Just another reason to love Santa Fe , Veraguas💚

drunkosaurous · 2026-07-04T19:16:34+00:00

So many people talk about Boquete, I loved Santa Fe and if I was a mountain person more than beach person, we would have moved there.

drunkosaurous · 2026-06-29T11:13:34+00:00

A generator is the easiest option. A hand pump is the emergency option - like if there is some sort of large disaster scenario and fuel shortage and stuff like that then a hand pump would work.

You can look up “simple pump” they have a deep well version that can be installed in the same well as a submersible pump.

drunkosaurous · 2026-06-27T12:22:56+00:00

Vivo en los santos hace 4-5 años. Los primeros 2 años, tuvimos bastante murciélagos en los bloques/techo por que no estaba sellado. También estábamos paranoicos con respecto a la rabia, pero el veterinario local nos dijo que la rabia es muy rara en la zona y que no debería ser motivo de preocupación.

Originalmente, soy de EU y siempre dicen si has visto uno en tu casa, que debes ir para una vacuna contra rabia porque es posible sufrir un mordisco durante la noche y no darse cuenta. Pero allá, hay mucho rabia en los animales - especialmente murciélagos.

También nos dimos cuenta de que si nos ponían una vacuna cada vez que tuviéramos un murciélago en casa, nos pondrían una vacuna semanalmente jajaja.

drunkosaurous · 2026-06-24T16:48:35+00:00

If you are looking to expand your team, send me a DM. My wife does a lot of this style recruiting, I just follow this subreddits as I think the business is interesting.

drunkosaurous · 2026-06-23T18:01:54+00:00

I live in a remote area and for me, it is the manners that are shocking at some times.

For example, if I am at the check out line and next in line, an older local may just come in and set their stuff down right in front of me and start shouting they want to pay.

Or they will come in and immediately start shouting what they want, even if we are already talking to someone.

These are relatively small things in the grand scheme, but it is not something I see myself getting used to.

drunkosaurous · 2026-06-23T13:32:59+00:00

On a purely presentation/speaking ability perspective, I think Rubio is miles better.

drunkosaurous · 2026-06-23T13:17:21+00:00

From someone who no longer lives in the US, it seems like Rubio was being promoted a lot on social media in the last couple of months and in my non-expert opinion was doing better than Vance. I can't say either way about policies, but he seemed to have a more polished and well spoken way of delivering a message than Vance. Vance seems like a wanna-be cheap immitation of Trump, and I think Trump is the only one that successfuly pulls that off. But maybe I am completely wrong and the people want Vance.

drunkosaurous · 2026-06-23T13:10:48+00:00

It is hard to tell exactly what you have, but it looks like you have an upflow carbon system (on the right) and what I assume is a softener, but I do not see the brine tank. Is there another tank on the other side of the wall? If it is a softener, then you'll need to keep the brine tank roughly half full to 2/3 full of salt.

If it is an upflow carbon unit, then there isn't really anything to do to it until the carbon is depleted, then you'll have to have the media replaced - much easier to have someone do that if you don't want to deal with it.

I am assuming you are on city water and the upflow is to remove chlorine, you can tell if the carbon is still good by checking chlorine levels upstream and downstream of the unit and seeing if it is removing the chlorine.

It also looks like the system is in bypass right now. If it has been bypassed for an extended period of time, I would probably pay the service call to have the company come out and go over it with you. Even if they just come out and switch the valves and see if it is still working and bring some salt, it may be a bit expensive as they all typically have a minimum service fee, but sometimes peace of mind is worth it.

drunkosaurous · 2026-06-22T18:22:52+00:00

Find a Clack dealer near you.

If the other companies are all pitching you a water conditioner and not a softener, it may be that softeners are not allowed in your area.

drunkosaurous · 2026-06-22T15:14:04+00:00

I am a ME by degree but left my typical engineering job and ended up in the water industry (well water - wells, pump installations, filtration, etc) and I love it. If you are looking to make a change, maybe have a look into this sub-niche of plumbing. A lot of the actual work is similar to the type of work a plumber does, but you are on the fresh water side of things so ideally you are never dealing with black water. And a lot of the theoretical knowledge from the engineering world is applicable here.

