The kids moved into a new apartment. Though they had plenty of friends helping with the move, Dudette and I made an appearance anyway (like there was a choice?...right?)
It was actually running pretty smoothly, and we just kind of helped putter and schlep stuff here and there. It is always amazing how many tiny things need to be moved around constantly when setting up a new place.
But my major claim to fame for the day, was to help set up the washer and dryer, once they got moved to the laundry room in the basement, that is.
The appliances showed up and were moved in while I was out running another errand. Somehow, I got lucky and didn't have to play Sherpa and lug either of the monsters down a flight of stairs...Oh! Lucky me.
But now that they were there, it was party time, with me as the Cruise Ship Director of Entertainment. I got right at it.
Had the washer hooked up in no time. Hoses and all the little goodies one collects to making it "theirs", were all there, and handy. Test fired the beast, and it ran fine. Now for the dryer.
The dryer wasn't much of a challenge either. The kids brought the goodies for that as well. My one issue was, the vent outlet was up in the joists in the ceiling. So,I had Chew grab me a step ladder so I could get at it. Worked out fine. The hose from the old place was plenty long, and since it was that aluminized "fire resistant" stuff, instead of the flex plastic the Fire Marshals hate, it wasn't all old, brittle and crumbly. Stretched it up, got it on, and clamped it tight to support the weight.
Nice.
Before hooking it to the dryer, I had Dudette start the dryer on "Air" mode to make sure it worked and hadn't gotten damaged in the move. Fired right up, and belched out some dust and lint that had been knocked free. That's fine, best to get it out now. I finished hooking things up, then moved it into place. Looking behind the dryer after it was in, I didn't like the way the hose and cord were laying, so I moved the hose to put it in a better location.
While moving it, I heard this noise, "THRUMMMMmmm". Jiggled the hose a bit more. "THRUMMmmmm"...then...
*POOF*--"SPARKS!!!" flew all over the place. And the back of the dryer got REALLY bright. The hose shorted out to the metal face-plate on the outlet. I moved it away to stop the pyrotechnics, but it was still getting brighter back there.
As I mentioned, it's an OLD hose. And when it arced out, the spot-welder action lit up all the OLD lint that had collected inside. I could feel the hose getting hotter in my hands (yes, I know...I still had a grip on the hose). The last thing I wanted to do was burn down the kids new apartment...with me in it.
So I tugged on the hose to pull it free. It wouldn't give. (I really tightened that clamp.) So I REALLY tugged on the hose. It didn't come free, but it did finally split and unravel, breaking the drafting chimney effect that was getting with the program. With that done, I pulled the dryer as far out as I could and got behind to stomp out the remaining flames. Aluminized hose may be "fire resistant", but it does make for a good circuit.
STINK!!!...O-M-G!!!! Nothing like torching a ton of lint and cat hair (yeah, the kids own cats, remember?). And I'm allergic to cats...BLECH!
We killed all the power to that area, started cleaning it up, opened windows to get some real air in, and I checked out the system to find the short. A wire to the wall plug had been pinched when the socket was installed. The face plate was "hot", not the dryer. Which was good, we didn't fry the dryer in the move or the installation.
And once again, being used to working with power at work, wearing rubber soled shoes kept me from being any part of the circuit while I was working on the whole thing. Anyone else, in regular street shoes, probably would have gotten fried before the hose.
Of course, a face full of smoke and flame wasn't none to healthy either. Especially with my allergies and the burning cat hair. Fun, fun.
I'm getting this feeling that moving the kids will never be a boring event.
Thrills happen.
Holy Canolly - that was just a little too close for comfort. Thank goodness theat you are alright!
Posted by: bogie | April 04, 2009 at 06:48 AM
never a dull moment in your life is there dude!
Posted by: bod | April 05, 2009 at 01:43 PM