Your recent repair? - 2021 to ?

[RobbieB]

The open any valve thing does not work on my water heater. You have to open the pressure relief valve on the heater to drain the water.

 

[NW-Bound]

I made the following sketch to show how opening a water faucet high up on even the 2nd story can fail to allow you to drain water from a water heater on the ground floor.

When you first open the faucet, air enters the pipe but then gurgles up to create an air trap. When the head of the water H2 at the faucet is the same as the head H1 at the water heater, an equilibrium is reached, and the flow of air/water stops.

If the faucet is on the ground floor, the same thing happens if the pipe has a high section in the ceiling. I draw a 2nd floor picture to show that even if the faucet is way higher than the water heater, it still does not work.

 

[mountainsoft]

Replaced the shower head yesterday and now have a full flowing shower again. Yahoo!

While the new shower head is a different style than our original Moen, the antique brass finish matches very well. I was also very surprised at the quality of the new shower head. I'm so used to everything these days being made thin, cheap, and plastic. This thing is solid brass, very heavy and well constructed. It also comes apart easily if we need to clean it in the future.

https://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Brass-K132A3-Adjustable-Antique/dp/B07VGCNBNP

 

[NW-Bound]

Yes, it is pretty amazing that (roughly speaking), they work 2 or 3x better, with 1/2 or 1/3rd the water.

I replaced 2 of 3 toilets in our previous home, and since we were on a well, using 1 vs using 2 gallons per flush really was not an issue at all. I did it for the better flushing...

People in the eastern part of the country are blessed with so much water, it is common to have a sump pump in the basement. Here, a well of 750 ft depth is the norm.

This makes me curious. What is the electricity cost to pump water from that deep, the enquiring mind wants to know. Here goes.

The energy required to lift 1 gallon of water up 750 ft is 8440 Joules, or 0.0023 kWh. So, for 1 kWh costing 10c in most places, you can get 435 gallons with a 100% efficient pump. It's probably 1/2 that in real life.

It's not as expensive as I thought. The problem is the well costs $80k to drill. And there's no guarantee you hit water. And it can run dry in the future.

 

[MC Rider]

Guess I know little about wells, but 750' seems very deep.

$80k is certainly steep too.

 

[ERD50]

I made the following sketch to show how opening a water faucet high up on even the 2nd story can fail to allow you to drain water from a water heater on the ground floor.

When you first open the faucet, air enters the pipe but then gurgles up to create an air trap. When the head of the water H2 at the faucet is the same as the head H1 at the water heater, an equilibrium is reached, and the flow of air/water stops.

If the faucet is on the ground floor, the same thing happens if the pipe has a high section in the ceiling. I draw a 2nd floor picture to show that even if the faucet is way higher than the water heater, it still does not work.

Thanks, I see it now. I hadn't pictured an arrangement like that, our second floor faucets are fed from the floor level up (ceiling of first floor), which is fed from the basement. I was only picturing a few feet of ups/downs to get around obstacles. I suppose in some cases, to get over to another part of the house (especially with a slab), you might have to go up, over, and then down.

People in the eastern part of the country are blessed with so much water, it is common to have a sump pump in the basement. Here, a well of 750 ft depth is the norm.

This makes me curious. What is the electricity cost to pump water from that deep, the enquiring mind wants to know. Here goes.

The energy required to lift 1 gallon of water up 750 ft is 8440 Joules, or 0.0023 kWh. So, for 1 kWh costing 10c in most places, you can get 435 gallons with a 100% efficient pump. It's probably 1/2 that in real life.

It's not as expensive as I thought. The problem is the well costs $80k to drill. And there's no guarantee you hit water. And it can run dry in the future.

Our well water level was just ~ 160'. I never calculated the physics, but I added a clock to the well pump relay to monitor it, and it ran ~ 1 hour/day, convenient to just reset the hands to 12 each Monday morning (I had a reminder alert on my email calendar!), IIRC a 3/4HP pump?, so I roughly assumed 1kWh/day, ~ $0.11 per day.

I don't know how much it cost to drill the well, we weren't original owners.

And of course, the water in the sump pit has nothing to do with the drinking water 160' down. I was told that aquifer was fed hundreds of miles north, and the water might have entered from the surface 100 years ago.

I always meant to hook up some kind of reservoir from the Sump, and use it to water plants and grass, but never got around to it.