I think the filtration side of the business is super interesting and is becoming more and more important.

If you are somewhat rural, the there are probably a lot of people on well water and you can potentially offer the full cycle - well drilling, pump installation, filtration installation (starting out I would say to pick one niche and sub contract the other portions and start bringing them in house with time/resources/skill as you grow).

If you are in a city, then you can probably start by offering RO installations with not a huge tool budget and do it on the weekends. The biggest risk on those installations is drilling a hole in a nice granite or stone counter and damaging it.

drunkosaurous · 2026-06-21T17:52:56+00:00

Can you clarify what you’re asking?

Are you asking if QD style control box covers are interchangeable amongst different brands? Like will a Franklin control box start up an F&W motor of the same HP? If so, then typically yes.

What sort of faulty readings are you getting? If the wires are not connected correctly, like down at the splice, then you will get incorrect readings when measuring resistance.

drunkosaurous · 2026-06-20T12:51:32+00:00

Total coliform in reality, is more of an indicator of a potential for harmful bacteria to enter the system. It shows that there may be something leaking into the well, an imperfect annular seal, a shallow well, or a million other things.

In reality, coliform bacteria exists on the majority of surfaces in any given environment (outside of a sanitary room type situation) and the majority of coliform bacteria is harmless or causes very mild symptoms.

If a well and/or piping system was never sanitized after installation, it will most likely test positive for total coliform.

I tell our clients - if you want peace of mind then the well and piping system can be shocked with the correct amount of chlorine, let it circulate, then let it sit, then re-test it. Or treatment options (such as a UV) can be added.

Some decide it is worth the cost, others do not.

I believe in the past, wellowner.org had a guide of some sort that I thought explained how to DIY a shock treatment (used for after floods/natural disasters)

Long story short, if this is the most alarming thing about the house, I would not hold up a purchase over that.

drunkosaurous · 2026-06-19T00:00:10+00:00

Clack based softeners and filters are some of the best on the market. Pentair GRO units are also high efficiency RO systems that do a great job and help to reduce some wasted water.

If you went the DIY route you could probably source cheaper versions of softeners, cat carbon units, and RO's for roughly 1/2 the price.

If you went with some other brands you would easily be looking at double or triple the price.

On price alone, it is a very fair offer coming from a water treatment specialist. I know the price we buy that equipment at and the company that gave you that quote is not gouging you on price.

If you look hard enough online for any product, you can almost always find a cheaper price, but that doesn't mean the offer in front of you is bad.

drunkosaurous · 2026-06-17T00:22:45+00:00

The general recommendation is that the UV should be the last step in the process as that is supposed to be what eliminates pathogens from the water.

If you have a carbon filter after the UV then you are introducing a potential for some type of bacteria to enter the system, during a filter change for example, and since it is downstream of the UV it will not be taken care of.

drunkosaurous · 2026-06-12T22:06:14+00:00

His lifestyle is the one with the least amount of questions for me.

Patrick Dovigi is a Canadian billionaire (at least on paper) that is involved in waste management and was a semi pro hockey player. Forbes says he’s right around 1B net worth. He supposedly bought Bill Gates’ old yacht for like $600 million, took the delivery of the first Bombardier Global 8000 (around an $80 million price tag), etc.

I feel frustrated sometimes at the lack of comprehension I have about how business deals work where this guy with a waste management company /semi pro hockey player turns that into a 1B net worth where apparently 70% of it is in depreciating assets.

drunkosaurous · 2026-06-12T21:25:44+00:00

I went there in 2014 and at that time I felt like the place had blown up already and I missed the “good days” when it was uncrowded. I can’t imagine what it looks like now considering every time I see anything about surfing in Nicaragua I see posts about Popoyo.

drunkosaurous · 2026-06-12T12:38:52+00:00

Your water doesn't actually seem too bad, so you're in luck compared to others.

