Water Tank Towers.

[Tommy T.]

33 minutes ago, Mike J said:

If it requires maintenance for short cycling it must be a booster pump plus an expansion (pressure) tank.  When a pressure tank loses some or most of its air volume it begins to short cycle because the low volume of air in the tank loses pressure very quickly.  A booster pump works by "pulling" water from the supply source and "pushing" it down the service lines at a higher pressure.  You can add an expansion tank to a booster pump system that will prevent the pump from running each time a faucet is opened.  The expansion tank is what would be causing the short cycling.  That would make sense in an apartment building where water is being turned on/off on a very frequent basis.

Thanks for the input, Mike. Yeah, I see the expansion tank. I am sure you are right. I don't understand why it breaks down so often. I had a similar system on the yacht and I finally replaced the expansion tank after 20 years use.

Even when working properly, the cycle is very short. But the water pressure is high so I think that might have something to do with it - not much "give" in that tank for pressure fluctuations?This pump/tank system does long cycles for a few months before the cycles get shorter and shorter. Then I call the landlord and his kid fixes it so it is fine for another six months or so.

Edited August 14, 2019 by Tommy T.

[Onemore52]

1 hour ago, robert k said:

Maybe you should have tried some different places? Or possibly let your wife look for some workers? Or specifically hire women. In my experience women generally don't use as big a shovel as I do, nor would they throw it as far but they get there eventually and they might like to make men's wages. Used to have a girl worked with us on St. Thomas who we just called Dirt Dawber. A thought occurs to me, maybe they didn't like your hours? If I had some grueling labor to be done, I would be starting when there is enough light to see and knock off for the day 11am or noon, wages adjusted accordingly. Another thought, is it booming in Daet as it is in Naga? If so P400 a day might be on the low side. Someone must want to earn money, you just need to change the equation until you find them

moving soil by wheelbarrow 10 metres gruelling, come off the grass, excuse the pun. The whole labour thing here was explained to me by a very well educated relative of my gf and it goes like this.

Why would any male come to work for you for p400 a day, when they can go and earn p250 a day driving a trycycle around all day, no work involved just drive the motor scooter, then at the end of the day pay for the hire of the unit and then some petrol and with the rest go to the cock fights and win some real money, then when they have no money left, they go home and tell the wife that it was a bad day.

On the flip side of this so I don't get labelled, where we are doing extensions to the factory, an office block, entrance and a carpark there is a team of about 20 men, 10 live on site in the accommodation that we built for them where they stay rent free, they have toilets showers and a recreation area for when they finish work, we used to provide meals for them but they let it be known to us that they would like more money in their pocket and provide for themselves, done no problem. Now these men work 8a.m. till 5 p.m. 6 days a week, on their day off they can come and work for me doing some odd jobs around the place, currently building a 3m x 3m tool shed, they charge me p370 a day for that, so I give them p400, meals included, beer and pizza at the end of the day, which is where I posted some time ago that I gave them too many beers, they got the taste for it and didn't go home so to keep the wives happy I limit them to 4 cans of Red horse.

So I reckon that there are some descendants of the Australian aboriginal in this area.

[robert k]

4 minutes ago, Onemore52 said:

moving soil by wheelbarrow 10 metres gruelling, come off the grass, excuse the pun. The whole labour thing here was explained to me by a very well educated relative of my gf and it goes like this.

Why would any male come to work for you for p400 a day, when they can go and earn p250 a day driving a trycycle around all day, no work involved just drive the motor scooter, then at the end of the day pay for the hire of the unit and then some petrol and with the rest go to the cock fights and win some real money, then when they have no money left, they go home and tell the wife that it was a bad day.

