WELCOME TO RIVER DAVES PLACE

An interesting Story about teenagers, pissed off parents, A/C and slowinhavasu

RiverDave

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So my old riverhouse was built in 1976... I remember when I was younger (with no awnings out back) that house was like a freakin ice box.. The temp was always set on 72, and it didn't matter if Satan himself was visiting Parker, and turned the temps up to the 120's, the house remained 72..

I can remember with distinct clarity actually being cold when coming in from outside, and if you went swimming before... Forget about it... You'd likely die from Hypothermia before you reached the thermostat..

So around the age of 16 years old I had this chick I'm dating and it's summertime.. So we being the responsible kids that we were take off to the river for a couple of days.. Well as it turns out she had not told her parents that we were going to the river for a couple of days but rather some sleep over dealio or something I dunno.. Her mom freaks when she finds out that she's not where ever she said she was, ends up tracking down my parents and goes ballistic.

The phone rings at the river house and who would be on the other end of the line but my father.. Now my pops didn't so much care that I took off to the river for a couple of days, but he was mildly irate about this crazy lady in the entry way screaming (literally I could hear her in the background) about how I kidnapped her daughter and how her daughter would never do anything like this or something.. The words "Get your ass home now" were said.

I killed the lights, locked up the house and took off for home.. Forgetting to put the thermostat back to 88 degrees like we always do when we are away. It was particularly hot that summer, and we didn't go for the next month or two for whatever reason (I think we were going to mexico or something I dunno..).

So fast forward a month to a month and a half, and we show up, and the house is clearly not 88 degrees upon entry.. It is hotter than the surface of the sun, the air conditioner at some point had taken a shit. Now for those that don't know what happens at the river when an A/C unit takes a shit, and it's exceptionally hot (like July / Aug), let me fill you in.. 1st the refridgerator takes a shit, because it can't exchange heat.. So chaulk me up for a fridge.. 2nd any wood that was in the house that hadn't been oiled (ever) also swells & cracks.. so chaulk me up for some of the furniture (not all, but most of it).. Then it gets so god damn hot during one of the days that it actually cracks the glass on all the art that is hanging on the walls.. Chaulk me up for all new frames / glass. Then finally there's always that little matter of the A/C unit up on the roof.

Needless to say pops was less than impressed with this whole program. My argument in defense though is to say.. How do we know it wasn't gonna take a shit at 88 degrees as well? Seems to me like the unit was on it's way out.. I'll admit here publicly I never did sack up and say that.. Even at 16 I knew I wasn't beyond the scope of the belt.. Or atleast I didn't think i was.. LOL

RD
 

RiverDave

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So another A/C unit arrives asap, and my brother and I dispose of the fridge, and spend the weekend not only going to get a new fridge, but new washer / dryer and some other stuff that escapes memory right now.. About the time we were done hooking all that up, we had to drop off the old washer and dryer to some donation place in town...

Interesting note here, this was one of the first mild stones to me realizing my brother could be a douche.. Here we are donating these perfectly fine washer / dryer to people that need it.. So I'm carefully unloading it. We get the washer on the ground, and he goes and literally pushes the dryer out of the back of the truck and destroys the fuckin thing.. Several things occurred to me here.. 1st.. Why would you do that.. And this goes into so many levels of why break something that wasn't broken to why would you fuck over the needy.. To why would you embarass our parents who made the calls to find out who to donate it too.. So now when the people see it are going to think less of them.. But we're getting off topic here.

So the washer / dryer are now "donated"... I guess.. (in case you can't tell I'm still pissed about it) and we had to go move the old furniture out / new furniture in etc.. The new A/C unit is hooked up and blowing cold air so it would seem everyone is happy..

It maintained a 74 degree avg on the hot days, and 72 for most the summer.. I never heard the end of those 2 degrees though let me tell you. "Not as good as the old unit, They don't build them like they used too, etc.. etc.."

RD

.
 

Tom Brown

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Bla, bla, bla,... was your penis ever inside this girl's vagina?
 

SHEP

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Bla, bla, bla,... was your penis ever inside this girl's vagina?

:rotflmao: I was thinking the same thing.

We had our unit go out on us one weekend in August. I ended up sleeping in the bath tub with the shower running cold water. It was the only way I could keep cool enough to sleep. I don't know how people camp in that heat.

SHEP
 

RitcheyRch

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Inquiring mids want to know. :D


Bla, bla, bla,... was your penis ever inside this girl's vagina?

