Your recent repair? 2013 - 2020

[sengsational]

Is it possible the low voltage situation is only at that plug or just on the wire run? And some other load is causing the voltage drop to the TV through the poor connection. Food for thought.

I'll try it with an extension cord!

How about plugging the tv into a UPS power supply, to see if the voltage drop is enough to trigger the power supply to activate ?

I did that, but the UPS' battery is shot, so doesn't prove much, I guess. But if we get a true brown out, the UPS (with the shot battery) does change modes (alerts), and it doesn't alert with all these TV blackouts.


Interesting that the computer monitor is doing the same thing. A fan does sound like EMI since those don't seem to have a big start up draw.

 

[KarlH]

My most recent repair was the long overdue caulking of the gaps in our self-installed sauna. Hit 180 degrees F (finally) for the first time. We are approaching the sauna of my childhood that occasionally creeped up to 200.

 

[REWahoo]

The ceiling light in the "his" closet in our bedroom stopped working. It uses T8 fluorescent bulbs, as do the fixtures in our garage and another closet. As these bulbs burn out I have been replacing them with LED bulbs designed as a direct replacement (no need to bypass the ballast wiring).

When installed, the replacement LED bulbs lit with only a dim glow. I then tried a couple of new fluorescent bulbs I had on hand but they also didn't work. Had to be a bad ballast.

A replacement ballast is a PITA to rewire, especially on the 10ft high ceiling of a closet with limited room to open a large step ladder. For that reason, and because I needed a replacement wraparound lens for one of the fixtures in the garage, I opted to buy and install an entirely new fixture. The new fixture was $32, less than the cost of a ballast ($20) and a replacement lens ($25). Not only was a new fixture less expensive, but removing and replacing the entire fixture was less work than replacing and rewiring the ballast alone (a spider web of wires).

End result: Working light in the closet, no more broken lens in the garage, and I saved $13

 

[sengsational]

I figure I'll put in a call to the power company. I'll let you all know how that goes...maybe I'll hang around and ask about the state's regs.

I don't think anyone came out to the house. At least we didn't have a power interruption. The emailed back with:

Thank you for your momentary low voltage inquiry. Below is your meter test results:

 

[Telly]

Yeah, I question that what was needed was actually done. I'll assume that you have a smart meter, and they just read some parameters remotely. Somewhere, I can't find it now, I saved off details that I found on the Landis+Gyr AXR-SD smart meter right after our neighborhood was all changed to smart meters some years ago.

Ours scrolls through numbers on its LCD, peak kW that I see in your printout is one of them, that is just the maximum ever recorded load from the house since meter installation or meter reset. Our meter quit sending out its signal earlier this year. I sure didn't know it did, but the scanning system detected it as no report for a long enough time, and a guy was sent out to swap out our meter. He programmed the then-present kWhr reading of the old meter into the new meter, and verified that it could be read remotely. I verified that both L1 and L2 were active (check that a 240v load works, like cooktop or pool pump motor) before he left. After he left, the peak kW peak detector reading was low, just the load on in the house at the moment. I checked back when I remembered a few days later, it was back up to the old peak load reading, as all A/Cs had run with pool pump, etc. to get peak demand back up there.

To do the load test that was done on mine, requires someone to come out with the load box (dummy load), and really load your service, to see how much voltage droop there is under a very heavy load. Just measuring voltage remotely isn't going to do that. They can't remotely load your service.

Just a note to others, many smart meters, mine included, have the ability to remotely disconnect service, and to set up a power-monitoring/power limiting scheme for people who don't pay their bills. The Landis+Gyr with a -SD model name suffix is for "Service Disconnect". A recalcitrant customer can be warned and then their power limited to just a light load, say like a refrig and a couple lights, customer uses anything more than that, the meter measures it, the scanning system see's it, sends the service disconnect command, and customer is without power. A few time of that I guess pokes the customer to paying their bill. If not, then meter is commanded to service disconnect, and until customer pays all the bills, or a big deposit and agrees to a monitored payment plan, no power for you! No need to send anyone out to the site.

 

[JoeWras]

Latest repair: ROOF.

The latest heat caused some screws and nails to back out of flashings. The flashing popped, the nail popped, and during a heavy rain, we had a beautiful capillary action incident drawing a lot of water through the nail hole -- which was covered just fine in caulk. The water came through the gap between the flashing and shingle, UP roof, via capillary action.

I had to re-caulk and put down a few stainless screws instead of nails. Should do the trick for a year or two. It is time for a new roof anyway, something I'm dreading.

