Swamp cooler water feed problem

The water level in my swamp cooler is consistantly too high and sometimes overflows. The valve has a thick wire to the float. I bend the float down until the water only starts flowing at the proper level. It won't stay set correctly. After a while - hours or days - the level is too high again. The float is not leaking. All I can think of is the float is somehow bending the wirw? Seems impossible - it is hard to bend.

Suggestions?

Yes, I know, change the valve assembly. However, I'm still in cooling season here in AZ and hate to try to change it. These things have a way of being a lot more trouble than expected. I don't want to have to work for hours in the hot sun. What could possibly go wrong? Leave it to me; I'll find something!

In some thirty years I never had this problem before!

TIA

Reply to
KenK
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Oren wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Thanks.

I don't see any sign of it. The float looks the same after the level chenges.

Reply to
KenK

You said it yourself, you need to change teh valve assembly. Most likely the valve rubber washer that seals the seat is hard, cracked and leaking. This should be a very easy job on a cooler. Worst possible scenario is you can't unscrew the corroded mounting for the valve and have to rip out part of the cooler sheet metal to get it off. Just relocate teh valve to an new spot, drill a new hole and mount the new valve. But I'd be very surprised if it came to that. If you are worried about it get some PB Blaster or Liquid Wrench and soak the threads for a couple days before you try and take it apart. These valves are usually made of brass or plastic and while the build up of crud on them may look terrible the brass or plastic itself is OK under the crap and you should be able to get it apart without damaging the cooler. I have also fixed these types of valves by leaving the valve body along and just buying a similar new valve and just swapping out the parts that move. I've done it that way a couple times for the one in my swimming pool because the valve body was sort of concreted into place by the idiots who built the pool.

Reply to
Ashton Crusher

What about the wire, does it look the same?

Maybe you're bending it, and when you're not around, someone is bending it back.

We used to do that with someone's waistband on his pants. First we made them tighter and tighter, then later looser and looser. Or maybe that was people on tv.

Reply to
micky

If the float is ok and the float rod is unlikely to be bending, then the next logical suspect is the valve the float arm connects to. Perhaps the connection to the arm is slipping, the valve seat is deteriorating or something else is happening there including perhaps the mounting of the valve itself that is allowing the shift to occur.

Reply to
Pete C.

I don't know the people around him, or why they do things. If someone can murder 12 people in a morning, someone else can bend a wire over and over. Maybe it's a joke, like adjusting the waistband of someone's pants. One shouldn't exclude possibilities just because they seem unlikely.

Reply to
micky

You will probably find the fill valve is passing (ie not closing properly and letting a small amount od water through.)

Reply to
harryagain

What's a Swamp Cooler?

Reply to
mancave

Oren wrote in news:ffa64959d4eultu49ahv5h8tcu1sdv95q8@

4ax.com:

That's the way I do it.

Yes, took it off and shook it.

No - just bending the float arm.

Reply to
KenK

micky wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Yes. Hard to tell though.

No, I live alone.

Reply to
KenK

Oren wrote in news:jkf6499ativvvckq99avolv2j058otuhke@

4ax.com:

Actually, it's not. It's a window mount. I don't like them on the roof because of possible leaks and overflow water damage. Had first one on roof

- never again.

Reply to
KenK

"Pete C." wrote in news:52434d8a$0$3072$ snipped-for-privacy@ngroups.net:

Interesting theory. Not sure how to check. Appears to be all ok; I'll look again.

Well, it will soon be time to turn off the cooler for the year. I'll have all winter to replace the valve and I can take a good look at the old one just out of curiosity.

Reply to
KenK

"harryagain" wrote in news:l20oh1$2tb$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

You may well be right! I didn't notice any trickle but it could be very small.

Reply to
KenK

Oren wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Pussibly. My well water is certainly very hard.

Yes. New pads. Scrape out water reservoir. Etc. Not my favorite chore.

Reply to
KenK

Oren wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

As I mentioned, in a week or two when it cools off. I can live with it until then

Reply to
KenK

The possibility of being hit by an asteroid is so small that I don't consider the possibility when I get up in the morning. Do you?

Reply to
krw

He has a problem that needs solving, a mystery. He needs to consider every possibility.

When I wake up in the morning, I don't have a problem that needs solving and certainly not a mystery.

And the odds that a friend is goofing on him are many orders of magnitude higher than the odds of being hit by an asteroid.

2) Another possibility is that the OP bends it, but it slowly springs back to where it was. All by itself. The original rod was designed not to do this, but maybe it's not the right rod for some reason.

Either way, the angle or something shoudl be measured.

3) I'd just keep bending the rod more and more, until that stops working or the weather is cooler.
Reply to
micky

*EVERY* possibility? I don't think so.

Seems you don't take your own advice.

You really must have some nasty "friends".

Reply to
krw

I do.

??

A) This says nothing about the kind of friends I have. I don't even have a swamp cooler.

B) What it does say is how unlikely it is to be hit by an asteroid. And I'll add, how little one can do about it. If he were to figure out that his friend was goofing on him, he'd tell him he figured it out, everyone would laugh, and the friend would stop.

C) If the friend is just goofing on him, it's not nasty.

>
Reply to
micky

Now we know you're lying.

You didn't solve all the problems, obviously.

Well, the alternative is that you're incredibly paranoid.

But you just got through saying that you think of everything.

Leaks aren't nasty?

Reply to
krw

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