Your recent repair? 2013 - 2020

[aja8888]

I scored a bunch of stainless nuts and bolts for cheap and I was pleased to replace a rusty bolt and nut on my camper's propane bracket. I ran the new stainless bolt home with an electric impact gun, but realized that I had it misaligned. The gun would not back it off so I got a big ratchet and reefed on it. The bolt twisted in two. So, I got my first lesson in stainless steel galling.

My bold. Thought you started it with the impact wrench and it was misaligned. I guess you started it by hand and had it misaligned and then ran it home, correct?

On another note, why use an impact wrench on what I perceive is a fairly small not and bolt?

 

[travelover]

My bold. Thought you started it with the impact wrench and it was misaligned. I guess you started it by hand and had it misaligned and then ran it home, correct?



On another note, why use an impact wrench on what I perceive is a fairly small not and bolt?

No. It was never misaligned. The issue was that stainless steel fasteners will gall and cold weld themselves in a situation where a regular steel fastener would not. I used a small cordless impact gun because it was in an awkward spot to use a ratchet and there were a lot of threads to be taken up as it tightened.


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[RobbieB]

I scored a bunch of stainless nuts and bolts for cheap

I think that may be the problem.

 

[travelover]

I think that may be the problem.

I don't follow you. The bolts were first quality, I just bought them from a recycling yard where they were scrapped along with a bunch of precision test fixtures. The issue is that stainless steel fasteners cannot be tightened in the same manner as conventional steel fasteners. Did you read the link in my original post?


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[template]

I replaced the broken door latch on our Maytag dishwasher. Apparently, this is a common weak part of several Maytag and Whirlpool models.

Youtube videos showed how to replace the assembly and I bought the part for $21 through Amazon.com.

 

[RobbieB]

I know that SS is not as hard as carbon steel, but I've never had a problem with "cold welding" either. I have sheared off rusted on nuts from muffler clamps which are pretty cheap carbon steel.

I was all happy about telling pops how I got them clamps off fast by just breaking the bolts and he gave me a ton of crap about how I was supposed to use penetrating oil and heat them a little with the torch so I wouldn't have to pay a dollar for new ones.

 

[John Galt III]

Plumbing time. Opened door to basement and wondered why it was so warm and humid. Yep, leaking water heater. Have isolated it , I think, to the temp and pressure relief valve THREADS where they screw into the water heater. The TPR valve is right on top, in the middle of the wh. Will have to buy a tool to cut off the copper drain tube which comes out of the TPR valve. The plan is to remove TPR valve, clean it up and the hole in the wh, add some teflon tape, and reinsert into wh. Why it started leaking at the threads, who knows. Too many years of hot water under pressure, maybe. It looks like the threads have some white sealant substance on them, which may have just dissolved over the years.

 

[keegs]

Plumbing time. Opened door to basement and wondered why it was so warm and humid. Yep, leaking water heater. Have isolated it , I think, to the temp and pressure relief valve THREADS where they screw into the water heater. The TPR valve is right on top, in the middle of the wh. Will have to buy a tool to cut off the copper drain tube which comes out of the TPR valve. The plan is to remove TPR valve, clean it up and the hole in the wh, add some teflon tape, and reinsert into wh. Why it started leaking at the threads, who knows. Too many years of hot water under pressure, maybe. It looks like the threads have some white sealant substance on them, which may have just dissolved over the years.

is it an electric heater? could it be electrolysis?

 

[keegs]

I've been fixing up the snow blower and the lawn mower. They are getting up in years but both seem to have lots of life left in them. The deck on the lawnmower was cracked and needed welding. That and a can of paint cost me $25. The snow blower needed a drive cable an oil change and a minor tune up.

 

[John Galt III]

is it an electric heater? could it be electrolysis?

Yes, 50 gallon Rheem electric. pretty old.

 

[aja8888]

Yes, 50 gallon Rheem electric. pretty old.

Electrolysis or just plain corrosion of the threads. You are lucky to get 10 years out of a modern hot water heater these days.

 

[travelover]

Yes, 50 gallon Rheem electric. pretty old.

If you have a floor drain nearby, you can put the heater in a pan with a drain tube which will direct any leak to the floor drain instead of flooding your basement. I have a gas heater, which requires an aluminum pan instead of plastic and the pan corroded through where the legs sit on the concrete. So, go plastic if you can, when you replace it.

 

[Sunset]

Plumbing time. ......The TPR valve is right on top, in the middle of the wh. Will have to buy a tool to cut off the copper drain tube which comes out of the TPR valve. The plan is to remove TPR valve, clean it up and the hole in the wh, add some teflon tape, and reinsert into wh. Why it started leaking at the threads, who knows. Too many years of hot water under pressure, maybe. It looks like the threads have some white sealant substance on them, which may have just dissolved over the years.

