mran66

 I have made food for them based on a recipe found in youtube. Include boric acid, oil/fat and flour. They seem to like it a lot but go belly up after eating. Works. 

Many different tips with boric acid in YouTube 

 I have made food for them based on a recipe found in youtube. Include boric acid, oil/fat and flour. They seem to like it a lot but go belly up after eating. Works. 

Many different tips with boric acid in YouTube 

22 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

Had a look here today and the couple of items i was looking for were more expensive than Makro so why bother going

3 hours ago, NextG said:

So you judged the whole thing in the two items for which you were looking? You didn’t look to compare with anything else at all?

went to have a look the other day, and bought a few things, including  a kilo of their own brand mayonnaise for my coleslaw. That sucks compared to Makro mayo

=> everything in the whole Go wholesale must be no good!

... Maybe she was too curious to check what are those open cables at base of many street  light poles.. 

1 hour ago, sandyf said:

Your palm was probably killed by insect larvae, they are about 2" long and half inch thick, we lose several every year that way. There is little point in trying to support it as in due course the whole trunk will disintegrate. Best bet would be to try and cut it off above the shower and see how long it lasts. 

If it has grown quite tall the weight will bring it down and could be difficult to prop. Good luck.

As I already got a replacement bamboo trunk and concrete piece to put under the trunk, I think I will just cut it off and install the bamboo in place of it and fix the shower properly to bamboo. 

Just wondering if worth treating with some wood stain or something else easy, or just install au naturel and replace either with new bamboo or aluminum profile whenever it gets bad enough 

2 hours ago, sandyf said:

For anything more permanent I use steel hollow section, now with self drilling screws it can be easier to work than bamboo and comes already treated.

For some things bamboo would certainly give a better looking job but would need some form of protection

I was also considering to use aluminium profile instead of bamboo, but felt bamboo trunk would kind of look nicer to my eye than sterile white painted aluminium profile (that sure would last forever), knowing that no matter hot to treat it, it would not last as long as the aluminium

Many years ago I installed an outdoor shower to a palm tree which at the time was alive and kicking. Few years ago it died and dropped the leafy branches without growing new ones. Now the dead palm tree has rotten (both inside the trunk as well as roots) to the extent that I need to do something about it, otherwise the shower will fall down in not too distant future. Just bought a thick bamboo trunk and few smaller sticks to make some supporting structure around.

2 hours ago, VocalNeal said:

Soak in sea water for some months. I have heard.🤔

2 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

I also read about diesel and paraffin as a good treatment. Untreated bamboo will rot quite quickly.

well, don't really have good place to soak, esp for months as would like to do the job in next few days or so.

I read from some page that soaking in boric acid solution would be good, however that would need to be done soon after the bamboo has been cut, not for one that has dried out long time already so presumably not good for me either. 

Treating with diesel also not really good idea for my application as don't want the everlasting smell...but how is this paraffin, is that something that does not smell like diesel, and could possibly be applied with just a brush?

Several years ago I made grilles out of around 1 inch bamboo sticks to hide aircon units from eyes, and just applied some Sadolin wood stain to them and they are all still okay, however they are under the roof so that they never get rain nor direct sunlight. 

Any recommendations how should I treat dry bamboo poles/sticks for outdoor installation (will be fully exposed to sun and rain)? Bought some dry bamboo and wondering if should varnish or oil them to increase life before installation. Is it better just let them be as is, or treat with something? 

18 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

@mran66 if you want to keep using the pump with your small hose then put in a standard pressure switch or even adjust the switch to a lower than standard pressure. This should, though once again it is counterintuitive, allow you to run the pump for far longer before it cuts off.

 

look at the chart I posted the higher the flow you are trying to achieve the far greater the friction loss. 
Reduce the flow 

The friction loss drops drastically for your pipe.

Understand, not counterintuitive to me. My problem is that I want to have high pressure as mostly use the hose to spray or wash something... 

13 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

You have run into the problem that is inherent in your pump as you have modified the pressure switch, this is trying to force the water through a far too small pipe that is far too long

Yeah - seems the pressure difference at pump with and without sprayer is fairly small due to size and length of the hose. Actually the problem would be not much less even with the std pressure switch setting as the pressure seems to remain at around 3bar (i.e at cut off level) when using the hose. Might even be worse if the pump would stop and start frequently, causing heat from that start-stop cycle.

