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From: Kim Boyce and Eric Thoman (no email)
Date: Fri Sep 03 2004 - 16:23:55 EDT
-Jeff wrote:
For the last 18 months, I've been putting together a management system
for my boat.
Reply:
I am in complete and total awe of Jeff's computer and organizational
skills. I need to do better.
I have a couple of (real world, I think) comments and questions. Many
maintenance tasks depend on how much you use the item (frequent use can
be bad but no use can be worse) or how hard you use it or even who uses
it. One example is a marine head. I have three of the same brand.
They have needed very different amounts of attention. The one that
works the best has had no maintenance and I am not about to disturb a
"No Hitter" in progress by rebuilding it because the manufacturer says
that it is time to do so.
Jeff mentioned cleaning his heat exchanger. In my experience, the more
you run your engine the more stuff grows in there. However, it is not
as simple as engine hours. Running the engine 180 days straight is
worse than running the engine every other day for a year. The constant
flow of water seems to encourage stuff to grow. I have no idea where
the breakpoint is. Someone else is certain to have had different
experiences for good reason.
Often times, systems depend on systems which depend on systems. A final
example was a water maker that would not complete its flush cycle. It
turned out that the problem was the air pressure in my expansion tank
was low causing low (but unperceived) water pressure in the entire fresh
water system. Two very simple maintenance items. Is the computer smart
enough to diagnose one problem before the other? Checking air pressure
would likely be a semi-annual event whereas flushing is required weekly.
What if I had also been low on fresh water? Would it know that I need
to fill my tank before adding air before flushing? You can go on and on
from there...do I need a new hose in order to fill my tank?
I hate to advocate for the "Zen" approach to maintenance but there
really are many things on board that will do well as long as we pay
attention and know the signs that things are unhappy. If I could figure
out how to put that into a palm pilot I would be right there with Jeff.
Whatever works for you... I need to do better.
Eric Thoman
Abyssinia
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