My old and new water heater TPR valve have the discharge pipe screw into the TPR valve, mine was on the side of the water heater near the top.
Not actually on the top.

 

[harley]

Got a guy coming here in about an hour to give us an estimate. We had a Nor'easter a few days ago, and the rain was coming in horizontally. We noticed water dripping inside around a window frame. We had a similar problem when we built the house 8 years ago, and after the builder and Anderson Windows went three or four rounds into the "it's the other guy's fault" game, we finally took the drywall out around our two story room's upper window and DW stood outside with a garden hose and proved it was the install. She sprayed the window and we watched from the inside as the water flowed in and down the studs to drip out around the lower window frames. Anyway, the builder had somebody take off the siding and re-flash/seal the Tyvek. But I'm suspecting it's the same problem, and that maybe they did a half-assed job that only shows up when the weather is extreme. And we do get some extreme weather out here. The builder is dead now, but hopefully this guy (or one of the others we'll get quotes from) can fix it right.

 

[sengsational]

We had a blowing rain leak when I moved into this house, 20 years ago. I didn't do anything at the time but monitor the situation. Never happened again! I suppose it could be stealthfully rotting my house, but many close inspections didn't turn up anything. Not the right approach, especially for a DIY guy like me.

 

[Sunset]

If it happened 8 years ago possibly they used cheap (not silicone) caulking, which has dried up and cracked allowing the water in.
Could be a very simple fix on the outside replacing the caulking.

 

[samclem]

Plumbing time. Have isolated it , I think, to the temp and pressure relief valve THREADS where they screw into the water heater.

I hope your repair plan works. It may be a long shot, just due to the age of the WH and the likelihood of breaking something else as you try to get the TPR valve off and then back on tight enough to prevent more leaks. I'd start that job with a fresh TPR valve at hand, the folks at Lowes are used to seeing me at the "return desk" after a job like this.

Electrolysis or just plain corrosion of the threads. You are lucky to get 10 years out of a modern hot water heater these days.

I saw a "powered anode" product and think I might install in my 3 year old WH. It replaces the sacrificial anode that comes stock in the water heater, and it never wears out. It uses just 1/2 watt of electricity. The stock sacrificial anodes do not last long in my softened water, and that means I need to replace them (a PITA) or buy a new water heater every few years. Here's a FAQ on these powered anodes. At $250 they aren't cheap, but if I can do it once and get my WH to last 15-20 years it will be well worth it.

Disclaimer: I have no association with the above site/business. I also saw what I think is a similar product sold elsewhere for about $20 less, but since I learned of the thing at his site and he seems to provide a lot of info/support on his site, I'd probably buy from him.

 

[REWahoo]

60" LG plasma TV stopped [-]answering the bell[/-] turning on even thought the standby light indicates it is getting power. Local repair shops estimated somewhere in the $250 range, and that's only if I bring the heavy monster in for repairs. No thanks to both the cost and the back strain.

Online troubleshooting sites indicate two possible causes, the most likely requiring the replacement of the "YSUS board" and suggested replacing two other associated boards at the same time. Worth a try and $90 later the boards are replaced - and the TV still won't turn on.

The set is less than three years old and I'm debating whether to spend another $50 to replace the power board indicated as the other possible cause or to cut my losses and move on. This is the second "brand name" TV I've had fail before their third birthday - not a good trend.

 

[RobbieB]

That is weird, I gave my 10 yr old Samsung plasma to my girlfriend when I bought a 50.

Now replacing the subwoofer amp amp in my office (computer) stereo. I was using a car head unit and car sub amp and the head unit died. Just going with a plate amplifier and building a little wood frame for it.

 

[Sunset]

60" LG plasma TV stopped [-]answering the bell[/-] turning on even thought the standby light indicates it is getting power. Local repair shops estimated somewhere in the $250 range, and that's only if I bring the heavy monster in for repairs. No thanks to both the cost and the back strain.

Online troubleshooting sites indicate two possible causes, the most likely requiring the replacement of the "YSUS board" and suggested replacing two other associated boards at the same time. Worth a try and $90 later the boards are replaced - and the TV still won't turn on.

The set is less than three years old and I'm debating whether to spend another $50 to replace the power board indicated as the other possible cause or to cut my losses and move on. This is the second "brand name" TV I've had fail before their third birthday - not a good trend.

How long is the warranty it came with, and if you bought it on a credit card, some extend the warranty automatically.

Sounds like rotten luck, or perhaps your electricity is fluctuating a lot, and having your tv on a $50 UPS would smooth out the juice and allow the tv's to last longer ?