I've tried it a few times and that was the end of that.

:rotflmao: I was thinking the same thing.

We had our unit go out on us one weekend in August. I ended up sleeping in the bath tub with the shower running cold water. It was the only way I could keep cool enough to sleep. I don't know how people camp in that heat.

SHEP
 

RiverDave

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So we fast forward to about 5 years ago.. The A/C unit takes a shit again! By some miracle Brian (aka Dezertracer on here) happened to be in town, and his trade coincidentally happens to be HVAC.. Brian fixed it, and over the summer pretty much subsequently replaced every single part in that thing over the next summer as well except the main compressor itself.

Fast forward to 2 years ago to the "Great Remodel" of the river house project / fiasco.. LOL Brian aka DesertRacer tells me we should pop a new A/C unit on that house.. If you bring the beers and show the crew a good time, we can do the whole program for 2500 - 3500 bucks. I present this to the family, and we collectively decide to gamble on the current A/C unit because we are pouring money into this remodel like it's going out of style.

So I have Chuck Foley doing a bunch of work around the house both during the week and on the weekend.. I'm going off memory here and there's many downed beers from then till now so don't quote me on it, but I believe it was the week before either memorial day or 4th of July.. It's irrelevant, it's freakin hot out, and now hot inside as well. He fills me in on the situation and from my comfortable office in San Diego, all I can think of is the radio commercials I've heard for the last 5 years..

Pitzer 1 hour air... That's the name, I google, get a #, make the call and an hour later there's a tech there. Now there's something to be said for somebody showing up in an hour in Parker. That kind of service just doesn't happen. He investigates, and tells me we need a new unit, and he can have one on there tomorrow no problem. I say so long as it's not a ghetto unit they have laying around the back I'm good with it. He tells me it's not the double throw down Turbo deal, but it's the next best thing...

Chuck Calls, A/C unit is on the house and he's back to work.. We even got this talking thermostat which is kinda cool.

RD
 

RiverDave

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So Pitzer calls with the bill..........

Anyone hazard a guess? Before we finish our story of the 80 degree A/C Unit... :D

RD
 

Tom Brown

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Dude... it was 1976. Dave's point is the big hullabaloo ended up costing his dad a few hundred bucks for the bill, new appliances, and all new furniture.

Let's let Dave make his point. Our job will be to Oooo and Ahhh... then we'll comment on what a mother fucker inflation is, JBS will make a comment that is derogatory toward Yamaha, and Dave will snap open a cool, refreshing Bud Light Lime while shaking his head saying to himself, "What the fuck is wrong with these people?"

It's the way of things.
 

Tom Brown

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So my old riverhouse was built in 1976...

My old house at the lake was built in the 1920s. It started out as a modified grainery. It's still there, along side the new house that was built in the late 1980s by my Dad and I.

I've got meat in my colon that's been there longer than you've been alive.
 

RiverDave

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It was either 8K or 10K... I'm inclined to believe it was 10 come to think of it.. I'd have to look up the receipt..

I remember thinking about 5K would be fair, and it was roughly double that..

So my jaw hits the floor, but the god damn thing is on the roof now, so I pay it.

So we come out for the weekend, and this double throw down Piece of junk will not get the house below 80 degrees if its life depends on it.. It never "cycles" and just runs the entire time.

This super efficent air conditioner was supposed to take our 400 dollar a month (avg) electric bill and make it 100.00 BTW.

We call they come out.. "You need windows"

Never needed windows before.

We call again.. "That last tech was an idiot, there's a gaping hole up there I taped it."

Still 80 degrees..

1st Electric bill was actually higher than last year.. and continued to be so for the rest of the summer.

They come out again, "It's freezing over, you need to set the thermostat to 75 - 78 degrees to let it cycle."

As much as I explained that the thing literally never got below 80 so it isn't going to cycle anyways.. I could never get the point to hit home.

RD
 

Tom Brown

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Sorry Dude, I thought Pitzer was the utility company from back in the day. I didn't realize they were the current HVAC guys. My point about JBS throwing down on Yamaha still stands, though.
 

RiverDave

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Now to the SlowinHavasu part.. I'm bitching about this to SlowinHavasu at the weeken de drinkin and he says he will come down to take a look at it..