However, as my watering needs as well as other uses for my garden hose are not too long lasting, I will stick to the 1/2 inch one as the 5/8 is substantially less convenient to handle e.g when washing something etc.

But clear, if would need water with extended times, would need to have larger hose to reduce the load to pump/motor

20 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

There was no bar reference on pumps from Japan 20 years ago and as recall PSI was max at about 30psi (not even close to 3 bar).  Our bath was second floor so that may have made the issue more extreme but shower pressure was nothing like even 3 star hotel.  Grundfos made a huge difference - even when only one tap in use.

At any rate fear I have taken topic off point - just was not sure 305 pump of 10 years ago was designed to operate at such a pressure setting and offered as a possible overheating reason.

Yes understand. 

Re 305 pump, seems my 10yrs old works about same as neighbors new one what comes to power use at a certain pressure/volume level.  Your 20yrs ago pump may have had different spec esp the pressure switch setting, maybe switch set so that pump can not heat too much even if it could supply water at 3+ bars if swich adjusted so

Even today's pumps have default different settings dependent on model (guess smaller ones have lower as they simply can not go higher with any meaningful supply). And as I have done, you can tune up a bit as long as you don't need the pump to run for extended periods.

1 hour ago, Muhendis said:

Yeah,

Grondfos is the Rolls Royce of pumps but I swapped mine to Mitsubishi 350W because the Grondfos was 1100W and didn't 'arf use my electric.

The Mitsubishi does the job equally well.

51 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

That was defiantly not our experience - shower pressure much better using Grundfos.

Both statements probably equally true...sure the 15-20k baht multi-stage Grundfos pumps can move more water at higher pressure than the usual wp-305-405 single stage small-household Mitsus - however makes hardly any difference if you set the pressure switch to 3bar on both, and only use water for ordinary household purpose for 1-2 persons for shower, bathroom sink, kitchen and laundry etc.

But if you need more supply (e.g for family of 6 with all taking shower/bath simultaneously, with washing machine, dishwasher and garden watering running at same time) - esp so if you want water to come with higher pressure and set the switch to 4 or 5 bar, you can get that from multi-stage pumps (regardless of brand) by just adjusting the pressure switch as long as you have picked a pump that has enough (and large enough) stages, driven by large enough motor. Limit at the end is your breaker amp size... Alternatively if you install 2 or more of those Mitsus in parallel to cope with the higher usage moments, you are fine as long as you dont need much more than 3bar at pump when tap/shower is open, going higher than that wont work with Mitsus (unless you put two of them in series)

But for people like me, with one person household with a random visitor, rarely having more than one tap/valve open simultaneously, such higher capacity pump or multiple single stage ones would be simply waste of money, kind of like installing a 20kw water heater for my shower for which 4.5kw (out of the 6kw adjustable heater) is enough to have nice warm shower...

In my home country is usual to have 100-150m deep well, into which you drop a long multi-stage (often Grundfos) pump - in such application the Thai Mitsus would only generate heat, no water!

The real learning for me out of this was that the nominal 300w actually does not mean much as in reality the motor uses more than the nominal almost always when it runs, and that if you use the pump in normal use case (shower, bathroom sink, garden watering), the real power is about double.  Have not given any thought to the whole issue before actually, but that's how it seems to be

25 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

Do you have original spec sheet for that pump?  Unless they have greatly changed over the years working pressure was in the 2 bar range as I recall (about 25 psi I believe) - prime reason we changed to Grundfos pumps (decent shower water pressure).  Was using 405 models and pressure was nowhere near 3-4 bar range.  But that was about 20 years ago so things may have changed. 

the pump motor nominal power in label is 300w.

pressure switch  spec for wp-305 is 2.4 start and 3.0 stop, and this is how my neighbor new pump actually works.

as said, few years ago I actually tested how much pressure the pump can do, and as result set the cut off to about 3.5. I recall he pump itself can make close to 4 however not obviously with any meaniful flow. With small flow like house tap or shower, it keeps at 3+

But it is obvious that the power motor takes within the switch start-stop range is way more than the 'nominal' - I guess the motor nominal power is defined in state when pump just moves water from inlet to outlet without having any (or at least much) pressure. Maybe can test some day out of curiosity

17 hours ago, xtrnuno41 said:

IS the fan of the motor still really tight attached to the motor?

