Sunday, February 26, 2006

A rant about a really dumb design

Ok, here's a cute drawing of the dryer in my basement:



The concentric thingie on the floor (A) is NOT a puddle, ok? It's a rug. I was trying to balance the decorative spiderweb (E).
Anyway, the diagonal lines are a reasonable facsimile of the vent pipe going up to the outside opening in the foundation (B).
See the black rectangle (D) on the "vent pipe"? That's a plastic device we have here in the northland--it has a removable screen on the front and a flap-door inside, so you can vent that nice warm moist air into the house during the winter OR let that hot wet air go outside in the summer....still with me?
Ok, so last night the old plastic box ( D) fell apart (it's a snapped together thing and not made any better than it has to be). Today, I decided I really should replace it AND the vent pipe....an easy job.

It is... EXCEPT FOR THE RIDICULOUS DESIGN OF THE FOUR CONNECTORS NEEDED TO KEEP IT ALL TOGETHER.

Argh. I believe in cable ties, and I used them, but securing a slippery foil hose over a slippery plastic tube DOES NOT WORK.

What would be wrong with a lovely little ridge around those inside tubes? Would that be so hard? Ahem, lol. And the connection off the dryer itself is too short to get any sort of grip on...what were they thinking?

Even a non-DIY person has the same problem, and yet it persists. Why?

(I'm going to use my second-favorite tool--duct tape--but it'll have to be replaced when it dries out...)

Ok, at least I feel better now.
xoxo

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:40 PM

    You out of Chimpanzee Paste... or was it Monkey Muscilage???

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  2. LOL...Gorilla glue! You're so silly..that would be WAY too permana....wait. Long term is desireable, right?
    wink, wink

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  3. Anonymous8:38 PM

    A feller could even move what appears to be a table (that thing over what appears to be but isn't a puddle). In fact, a feller could swap the places of the apparent table and the I'll-take-your-word-for-it dryer. And then wouldn't the straight up dryer vent make just a fabulous, over the top ironic existential statement in juxtaposition to the cobweb?

    Love - PT

    PS - I have no idea what the hell I'm talking about - in case you didn't know that already.

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  4. I just KNEW you'd see the one small thing that I didn't 'splain...but the post was already getting pretty wordy, and I didn't want to miss my nap.

    The dryer has a cord that's maybe 2 feet long, max, and the only major, heavy duty outlet is right behind it in the cute drawing.

    I'll move the dryer if you come over and move the outlet, ok?

    Maybe tomorrow I'll do a "Bird(ie)s Eye View" of the situation, if that'll help you understand the quixotic philosophical ramifications better....lol
    Love you 2,
    B

    P.S. quixotic: Caught up in the romance of noble deeds and the pursuit of unreachable goals; idealistic without regard to practicality...hmm!

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  5. Anonymous8:46 AM

    What... no photos???

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  6. LOL...you can't have EVERYTHING ya know...the stylized spiderweb was representative, ok?

    There are dryer-lint fuzzballs everywhere down there. I prefer you think of my basement as looking like the diagram...ok?
    Hugs, B

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  7. Anonymous9:47 AM

    >I prefer you think of my basement as looking like the diagram...ok?
    I think your basement looks exactly like the diagram. Isn't fantasy wonderful?

    BTW - in regard to the 2 foot dryer cord - can some little Birdie say gastesion cord? You string enough of them suckers together and you could put the dryer in the next county!

    Glad to hep - PT

    ReplyDelete

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