dscheidt

I've had the pump apart. the lovejoy is welded to the shaft, so it's not possible to fully disassemble it (well, I do own grinders....). I think the pump bushings (it doesn't have proper bearings) are shot, allowing the rotor shaft to wobble and bind. Lacking a machine shop, I don't think that's something I can repair. If I had a lathe, I'd bore the covers and fit some real bearings. the vp215 sells for about $1200 these days, I think.

Fuses came today, and with some struggle, I got it back together. (the machine isn't actually that hard to work on, I just didn't want to take more of it apart than necessary. If I had a wiring diagram, I'd have taken the whole top/side assembly off, but I didn't feel like figuring out the wires. ) Pump is shot, turns a fraction of a rotation, and then stalls. So, what are the options? It looks like a replacement pump is ~300. Anyone fit another pump, either to the existing motor, or a complete assembly? It looks like the motor is simply switched on and off, no clever controls.

Note to self: change the oil much more frequently. My wife went to seal something the other day. She said it sounded weird, and then turned off. Inspection revealed there's a fuse holder in the power socket, complete with a blown fuse. And a spare, yay. I put the spare in, turned it on. It sounded as if the motor or pump were seized. As I was reaching to turn it off, it blew the fuse. (They're 15A AL250 fast blow fuses, 5mmx20mm, which, of course, isn't a fuse I keep on hand.) Today I started to take it apart to see what's going on. First I drained the oil, which was pretty cloudy. Then I pulled the pump out. The pump is coupled to the motor with a Lovejoy style coupler. The pump is attached to the motor with four bolts, which you can see and touch. You can't get a tool on them, at least not easily. I ended up using a 10mm crowsfoot to get them out. A longer than normal one would make it easier, as the pump body is in the way. AT some point, I realized if you take the four screws on the top of the sides out, the whole chamber piece hinges up, and there's a stay to hold it it the service position. This makes it somewhat easier to get at things, but it's still a pain to work on. The pump is a pretty standard eccentric rotary vane pump. Back cover covers the oil reservoir and air seperator bits, it's bolted on. the pump proper is bolted together, and further secured with pins that pull out pretty easily. Three vanes made of aluminum, in a steel rotor, no tensioning, just centrifiugal force to keep the sealed. The pump side of the Lovejoy is keyed to the shaft on the rotor. And welded in place, presumably because that's cheaper. Also means I can't separate the shaft from the front cover, where there's a bearing or bushing (the other end is a brass bushing, I suspect this one is too). There's a lot of play in the rotor shaft there, both end float and side to side. Before I took it apart, it initially wouldn't turn. a little bit of rocking got it turn freely. I didn't see anything that would have caused it to stick, but there's a lot of rust staining on the vanes, so one could have been stuck. The resevoir was full of sludge and built up crud on the bottom, where it would have settled out of the oil. I've cleaned everything up, and when I get replacemet fuses, I'll put it all back together, and see if it works, or if I need to figure out a pump transplant. That'll be a week or two, though....

LiFePO4 batteries are pretty mature technology. they're safe, reliable, and have good lifespan -- 2000 cycles to 10% capacity loss is typical. The disadvantage is they have lower power per weight than other lithium batteries, but for an appliance that doesn't matter as much as a portable device. They're what's in most of the portable battery with household outlets on them. They're also starting to replace conventional lead-acid batteries in some automotive applications, for things like RV house batteries, where the higher capacity, lighter weight, and increased cycle life span make them attractive. They're also getting marketed to classic car owners, because they have low self discharge, and are fine with sitting for months, where conventional batteries tend to not do as well. They're a close enough match to lead-acid batteries that a pretty simple battery management system can make them work properly, and be included in a battery. I'd expect a replacement for to be pretty easy to source for one of these stoves, if required, as 26700 cells are a commodity item, and building a pack to a required capacity is a pretty common thing. Costs are continuing to fall on the batteries, so we'll see more uses like this.

