Blowing Up the Longhouse
— Dr_Insensitive_Jerk (@DrInsensitive) November 1, 2024
By law, this heater is equipped with a thermal switch that shuts off the gas if the flame goes out. It is marketed as a safety feature, but it is something else entirely.
This post will not attract engagements, because our culture has been successfully… pic.twitter.com/kdDnAiOtII
This is just a simple example of the even more extreme long-housing of small engine plastic gasoline containers.
It is damned nigh impossible to get modern gas containers to drain successfully using the built-in no-flow spout.
I say no-flow because that is clearly the priority here.
The solution is to buy a normal spout off Amazon, intended (I presume) for five gallon water jugs.
Or buy the D-cell battery operated siphon that pumps gas very efficiently out of your gas container with the idiotic spout/plug removed.
That siphon pumps a lot of gas very fast. So what is gained by the unusable spout? I suppose it prevents spillage should the container fall off a shelf. Gee, but I can remember the days when one did that with a spout that had a screw-on plug. Of course in those days the container was metal.
That’s why my primary lawnmower gasoline container is a 1950’s USMC Jerry Can.
That why you get Jerry cans if you can find them.
Yep, an outdoor heater does not need a “thermal shutoff” of that kind, and even from a safety POV, it’s worse than not having one (because systems can malfunction, while systems that don’t exist, can’t).
As as for gas cans, I got a rude shock when I tried to buy a replacement for my ancient one (had to, the plastic had gone brittle). Utterly unsuited for the purpose. My new one is a 5 gallon metal water can, which has an engine-oil filler for a spout. Works great.
I bought and read his SF novel “God’s Girlfriend”. Enjoyed it. He’s obviously encountered the Australian bureaucracy.
“because systems can malfunction, while systems that don’t exist, can’t”
The best part is no part.
My personal peeve is the idiot candle lighters where you have to push a switch forward with your thumb while you pull the trigger to get it to light. They really treat us all like children.
Waiting for the day they outlaw matches. They already outlawed self strikers made with Wille Pete back in 1912.
Well taxed them out of existence… re; Match Act of 1912.
Phossy jaw was no joke
Such lighters get some surgery the day I bring them home. PITA, of course, death of a thousand cuts.
The rant is just a rant, as most rants are. I have the large Mr. Heater Buddy, which has the thermal switch, and which I use indoors. It’s not that annoying. Yes, it can be attached to a 25lb tank, and the newer ones come with two tank valves, so it can be attached to 50lbs of tanks.
On the other hand, I use my spill proof plastic gas can with the spout on the floor, pouring the gas into the mower with a funnel. Safety gizmos that can’t work are definitely annoying.
And as long as I’m on my own rant, fix the fucking thermal switch. I know people who replace a $2K stove because they don’t know the $20 oven thermostat can be replaced. Of course, right now I’m trying to figure out how to remove the anti-siphon device from my 25yo truck because it’s plugged up. Using a borescope down the gas hole was unnerving.
And I’m not an engineer, just a mechanic.
First Starship, now Peanut and Fred.
What’s the history behind “longhouse”? I gather someone wrote a book extolling the virtues of matriarchal living in a communal society (which I guess would be the “longhouse”?), but past that, I’m not really getting the point of mentioning it.
I think the idea is not having to share a communal space with a bunch of unrelated “Karens” and having to abide by their illogical and capricious rules.
Here’s what ChatGPT has to say about it:
A longhouse is a large, rectangular dwelling traditionally built by various indigenous cultures, especially in North America, Northern Europe, and Asia. Typically, longhouses were made of wood or other natural materials and could house multiple families or extended family groups under one roof. They usually had a central corridor with living spaces on either side, and fires or hearths were placed along the center for warmth and cooking. Longhouses were commonly used by Indigenous groups like the Iroquois in North America and by early medieval communities in Scandinavia and other parts of Northern Europe.
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-longhouse