He comes down the following weekend, jumps up on the roof and said they had it on the low speed setting.. Makes some adjustments, and we're down to 75 degrees!!! The unit is actually cycling now!! This is after 2 years and multiple visits from the other A/C company I might add whom finally left it with "It is what it is."


Carey explains to me the situation about how the A/C unit is just dumping into a big box and then being pushed down into the house through a smaller hole. He'd like to do a "downdraft" to not only reduce the turbulence in the box, but to also help direct the air downwards into the house which in theory should increase CFM..

In seeing the setup, and doing flow testing on air & water products pretty much my entire life, there's no question that this simple modification is going to make huge improvements, without touching the A/C unit itself.. It's basically free HP by improving on a shitty design.

I haven't been to the house yet to see if it'll drop the temps, but I'm betting we got our 72 degrees back..

Thank you very much to SlowinHavasu for not only fixing the A/C unit but applying a little common sense to a problem to get better results!!


All of this because I banged some chick like a screen door in a hurricane when I was 16.. Funny how life works isn't it?

RD
 

Tom Brown

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It was either 8K or 10K... I'm inclined to believe it was 10 come to think of it.. I'd have to look up the receipt..

You can buy a car for $8K. A low end Hyundai but a car, none the less.

Sure, a heat pump is a complex system with some low voltage electrical, controls, relays, and a piston that compresses a charge. ... but a car has all that shit, even the lowest end car, except that the most basic car has more of all of it, has to meet all sorts of safety and emission standards, crash testing overhead, etc., etc.

I'm thinking the Goodman people and their network are seeing slightly higher margins than the Hyundai people and their dealer network. Just a thought.
 

RiverDave

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I appreciate you taking the time to not only read the thread Tom.. but to interject your strange and unusual humor into it.. :D

RD
 

Kylemenz1

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Wait just a minute!!!

I thought you said you never banged her? There's something fishy about this story..:D
 

Havexico

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Now to the SlowinHavasu part.. I'm bitching about this to SlowinHavasu at the weeken de drinkin and he says he will come down to take a look at it..

He comes down the following weekend, jumps up on the roof and said they had it on the low speed setting.. Makes some adjustments, and we're down to 75 degrees!!! The unit is actually cycling now!! This is after 2 years and multiple visits from the other A/C company I might add whom finally left it with "It is what it is."


Carey explains to me the situation about how the A/C unit is just dumping into a big box and then being pushed down into the house through a smaller hole. He'd like to do a "downdraft" to not only reduce the turbulence in the box, but to also help direct the air downwards into the house which in theory should increase CFM..

In seeing the setup, and doing flow testing on air & water products pretty much my entire life, there's no question that this simple modification is going to make huge improvements, without touching the A/C unit itself.. It's basically free HP by improving on a shitty design.

I haven't been to the house yet to see if it'll drop the temps, but I'm betting we got our 72 degrees back..

Thank you very much to SlowinHavasu for not only fixing the A/C unit but applying a little common sense to a problem to get better results!!


All of this because I banged some chick like a screen door in a hurricane when I was 16.. Funny how life works isn't it?

RD

Dave dont kid yourself. That 70's unit would have eventually blew up. Im surprised that you didnt get a quote before you let that guy put up a $10,000 blow dryer.
 

RiverDave

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Dave dont kid yourself. That 70's unit would have eventually blew up. Im surprised that you didnt get a quote before you let that guy put up a $10,000 blow dryer.

It was one of those... he showed up, everything was professional.. It never occurred to me that it would cost that much, or that someone would gouge someone that bad..

The point being is I got a new A/C guy now..

RD
 

rivergames

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Cliff notes:

Dave and his old g/f run off to the river

Dave fucks shit up beyond repair

Dave and the Fam Bam spend thousands on multiple AC units, but the new units can't compete to that cool 72* that the original AC unit put out

Dave finally get Slowinhavasu to come out and handle biz. Which brings us to the point of the thread, Dave recommends Slowinhavasu for AC work.


And all of this just so Dave could try and get to 2nd base at the river pad when he was 16. What a head Ache!!!! :D:D:D
 

RiverDave

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Cliff notes:

Dave and his old g/f run off to the river

Dave fucks shit up beyond repair

Dave and the Fam Bam spend thousands on multiple AC units, but the new units can't compete to that cool 72* that the original AC unit put out

Dave finally get Slowinhavasu to come out and handle biz. Which brings us to the point of the thread, Dave recommends Slowinhavasu for AC work.