Battery powered devices like this are taking advantage of the device not being used all that much. That means there's plenty of time to charge the battery. That probably wouldn't work for a commercial kitchen. There's a fair amount of larger scale battery buffering being deployed, in many cases where an area has a peak demand greater than what the transmission liine to it can provide, but the energy demand can be met by it (averaged over a day), and it's impracticable to increase transmission capacity. there are also deployments for renewables like wind farms, where peak production can be quite a bit higher than average, and the grid connection isn't big enough for that. I don't think anyone has deployed a system big enough for a solar or wind farm to look like base load plants, but I won't be surprised when it happens.

do they have dates? It's possilbe one of them (probably the old fashioned one) is old.

Duke's is much thicker than Hellman's. I can taste the difference if I taste them directly, but I can't on a sandwich or in egg salad. I've not tried potato salad, but I suspect it would also be indistinguishable to me. It might matter for a dip or something like that, where the mayo is a much bigger part o the flabor. Kewpie, on the other hand, I can taste in anything. I don't like it, but lots of people do.

yes, but because it's easy, not because it's useful. the purpose of the hood is to exhaust smoke, grease, etc, and the design of the hood - shape, location, baffles, and so on - is very important to that. But putting that data on spec sheet is a lot harder than just putting the notional fan capacity. A well designed hood can capture the smoke and get rid of it, using a lot less CFM than one that just does it by brute force. (As an example, I knew some people who opened a restaurant. They took over an existing space, and made changes to the kitchen so they could be a scratch kitchen, and not the 'microwave everything' the previous tenant had been. Because they were on the ground floor of a multi use building, they couldn't easily expand their venting, so they had to find a hood company that could provide an engineered solution that would work. They ended up roughly doubling the number of burners covered by the hoods, but needed less air movement than the old system, and something like 20% of what the prescriptive code requirement was.)

Code requires make up air for fans exhausting 400 CFM or more. If you don't supply it with proper make up, air will be sucked from somewhere, often down the flue of a furnace or water heater, especially in tighter buildings. Don't pretend you'll open a window when you run it, because you won't. Even if you do, other people won't, because they won't know they should. Ideally, make up air is fed into the HVAC, so it can conditioned before being put into the house.

I lost one of the little rubber feet on mine a few years ago. I ended up replacing all of them, and they're much grippier than the originals. I don't know if that was because of age, or if they changed the material. It used to walk a bit when working hard, but it dosn't move anymore.

If you're picking up something hot, and need to hold on to it, a mitt will let heat though, and the radiant heat from a hot pan can burn exposed skin. a grabber keeps your hand further away, and takes longer to transfer heat into your hand. the other place they're used is for grabbing pans out of a shallow oven -- pizza cooked in a 2" deep pan in a 5" oven is pretty tight, and grabbing with a tool is safer. You can reach in with one hand, grab the lip of the pan, pull it out, and put it on the counter. you'd need to use two hands with mitts or gloves, which is likely impossible to do in a crowded oven. @Shel_B the grabbers you list work on pizza pans, and get used in every pizza place in Chicago that does deep dish. some places, the wait staff use them to carry the pans to the table. I don't see why they wouldn't work on a sheet pan, as long as the jaw is short enough. (pizza pans are taller than sheet pans.)_

I buy a bunch of cheap ones at the resturant supply store, and throw them out as they get dull. Except the last one, which I use way too long, because I forget to buy more.

They'll also take a wicked sharp edge if you work at it a bit. they don't hold that edge very long, but it only takes a few seconds to get it back. I toss them when I've taken a little bit off the width, right when they don't cut against a board well anymore. I don't do a whole lot of actual intricate paring, If I did they could go a lot longer.

Crunchy, fatty, salty heresy. Mmmm.

I am not a huge TJ fan, but I worked around the corner from one for a decade, and got to know the products pretty well, because I'd get something for lunch or to take home as part of dinner several times a week. There are a few things I do like, such as the Frito clone (better than original), the dried fruit, some of the cheese and other dairy, and some things that they sell at good prices. But now that it requires a special trip, I only go a couple times a year.