 

[Walt34]

The new carburetor for the Honda FG100A1 tiller (that's the little one about the size of a Mantis) arrived from Amazon today. Swapped the old one out, two or three pulls on the rope and it started right up and ran fine. I did need to adjust the idle speed but I'll grant that might be hard to do from China.

 

[travelover]

The new carburetor for the Honda FG100A1 tiller (that's the little one about the size of a Mantis) arrived from Amazon today. Swapped the old one out, two or three pulls on the rope and it started right up and ran fine. I did need to adjust the idle speed but I'll grant that might be hard to do from China.

I put one of these Chinese carbs on a Mantis tiller and it ran great and for the price of a gasket set from Mantis.

 

[CardsFan]

Latest repair:

I have an old hard piped gas grill in the patio area. Guessing at least 20 yo (we have been here 10). A week ago both valves shot craps. one would not turn on, one would not turn off.

I got on line with a place that has supplied good parts in the past (https://www.appliancefactoryparts.com/). They had the part for just under $100, including shipping. Sounds pricey, and it is, but it was the right part, and a replacement grill is over $1,000!!.

Took a while to figure how to get it apart (should have you-tubed, I know), but all went well. Even did a soap bubble test on the gas connection, just to be sure.

 

[Walt34]

Even did a soap bubble test on the gas connection, just to be sure.

Well, that can work, but the real test is when you light a match and hold it close to the joints.

 

[travelover]

Well, that can work, but the real test is when you light a match and hold it close to the joints.

My late FIL, a chief building inspector, always checked his gas connections with a match and, no, he lived to a ripe old age dying of natural causes. Me, I use soapy water.

 

[Chuckanut]

Your recent repair?

My late FIL, a chief building inspector, always checked his gas connections with a match and, no, he lived to a ripe old age dying of natural causes. Me, I use soapy water.

We used to sing this song as kids. To the tune of My Bonnie.


My Bonnie looked into her gas tank
The height of its contents to see
She lit a match to assist her
Oh bring back my Bonnie to me

 

[grasshopper]

More of a suprise than a repair. Had a 30 ft Palo Verde tree topple over in the yard last week. Called my neighbor up to borrow a chainsaw. So I had a couple of days before I would see my neighbor, so just for stupids sake I went and got my chainsaw out of the barn. Now I haven't used it in the past 20 years, but I had some gas/oil mix left over from my 2 cycle weed wacker days with some boost in it. Filled the chain lube and gas tank, third pull and it started right up. I still can't believe it, but sawed everything up and I am a happy grasshopper.

 

[sengsational]

Gluing on a new headliner

Must be a common thing, based on my searching, that the headliner fabric comes away from the foam on Honda Accords after 13 years. Mine did. I couldn't see out the rear view mirror, and couldn't just peel off the fabric because the foam under it was flaking off in globs. I just yanked out the headliner and was tempted to just clean off the foam and put it back in (like I said, old car, and I don't care much about aesthetics), but I paid $70 and glued new foam backed fabric to the headliner. I made a half-heart attempt at a how-to video...It was a challenge shooting while spraying glue, so I didn't even try. And getting the dang thing installed again was more of a pain than I thought. And hard to shoot inside the car. But I did take what I had and made a video, for those of you who have time to expend on such trivia.

 

[Walt34]

When I went downstairs this morning I noticed that the dehumidifier was not running. It runs 24/7 from about May until mid November around here. Then noticed the water pan was full, which was why it shut off. That's not supposed to happen because I have a hose connected that runs to a condensate pump to get the water outside.

Okay, check the hose and it's clear. And literally, because it's a clear plastic hose I can see into. Usually when a dehumidifier clogs it's because of a dust build-up in the drain pan somewhere clogging the outlet. So I take the thing apart and find absolutely nothing. Put it all back together and it seems to be working fine so I hesitate to say that I "fixed" it. Maybe just some kind of air gap thingy going on there that wouldn't let the hose drain to the condensate pump? I have no idea, but it works now.

 

[sengsational]

So many times that's happened to me:

• doesn't work
• take it apart
• scratch head
• put it back together
• it works

Then people think I'm some kind of fix-it genius, but I really didn't do anything

 

[RE2Boys]

I had inherited a Craftsman Hedge Trimmer 18 inch bar that had stopped working and suspected the power switch. Turns out one of the wires to the switch had broken probably from years of vibration. bypassed the connector and soldered the wire directly to the slide switch and works again. Vaguely remembered that I had a folder with some manuals for equipment that came with the house (I'm in my parent's custom built (1963) ranch where I spent my teen years) and found the manual and parts break down.....the manual was dated 1973, about right. Amazing it still operates and does the jobs I need it to do after 40+ years.