On the flip side of this so I don't get labelled, where we are doing extensions to the factory, an office block, entrance and a carpark there is a team of about 20 men, 10 live on site in the accommodation that we built for them where they stay rent free, they have toilets showers and a recreation area for when they finish work, we used to provide meals for them but they let it be known to us that they would like more money in their pocket and provide for themselves, done no problem. Now these men work 8a.m. till 5 p.m. 6 days a week, on their day off they can come and work for me doing some odd jobs around the place, currently building a 3m x 3m tool shed, they charge me p370 a day for that, so I give them p400, meals included, beer and pizza at the end of the day, which is where I posted some time ago that I gave them too many beers, they got the taste for it and didn't go home so to keep the wives happy I limit them to 4 cans of Red horse.

So I reckon that there are some descendants of the Australian aboriginal in this area.

MUST have been my mistake, I TOTALLY missed the part where you told everyone that it was loose soil, what was I thinking. Well you seem to have it well in hand, no need to ever try to help you again. One wonders why you brought it up here.

[Dave Hounddriver]

9 minutes ago, Onemore52 said:

Why would any male come to work for you for p400 a day, when they can go and earn p250 a day driving a trycycle around all day

Why would any male in Australia do hard work for $400 a day when they can get $250 a day for a job where they sit on their butt all day?  Same story, different currency.  It is a 50% pay raise.

[Onemore52]

18 minutes ago, robert k said:

MUST have been my mistake, I TOTALLY missed the part where you told everyone that it was loose soil, what was I thinking. Well you seem to have it well in hand, no need to ever try to help you again. One wonders why you brought it up here.

why does a dog lick its b..ls

[robert k]

10 minutes ago, Onemore52 said:

why does a dog lick its b..ls

Salt deficiency?

[Tommy T.]

Ahhh... I guess I lost the drift of the topic here... Must be my wandering mind going adrift again... sorry mates!

I will start another one when we go to install a water tank and pump on the roof of our new home...

Edited August 15, 2019 by Tommy T.

[GeoffH]

1 hour ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Why would any male in Australia do hard work for $400 a day when they can get $250 a day for a job where they sit on their butt all day?  Same story, different currency.  It is a 50% pay raise.

That is pretty much what I chose to do in Australia, I went from a job on the road driving a lot and dealing with difficult customers earning just under $2,000 a week to working in an office doing rostering and supervising vehicle use.  That dropped me to around $1250 a week but I was much happier not having to deal with agro clients and more content with the 9 to 5:30 office job.

IMO you need enough money for you and your families needs and enough time that you can spend time with them.  The ex OTOH... not so happy but that’s another story.

Edited August 15, 2019 by GeoffH

[Gary D]

7 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

Thanks for the input, Mike. Yeah, I see the expansion tank. I am sure you are right. I don't understand why it breaks down so often. I had a similar system on the yacht and I finally replaced the expansion tank after 20 years use.

Even when working properly, the cycle is very short. But the water pressure is high so I think that might have something to do with it - not much "give" in that tank for pressure fluctuations?This pump/tank system does long cycles for a few months before the cycles get shorter and shorter. Then I call the landlord and his kid fixes it so it is fine for another six months or so.

Assuming the tank does not have a bladder the air bubble that provides the pressure, you can't compress water, over time migrates into the water. So the bubble gets smaller and the pressure lasts shorter. The kid is just reenstating the air bubble.

[hk blues]

5 hours ago, GeoffH said:

That is pretty much what I chose to do in Australia, I went from a job on the road driving a lot and dealing with difficult customers earning just under $2,000 a week to working in an office doing rostering and supervising vehicle use.  That dropped me to around $1250 a week but I was much happier not having to deal with agro clients and more content with the 9 to 5:30 office job.

IMO you need enough money for you and your families needs and enough time that you can spend time with them.  The ex OTOH... not so happy but that’s another story.

I'd take the extra cash and accept the compromise but I absolutely get it that some prefer the alternative. 

When paying labourers here, I tend to pay 600php - 100php more than their normal rate - so that they will do a good job and want to come back in future if I need them.  Such logical thinking works only about 50% of the time - I suspect they hope I will pay much more as I'm a rich foreigner and are slightly disappointed with just 100php more.