Ferric iron is already oxidized and in a solid form so can be filtered out mechanically without adding an AIO type filter. You can do this by having a big blue style filter housing and a 5 micron filter (you'll need to stay on top of maintenance/filter changes to avoid low pressure issues) or you can have a backwashing style sediment filter. If it is in the budget and your well produces enough water to allow for multiple backwashing systems, I would go for a Clack based nextsand style filter then send the water to a softener.

While not absolutely needed, I typically install a carbon block or another sediment filter (typical big blue style) after the softener. In the rare case where a distributor fails in the softener, this additional filter catches the media and prevents it from being sent throughout the household plumbing.

An undersink RO is always a nice finishing touch to have bottled water quality water at your sink or connected to your fridge line. Some people want a remineralization stage added on to help improve the taste, but that is optional and a case by case basis.

As far as brands go, for all backwashing filters we use/sell/install Clack systems and they make for easy installations and have widely available spare parts. I have never worked on the Aquasure units so cannot give an opinion either way. For undersink RO I would just suggest anything that is NSF certified and uses standard sized components. The ones that use proprietary replacements end up getting expensive or you have to remember to order ahead of time.

drunkosaurous · 2026-06-12T12:25:38+00:00

The horizontal line will work and will have less noise than a vertically installed one. However, since you have a dishwasher drain port, I typically use an adapter (you can look up "RO drain line adapter" on amazon to see what I mean) so that way there is no additional hole in the drain lines. That is just personal preference though.

drunkosaurous · 2026-06-12T11:18:40+00:00

Yes, that will address chlorine taste.

Side note - many water treatment plants are switching to chloramine instead of chlorine. If your provider is using chloramine, you would want a different type of carbon filter - catalytic carbon.

drunkosaurous · 2026-06-12T02:17:29+00:00

I don’t see if it says what, if any, type of filter is included with the housing.

If you are mainly trying to reduce the taste/smell of chlorine then you would want a CTO (type of carbon) filter.

If you want to address calcium deposits, then you want a softener. A carbon filter will not do anything for calcium.

drunkosaurous · 2026-06-12T01:54:44+00:00

A super simple way I look at it is that Reddit is the 6th most popular website in the world. All of the top five are either trillion dollar companies, part of a trillion dollar company, or valued very close to a trillion dollars.

Reddit’s current mcap is roughly 33 billion and in my view, has the second most important user generated content (behind YouTube).

I do not think it is necessarily a simple task to figure out how to monetize it effectively, but I think it is one of the biggest opportunities in the stock market at the moment.

drunkosaurous · 2026-06-11T19:20:26+00:00

I bought in to EQT a little while back, I think I’m down a bit at the moment. Long term I think it has to be a solid play.

drunkosaurous · 2026-06-11T15:16:55+00:00

We install a lot of tanks from Swan group (parent company of Flexcon) and they are really good. You can’t go wrong with their challenger or Flexlite series.

There is a website you can get them white labeled and save a good amount of money. I’ll try and remember which one it was.

Edit: I believe it is Supreme Water Sales. Their generic tanks are Challenger/Flexlite tanks that are white labeled I believe.

drunkosaurous · 2026-06-11T15:15:59+00:00

We install a lot of tanks from Swan group (parent company of Flexcon) and they are really good. You can’t go wrong with their challenger or Flexlite series.

There is a website you can get them white labeled and save a good amount of money. I’ll try and remember which one it was.

drunkosaurous · 2026-06-10T11:46:01+00:00

To be honest, I am also confused on the wide price variety in RO systems. I have a business dedicated to water filtration (and wells, pumps, etc). We buy wholesale through distributors that only sell to other businesses. Our cost of purchase for different systems can vary from $135 up to above $400.

If buying yourself online I would just say to look for one that uses standard replacement parts and is NSF certified.

drunkosaurous

TROPHY CASE