 

[harley]

When I went downstairs this morning I noticed that the dehumidifier was not running. It runs 24/7 from about May until mid November around here. Then noticed the water pan was full, which was why it shut off. That's not supposed to happen because I have a hose connected that runs to a condensate pump to get the water outside.

Okay, check the hose and it's clear. And literally, because it's a clear plastic hose I can see into. Usually when a dehumidifier clogs it's because of a dust build-up in the drain pan somewhere clogging the outlet. So I take the thing apart and find absolutely nothing. Put it all back together and it seems to be working fine so I hesitate to say that I "fixed" it. Maybe just some kind of air gap thingy going on there that wouldn't let the hose drain to the condensate pump? I have no idea, but it works now.

I've had this problem many times, and usually just whacking the bucket back into place fixes the problem. Dehumidifiers vibrate and the bucket can occasionally shake loose. It's an easy fix with a wrap of duct tape to hold it in place. I use white duct tape for color coordination. The grey looks less attractive, but still does the job.

 

[Donno]

Recently my living room TV just turned itself off and it wouldn't power back on. I did a search for the problem and found a YouTube video of someone with the same problem on a 32" model of the same generation of my approximately 10 year old 46" Samsung. I decided I wasn't willing to go buy a new TV and thought I'd try and fix the one I had so I took it apart and checked the power supply just like the guy in the video and sure enough the fuse on the power supply had blown. A closer inspection inspection of the circuit board revealed a couple of bad components so I ordered a replacement.
A few days later the part was delivered and I installed it, put the cover back on and spent a total time of about 20 minutes and $60 dollars so far. Put the TV back in place and hooked up the cables and nothing, it was just like before. I was a little peeved that I seemed to have wasted $60 and when I started to unhook everything and go buy a new set I noticed I didn't plug the power cable in. Plugged in the power cable and it has worked perfectly for the last few weeks. My first TV repair was a success.

 

[travelover]

............ A closer inspection inspection of the circuit board revealed a couple of bad components so I ordered a replacement..............

What else was bad and how did you determine the badness?

 

[homestead]

Our RV air conditioner stopped working. Blowing warm air, but I could tell the compressor would try to startup for a second or two. Got on the roof and measured the 5/50 startup capacitor. Fan side measured 5uf , compressor side measured 1.5uf instead of 50uf. Found a replacement part on ebay for $20. Must be lot of them failing since lots of places were out of stock. Put the new one in today and it works great.

 

[Sunset]

Our RV air conditioner stopped working. Blowing warm air, but I could tell the compressor would try to startup for a second or two. Got on the roof and measured the 5/50 startup capacitor. Fan side measured 5uf , compressor side measured 1.5uf instead of 50uf. Found a replacement part on ebay for $20. Must be lot of them failing since lots of places were out of stock. Put the new one in today and it works great.

Made me look how to test them, so next time instead of simply replacing mine (which worked). I'll test it to be sure I'm not wasting my time fixing something not broke.

 

[sengsational]

Our RV air conditioner stopped working. Blowing warm air, but I could tell the compressor would try to startup for a second or two. Got on the roof and measured the 5/50 startup capacitor. Fan side measured 5uf , compressor side measured 1.5uf instead of 50uf. Found a replacement part on ebay for $20. Must be lot of them failing since lots of places were out of stock. Put the new one in today and it works great.

For $20 you're back in business! When I see topics like "A/C Blew Up", and they immediately start pondering getting an entirely new system, I just shake my head. That's fine if they knew what went bad and if it was something that's not easy to repair or replace, but when they have no idea and just say "I got a good decade out of it". Yeah, and it might have another decade if you dropped in a new capacitor!

Like my 13 year old microwave. I could have thrown it out and got a new one, but instead I replaced a door interlock switch. That was "free", because I had pulled some switches out of a REALLY old microwave that I threw out. I seriously doubt you'll want to watch it, but I made a repair video on the door interlock switches of my GE microwave

 

[Walt34]

I seriously doubt you'll want to watch it, but I made a repair video on the door interlock switches of my GE microwave.

Somewhere, sometime, someone will be very grateful that you posted that video. I know that I am grateful for all the people who do that and have saved me collectively thousands of dollars.

 

[Gumby]

I recently found that moisture somehow had gotten into my wristwatch -- an old Timex Expedition - and the inside of the crystal was fogging up. I figured that could not be good for the mechanism. So I took the strap off, took the back cover off and put the watch in a plastic bag with a pack of silica gel dessicant overnight. That did the trick. I put everything back together and the watch is returned to normal.

Not a big repair, but someone might find it useful.