And all of this just so Dave could try and get to 2nd base at the river pad when he was 16. What a head Ache!!!! :D:D:D

I never knew the bases.. but if I had to guess which one It was it was home plate.. and possibly part of the concession area..

RD
 

Tom Brown

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...all of this just so Dave could try and get to 2nd base at the river pad when he was 16.

Dude... this site, our boats, the trucks we drive, our $200 billet coolers, the beer we drink while we're driving, the jobs we work, the clothes we wear, the houses we make endless payments on, the charities we donate to, and every other contrivance we put time and energy into... is to get us laid.
 

rivermobster

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So Pitzer calls with the bill..........

Anyone hazard a guess? Before we finish our story of the 80 degree A/C Unit... :D

RD


Fuck Pitzer!!! Apparently nothing has changed with them. They jus ripped off my pal that owns the river house in Big Bend.

And it's also interesting to note, Carey came out and fixed it as well so it works better than ever.

This is the short version. I'll save ya all the 5 post version. I dont wanna steal RD's spotlight here! :D
 

460

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Poor dude had to use the river house and a boat to pull a chic at 16. NO GAME:D:D:D:D
 

Community

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Dude... this site, our boats, the trucks we drive, our $200 billet coolers, the beer we drink while we're driving, the jobs we work, the clothes we wear, the houses we make endless payments on, the charities we donate to, and every other contrivance we put time and energy into... is to get us laid.


A universal truth.....
 

Rvrluvr

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ya know dave, Carey is more than A/C. He can do all kinds of handy man stuff. Did some electric stuff for me and didn't charge me much at all. He is the first and only person I think of when I need something fixed. All around great guy:thumbsup:thumbsup
 

Desertgirl

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So we fast forward to about 5 years ago.. The A/C unit takes a shit again! By some miracle Brian (aka Dezertracer on here) happened to be in town, and his trade coincidentally happens to be HVAC.. Brian fixed it, and over the summer pretty much subsequently replaced every single part in that thing over the next summer as well except the main compressor itself.

Fast forward to 2 years ago to the "Great Remodel" of the river house project / fiasco.. LOL Brian aka DesertRacer tells me we should pop a new A/C unit on that house.. If you bring the beers and show the crew a good time, we can do the whole program for 2500 - 3500 bucks. I present this to the family, and we collectively decide to gamble on the current A/C unit because we are pouring money into this remodel like it's going out of style.

So I have Chuck Foley doing a bunch of work around the house both during the week and on the weekend.. I'm going off memory here and there's many downed beers from then till now so don't quote me on it, but I believe it was the week before either memorial day or 4th of July.. It's irrelevant, it's freakin hot out, and now hot inside as well. He fills me in on the situation and from my comfortable office in San Diego, all I can think of is the radio commercials I've heard for the last 5 years..

Pitzer 1 hour air... That's the name, I google, get a #, make the call and an hour later there's a tech there. Now there's something to be said for somebody showing up in an hour in Parker. That kind of service just doesn't happen. He investigates, and tells me we need a new unit, and he can have one on there tomorrow no problem. I say so long as it's not a ghetto unit they have laying around the back I'm good with it. He tells me it's not the double throw down Turbo deal, but it's the next best thing...

Chuck Calls, A/C unit is on the house and he's back to work.. We even got this talking thermostat which is kinda cool.

RD



Just one little correction.... Brian is Dezertrider.
Great story RD.
 

BajaMike

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All of this because I banged some chick like a screen door in a hurricane when I was 16.. Funny how life works isn't it?

RD

Great line in an overall good story!

:thumbsup:D:champagne:
 

OCMerrill

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I liked your story Dave. I learned quite a bit reading this thread.

I would also like to state that if you had put the pussy on hold for 15 fucking minutes., launched the fucking boat, you would have missed the phone call, and none of this shit would have happened. :D:D

I liked the Hyundai comparison to the condenser unit. That was cool of Tom to point that out. Well, only 80* of cool.

So the moral of this story is when at the river don't answer the phone or Riverbound can get a AC unit for $4k. I'm not sure which.

:champagne::p
 

BoatCop

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When I did the add-on to the house here, I got a quote from Pfitzer for running the ducts and a new 4 ton heat pump to replace the 1976 vintage 2 ton A/C w/heat strip. The new configuration was 1,680sf up from about 960sf.

Quote was $9,800.