Took off the cowling and fan to check  - it is good, no damage and solid in place.  Also, pump/motor rotates easily, only minor friction from seal, no bearing sound/feeling, no issues there.

4 hours ago, Muhendis said:

Sounds to me like a motor problem.

If you can check the running current (electric that is) and compare it with the rating plate power this will give a good indication of state of the motor. It is quite possible that a 10 year old pump will suffer from stiff bearings and so will be working harder. 

Measured the current of my pump and also measured my neighbor's pump current (same model but newer). I guess I am getting to the tails of the issue.

When water flow is low, just below pressure switch cutting off, my pump runs around 2.8-2.9 amps. Same test for my neighbor shows about 2.4-2.5 amps, i.e both about double the 'nominal' level. It appears the nominal value indeed is just nominal, basically pump running without much load, just pumping water out with low pressure and no load for motor to pump against pressure.

What is different between my pump as my neighbor's pump though is that I have tuned the pressure switch a bit, basically adjusted the cut-off closer to the max level that the pump can make (to get higher pressure to 3rd floor). I think the std cut-off is 3bar, mine is around 3.5 according to the gauge I have. When tuning it, I recall the pump was able to make close to 4bar, however obviously needed to work hard to get there, so set a bit down from max level.

Now, when using my long 1/2 inch garden hose, with or without the sprayer, the pressure remains in 3+ bar range, keeping the pump running at 2+ times current vs the nominal level.  I believe this is the explanation for the heating - the motor is simply not designed to run  extended times at this load level, and the thermal protection just cuts it off if used like that. The pump does it job OK to deliver water at 3+ bar load level for normal household use though, no cutoffs from that use as usage times are normally fairly short.

So I guess nothing can do, it is what it is. Would be interesting to hear if someone is actually using this pump model with long run times at low pressure level without the thermal tripping - or alternatively having the same behavior as I have with higher pressure and extended runtime

2 hours ago, lopburi3 said:

You are drawing water from a storage tank as required?  Keeping that tank in shade will greatly reduce water temp in pump (which cools by water-not by air).  Is this a time of the year with direct sunlight on storage tank perhaps?  Pump itself is designed for outside use with just the cover for protection.

Underground tank. The pump actually is cool even when the thermal will trip and stop the motor, only motor is hot. Pump has only weak thermal connection to the motor and thus dont cool the motor much. 

39 minutes ago, xtrnuno41 said:

IS the fan of the motor still really tight attached to the motor?

If the fan is somehow loose, it can turn, but not efficiently, it slips and then not cooling well, the motor.

You mentioned weak airflow.

A pin maybe be broken or the glued connection of the fan is out of order. 

Motor gets heated and has thermal trip at some point.

Good point, need to check that. That could explain. 

1 hour ago, VocalNeal said:

 

Are you spraying or drip-feeding them.🤔

Usually using the rotation-adjustable sprayer. Pressure probably remains close to the 3bar cut limit as flow is relatively small. But I recall the heating also happened without the sprayer, just using 1/2 inch garden house with open end

2 hours ago, MJCM said:

 

+1

 

As I read it he doesn't!

 

@mran66 If you have connected the pump directly to the mains and the mains don't have enough pressure (less water) then your pump is sucking air which would cause it to overheat.

 

Normal working method for a Pump is have the Mains connect (fill) to a Water tank and then the Pump will draw water from that tank (and not directly from the mains)

 

@Crossy has a great diagram for it on how to connect it, but I can't find it right now.

 

 

Edit: Found it

 

Pump is being supplied from tank, without any direct connection to city water. Tank is filled from city water. No air in system. Connection is properly done, that is not the issue. 

I have about 10yrs old Mitsu WP-305 water pump that has been working good feeding water to my house with fairly limited on-time as pump only runs when water used in te house.

