tanks there for ages and collected in all sorts of places in our travels. The boat tanks were fibreglass, but well away from any sunlight penetration in the bilge. No worries with sunlight and algal growth with stainless.

I decided that it was easier to cut the excess side stainless rather than trying to fold it over. The plan was to attach these pieces to form the top and seal it all with Sikaflex. While I was picking up ten meters of Pope drinking water hose from Bunnings for fifteen bucks, they had a special on antfungal silicon for $1.97. May as well use this instead of the Sikaflex. With the Robertson stainless screws all around, it should form a good seal.

I added a baffle below. I am not sure it is needed but there was a bit of stainless left over from cutting down the dishwasher sides, so why not?. Water energy sloshing back and forth should be absorbed by the  ugly looking panel mid tank The filler elbow is shown for connecting to the drinking water hose to fill the tank.

Ready to go

Pumping water now!

With the tank installed and filled it is time to try out my water supply. The hand pump was a gift from Cuppa. If you are going to have pressure water and the electric pumps you must be carrying a lot of water. I like things simple and 100 litres will last me a while if I don't waste it. I have never had a problem with hand pumps. Fills the kettle in 15 seconds, the sink for a wash up in a minute. The other little hand pumps are for dish detergent and lanolin hand cleaner to get the grease off.

You can also see my weather station for fridge temperature , bus temperature and humidity with past records of maxima and minima. If you click here you can get one too for eight bucks.

 Air flow through the Bus

I noticed that the flow of cooling air through the bus was greatly increased with the boot lid open, when I had the mattress folded over. This is going to be a must for those hot days and an afternoon nap. It seems that airflow in from the lowest possible point is the most effective.

I got busy with a quick modification.

 Spring loaded Blum hinges keep the cupboard door open to the boot area. I made it in two sections so that it would not protrude when one's feet  were down sitting on the edge of the bed.

Here it is in the closed position.