For Stock Rigs Only

I'll be rotating mine into the rotation soon (swap spots in garage with mower). 24" Craftsman. 10+ yrs old and runs like a champ. All manual controls (less shit to break). Has handled all that our winter's here in Maine throw at us.

 

I live on a dead end and driveway is on the left just before it ends. No driveways on opposite side. Each winter I give my plow guy a case of beer and bottle of his favorite liquor. He swings the plow truck wide as he approaches my driveway and pushes the snow toward the other side, backs up and makes the big pile opposite my driveway. Never have a pile in front of my driveway.

 

Lucky bastard.

 

One of my neighbors on the culdesac had an MTD Yard Machines from like 2001. When my bargain Toro started acting up after the third blizzard of the 2020-2021 winter season, he let me borrow it and it still ate through the plow pile at the end of the driveway like a champ, despite being about two decades old!

 

During big storms when they'll plow multiple times, I've been known to give him a travel mug full of hot coffee.

 

Bill, your house is totally electric; I'm curious about how the heat pumps perform when you have hard freezes? Has it ever gotten cold enough in your neck of the woods that the heat pumps cease to function and you have to rely solely on auxiliary electric heat?

 

Here I am in December 2020, using my 1995 Toro for the first time after acquiring it and spending about $150 getting it running for the first time in nearly twenty years. This was the first storm of that season (December 17th, 2020 so it wasn't even officially winter yet), and we got hammered. The Toro kicked ass for three blizzards and then the belt drive started having issues, and as stated before I didn't have the heart to scrap it or part it out, so I gave it to my friend's teenage son to tinker with...

 

Dead end street?
Me too ( but you know that)

 

Here are pictures of her in the bed of my truck the day we picked her up in December 2021!

 

I wouldn't know. The pumps and coils work seamlessly together. But I'm sure there have been times when the temp is low enough for most of the heat to come from the coils, but the pumps still run and scavenge.

Modern heat pumps are worlds different than the ones of old

 

They definitely are more efficient, but the mechanics are the same, specifically the reversing valve. The heat pumps from 35+ years ago have mechanical interval/timer defrost, while from the early 1990s or so, they had computer-controlled defrost with a microchip. They still had interval defrost that could be set for like every 30 or 60 minutes, but it was more efficient and less trouble-prone. All heat pumps manufactured in the last 25 years or so probably have defrost control boards, but demand defrost is more common nowadays. This means that the unit only defrosts on an as-needed basis rather than at a set time regardless of whether it needs to defrost or not. This saves money, plus wear and tear on components like the reversing valve and compressor. I know you had a Rheem put in a few years ago after the roofing incident, but I forget what brand the other unit is...

 

@6 gearT444E
@Plain Jane Taco

My friend Doug's parents had a brand new Bryant Evolution heat pump installed in June 2010; I picked it out for them. It can be set through the programmable thermostat to be either interval defrost or demand defrost. This is supposed to only accessible to licensed technicians, but I know people, and a friend of mine gave me detailed instructions on how to hack the thermostat. The heat pump had been set to interval defrost, but I set it to demand defrost. Doug's dad was initially a bit pissed at me, until I'd told him that what I'd done was going to save him a significant amount of money on his electric bill by eliminating unnecessary defrost cycles.

Also, this heat pump was pretty top-of-the-line for 2010. It has a 2-stage compressor, and was 16 SEER/9 HSPF. The latter is short for Heating Seasonal Performance Factor. Since 2006, the mandatory minimum SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio) has been 13; I believe it has been increased to 14 or 15 since then. The minimum HSPF rating for heat pumps in 2010 was like 7 or something, and the Bryant had an HSPF of 9 when new if I remember correctly.

 

good morning Billy Ray & country bumpkins!!

 

Rainy morning here. Oddly I heard a plow truck go by with the plow down at 4 am... it was 55 degrees out so idk what that was about.

 

Did you run out and fire off the blowers ? Lol.
Think they were breaking in the edges?

 

You Too?

Grrrrrrrrrrr

 

The other is a Carrier