Due to reduced city water pressure, I have lately I used water supplied by the pump also for watering plants, and noticed that after a while (5-10min or so) of continuous running, the pump stops. It appears that this is due to motor heat protection stopping it. After waiting a while it just starts on its own, and faster if cool it by spraying water on it. The motor actually gets fairly hot, though not sure what exactly the temp is but feels pretty hot by fingers, thus I would guess the temp sensor that cuts the power works at about right temp

In my neighbors garden have similar type of pump, though smaller size, used for watering the garden, sometimes running for hours without cutting. And that has the plastic cover on top, limiting airflow

Pump does not have the plastic over on rather is in a ventilated cabinet with decent space for air. The fan at the end of the motor is ok, though the airflow produced by it is fairly weak. Turning it from the fan it rotates without any big force, though has some friction (guess due to sealing) and does not run freely like a standalone motor would.

Anyone else experienced the same with similar pump? Any idea why like that and especially anything that could be done to keep it running? 

On 12/25/2023 at 12:15 PM, Wandr said:

Water flows through my water pump even when it is not running. I have confirmed it by turning the valve on/off.

I don't think it was always like this.

Does it need to be repaired? Or is there some (simple) adjustment I can make. 

For the usual house water pump (like my Mitsubishi WP-305), water for sure flows thru if the water in tank is higher than the outlet of the pump (or if supply pressure is higher than the outlet pressure). If the motor is not running, the pump simply acts as check valve (one directional valve). Water will not flow in reverse direction even if pressure in outlets side is higher than supply side (i.e water fill not flow from 3rd floor of your house to underground tank even if pump is off). The actual valve element and load spring is under the cap on suction side.

Actually, if city water pressure is high enough, the pump will not even turn on when you use water in the house (as long as the pressure does not drop below the pressure switch threshold). Where I live, used to be like that at times until couple of years ago (pressure sometimes 4-5bars), though seems the pressure level in the system has been reduced to around 2bars so that pump always kicks in if use water nowadays

Then it is a separate question where and why the water flows, esp if it should not flow. If all taps closed on pressure side and water still flowing, there is a leak somewhere. But pump works as it should

11 hours ago, still kicking said:

So why do I need a VPN like many other users have? I am in my home country and not overseas what does a VPN do for me? Where I live, I can access any website with no problems. So, if I install a VPN does that mean I don't need a virus protection anymore (which is free on most sites) I do know it helps to access certain websites when you are overseas but why do I need my messages or website encrypted? As you all know I am a computer illiterate (76 years of age) So give me a simple explanation why I need it?

If you live in developed world and use pirated content esp torrents, use VPN to hide your ip and avoid lawyers going after you

24 minutes ago, Nemises said:

I use a VPN to book CHEAPER airfares from a “third world” country. Works every time, normally saving me around 12%. 

Which countries you have found to work best for this purpose? 

9 hours ago, Mike Lister said:

Both 60k and 120k are correct, it depends on whether you have assessable income only from employment or income from other courses as well, eg bank interest on savings. 

 

RD Forms: PND.90 = 60,000 single and 120,000 married;  PND.91 = 120,000 single and 220,000 married

 

... Okay... So for a single farang without any other local income than interest on local bank account, the filing limit is? 

Have a walk around the Arab bars in the area behind marine Plaza hotel.

After just walking around all farang focused bars in Pattaya are quiet!

And I doubt they serve Guinness, possibly under the counter. 

12 hours ago, Danderman123 said:

Nope.

 

Staying more than 179 days requires filing a tax return, even if nothing is owed.

 

However, this is the case now. Lots of tax residents in Pattaya never file a tax return, because, until this new regulation, nothing was owed. 

 

 

As some posters have said on the thread, no need to file tax return if no income even if you tax resident. Some say the threshold is 120k, some say 60k, not sure what is correct. And the announced new regulation does not say anything about changing the threshold for tax return filing as far as I understand.

Then the other issue is whether having or not having a tax ID makes any difference for likelyhood of possible audit if no filing. I never filed so far as no taxable income but  got my tax ID last year, not for filing tax return, but was required by US bank.  

But yes, I will also join the 179 day camp if taxes become real and meanhingful, however the current announcement does not look like that necessarily being the case.

47 minutes ago, Expat68 said:

 my tax return from the UK is proof of my income

That's obviously good for you if you can use that to make taxes paid to UK to credit against the income you would send to Thailand and assessed to be taxable income here. Likely your taxes paid to UK are more than what the tax here is anyway.

Fortunately or unfortunately - depending on the point of view - that is not the case for some of us who do not need to file tax return anywhere (until possibly to Thailand in 2026) and would need to use transaction statements to explain where the income is coming from.