I said F that and ran all the ducts myself. Ran the 2 ton for a few months until it fried the compressor. It also ran pretty much 24/7 trying to keep the place at 76 in 90 degree weather. I then had Hal hook me up with a new 4 ton Bryant Heat Pump.

I'll let you guess the scratch and dent price. :D

I had a friend fab the new mount. Made the transition myself, from the old A/C. Paid a local crane guy $100 bucks to hoist it in place, and wired it in myself.

This one also had 3 internal settings for the fan. I guessed the "medium" setting and it's working perfectly.

My electric bills were $195 a month (equalizer payments) on the 960sf with a 2 ton, and now they're $160 month with 1,680sf and 4 ton.

So pretty much I save about $8,900 with the scratch & dent and doing everything myself. AND it's saving me $420 a year in energy costs.
 

Piper

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So the girl you kidnapped broke the A/C which caused the house to bake and ruin the furinture. The new A/C was set to slow and only teased you with a bit of air. Then you traveled in a time machine to the future where some slow guy in Havasu cut opened some soda can's and glued them to your A/C unit like a hamster tunnel cage and everything is better now?:D

I love this story!!!:rotflmao:
 

Flyinbowtie

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I had an ass chewing like that one time when I was still living at home in Long Beach.
Mom and Dad were up here on a hunting trip; he'd bought the property but no house was on it yet.
So, being the fine young 16 year old, I knew they had wired all the neighbors in to spy on my ass, making sure the no beer, parties, no burnout contests, no uncorked headers, etc rules were not infracted.
I was not even remotely worried about it, cause my pal had his folks gone too, they were not nearly as big a pain in the ass, and we alreay had had the double throw down kegger set up for his house.
Party goes off well, and I roll home about 2pm on Sunday.
After a nap, I decide to go out and wash my car, (70 Camaro) clean it out, etc.
I am finishing up that job and pull the sleeping bag out fo the trunk when the old gal next door comes rolling in the driveway. She is about 50, widowed, and looking back on it she was probably a hellraiser at the time.
She asks me, "How was your weekend, Jeff" about the time I am shaking the sleeping bag out to roll it back up. I reply, "Okay, I was at my buds last night, just playing pool and working on the car,"
Right after I dropped that line of shit a pair of powder blue panties came flittering out of the end of the sleeping bag, landing on the concrete between her driveway and ours.
She just looked at me. Never said a word, turned around and walked in her place.
She did, however, file a report with my Dad whe they got home.
We had a long talk,( He talked, I listened and nodded) which ended with "Don't ever let that happen again, you dumbass. You should know better than even scratching your balls when that broad is around, you are lucky she told me and not your mother. Wise up, son. You got the cool ride, you got a decent job, don't blow it"
I will never forget that.
Dad reminded me of it every once in awhile til the day he died.
 

2Driver

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Entertaining story. :D You should have had Pfitzer in court or BBB or something.

We just had 2 Lennox units put in with duct work and it was $10K.

TRUE: When we lived in Havasu Goettel came out to fix our a/c unit. The guy didnt fix it, left screws and hardware sitting on top of the shroud and said, "I think I will go kill myself by jumping off the bridge" and left.
 

mbrown2

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Im surprised that you didnt get a quote before you let that guy put up a $10,000 blow dryer.

Bingo...I would have been on the phone/boards looking for the hook up after I got the 10K quote...
 

Flyinbowtie

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I just had a woute of 35k to install a 7kwh solar system on the house, this is a grid tie no backup power, and this is after all the pay backs and stuff from the state and fed.
Fininacing the system, the payment was going to be around 210 a month, and my new power bill would be less than it is, but not that much.
The payment and new power bill would save me, they "Calculate" a total of about 50 a month for energy until the system is paid off in 15 years, then it is all gravy.
I was surprised, I thought the savings would be more, but the way I "Calculate" it, there is not enough saving over the life of the loan for the solar to even cover the interest on the loan, so, we have sidlined this plan for awhile, like until I can afford to do it without a loan, which isn't gonna be anytime soon.
 

RiverDave

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Bingo...I would have been on the phone/boards looking for the hook up after I got the 10K quote...

I never got the quote.. I just told them to go ahead with the work.. As professional as everything seemed I figured it'd be a reasonable price.

RD
 

mbrown2

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I never got the quote.. I just told them to go ahead with the work.. As professional as everything seemed I figured it'd be a reasonable price.

RD

Great story none the less...
 
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