 

[broadway]

floor standing fan

The blades would not rotate.

According to an "expert" on Youtube, 90% of this type of fan failure was due to the fan capacitor going bad.

Bought a new fan capacitor on eBay.

Still the same symtom.

I guess the motor went bad. Don't want to dissable that.

 

[REWahoo]

How long is the warranty it came with, and if you bought it on a credit card, some extend the warranty automatically.

Made me look. I purchased the set in Jan 2014 and it had a one-year warranty. The card (Visa) doubles the mfg. warranty up to a maximum of 24 months.

...perhaps your electricity is fluctuating a lot, and having your tv on a $50 UPS would smooth out the juice and allow the tv's to last longer ?

Possible, but I suspect the culprit was a couple of thunderstorms. Last year a nearby lightning strike zapped my DirecTV box and my router. I already have the TV, computer, router, DirecTV box and all other associated peripherals plugged into a substantial surge protector, which didn't prevent the damage. Probably came through the satellite antenna wiring.

I'm blaming it on bad karma. I should have been nicer in my youth...

 

[ERD50]

...

Possible, but I suspect the culprit was a couple of thunderstorms. Last year a nearby lightning strike zapped my DirecTV box and my router. I already have the TV, computer, router, DirecTV box and all other associated peripherals plugged into a substantial surge protector, which didn't prevent the damage. Probably came through the satellite antenna wiring. ...

That probably was it. Knock on wood, but our TVs have all lasted far longer than DW wanted . I was thinking that the new flat screens, while they should be more reliable than CRTs, might be worse if they were just skimping on quality. But every flat screen that I know of in our extended family just keep plunking along. The small one in our kitchen is the first we bought, it's ten years old now and still going strong.

And these are mostly the 'value brand' Vizio TVs, not 'high end' Sony level.

I've had worse luck with low end receivers. The get flaky (turn on/off in the middle of the night, randomly change channels, inputs, volume), and no real way to fix them, everything is controlled by the internal computer. So now I just get a simple small switching amp, and feed it with a digital music player - simple, and it works.

-ERD50

 

[John Galt III]

I hope your repair plan works. It may be a long shot, just due to the age of the WH and the likelihood of breaking something else as you try to get the TPR valve off and then back on tight enough to prevent more leaks. I'd start that job with a fresh TPR valve at hand, the folks at Lowes are used to seeing me at the "return desk" after a job like this.



I saw a "powered anode" product and think I might install in my 3 year old WH. It replaces the sacrificial anode that comes stock in the water heater, and it never wears out. It uses just 1/2 watt of electricity. The stock sacrificial anodes do not last long in my softened water, and that means I need to replace them (a PITA) or buy a new water heater every few years. Here's a FAQ on these powered anodes. At $250 they aren't cheap, but if I can do it once and get my WH to last 15-20 years it will be well worth it.

Disclaimer: I have no association with the above site/business. I also saw what I think is a similar product sold elsewhere for about $20 less, but since I learned of the thing at his site and he seems to provide a lot of info/support on his site, I'd probably buy from him.

I think this WH is 20 years old. My warranty was only 6 years, so I'm doing OK, I guess.

Not much progress so far. Bought a 14 inch pipe wrench and am trying to get the TPR valve out. Soaking the threads in Liquid Wrench too. Won't budge. Plan A is to get the TPR valve out, clean the threads, wrap with teflon tape, reinsert and hope teflon seals up whatever corroded spots there are. I think the corrosion might be on the WH threads, and not on the TPR threads.

Saw another 50 gal Rheem WH at Home Depot for $368. Will have to find out what their contractor charges for installation. I used a HD contractor to install my current WH 20 years ago, and was happy with the price then, which I think was under $100 !

I never tried to replace the sacrificial anode. Apparently they are very hard to get out. The plumbing guy at Lowes said nobody ever replaces them.

I guess I could install the WH myself. I would have to cut 2 copper pipes and use sharkbites to connect them to the WH. I'm not familiar with copper pipe soldering. Very basic electrical wiring hookup. Seems easy, but....

 

[Sunset]

When I did mine, I bought it at HD as I was going to do it myself. Ours was gas and I had issues with the black gas pipe. We cannot use flex pipe in IL. (dumb).

So I phoned couple of places for the install, telling them I already had the waterheater.
One was $500 , the other was $250
I had already searched and talked to HD, and they would not give a firm price since it's really sub'd out and the guy doing it wants the ability to up the charge for unexpected issues.

For the single price of $250 they took the old tank with them.

Without a tank the $500 place said normally it's $1,000 and the $250 place said it's $800 so separating out the work and the tank paid off for me.

Be sure to measure the width and height of your old tank as they now come in various sizes.