-ERD50

 

[NW-Bound]

And of course, the water in the sump pit has nothing to do with the drinking water 160' down. I was told that aquifer was fed hundreds of miles north, and the water might have entered from the surface 100 years ago.

I always meant to hook up some kind of reservoir from the Sump, and use it to water plants and grass, but never got around to it.

-ERD50

That water in the sump pit can kill one if he drinks it.

Here, we are told the water we are pumping up came from rainwater back when the woolly mammoth were roaming. And once the aquifer is pumped dry, one has to wait that long to get water again. Bleak!

A town in the AZ high country already has only 14 wells still pumping out of 40 for their water co-op. Bleak!

 

[Freedom56]

The booster pump on my spa would not start. We did not use the spa through the winter and early spring. So I did some trouble shooting and found that the run capacitor was okay. I then disconnected the front of the pump from the water supply and return lines disassembled the impeller section and rotated it manually a few times. I then turned on the pump motor again and it worked. So I then re-assembled everything and the pump is operational and I saved a bundle not to mention that pump motor that I need is currently on backorder due to high demand.

 

[freedomatlast]

With cooling season upon us, the central A/C system seemed as though it just wasn't as cold as it should be. Checking the differential in air temperatures before and after the evaporator, proved that was the case. Hooked up the gages for R 410A and using the specified subcooling value of 10 degrees, found that the system was a pound and three quarters low on refrigerant. Added refrigerant to achieve the specified subcooling value and all is well. Checked for leaks and couldn't find any. The system is 12 years old and this is the first time it ever needed refrigerant added. Sure glad I bought the refrigerant when a 25 pound cylinder was about $100 instead of the $500 it costs now. And before anyone asks, yes, I'm EPA section 608 certified.

 

[Music Lover]

I thought I was unfortunate but it turned out that we were lucky. It was a cold winter and a long cold spring. The water at our 3 season cabin was still turned off. The wife's kid and a few friends went out last weekend with drinking and cleaning water but we gave them specific instruction on how to see if the well line had thawed and how to turn it on. They tried but didn't get any water so they left it alone.

We went out Wednesday and I gave it a try...still no water. I crawled under the cabin to find out that the line from the well pump consisted of 2 hoses joined with hose clamps. One of them had failed so water was running under the cabin. It was an easy fix. Then while I was sill under I had the wife turn on the well pump to see if it was leaking. It wasn't leaking but there was a substantial leak where it connected to the pressure tank due to corrosion. Had the hose clamp not failed the kids would turned on the water and the leak at the pressure tank would have ran for several days until we got there, possibly longer if I hadn't noticed it.

I didn't have the proper tools with me to remove the corroded fittings and reconnect the line. The guy across the street is a retired plumber. I asked him if he was interested in a small job, he crawled under the cabin and did the repair in less than a half hour. He wouldn't take any money but said I could buy him a case of beer.

It's not my repair as I didn't repair it myself but could have if I would have had the proper tools on hand.

 

[Souschef]

Garage door opener.

I had a strange thing happen. I just got a garage in the apartment building we live in. I was given a remote for the car, and when I tried it, the garage door would open with the remote, but would not close.
The door would close if I pushed the button on the wall, however. I Googled the problem, and found the answer, strange as it was. The two lights in the opener are LED's. According to what I read, the electronics in the LED puts out EMI that jams the receiver in the opener.

I proved it by manually turning off the lights on the wall control, and the door closed with the remote. Solution; replace the LED bulbs with incandescent bulbs.

 

[Sunset]

I had a strange thing happen. I just got a garage in the apartment building we live in. I was given a remote for the car, and when I tried it, the garage door would open with the remote, but would not close.
The door would close if I pushed the button on the wall, however. I Googled the problem, and found the answer, strange as it was. The two lights in the opener are LED's. According to what I read, the electronics in the LED puts out EMI that jams the receiver in the opener.

I proved it by manually turning off the lights on the wall control, and the door closed with the remote. Solution; replace the LED bulbs with incandescent bulbs.

Maybe it's the specific LED bulbs that were used ? I don't seem to have this problem.
Or maybe I take so long, that the light goes out before I press the remote to close the door, so it works.

 

[ERD50]

I had a strange thing happen. I just got a garage in the apartment building we live in. I was given a remote for the car, and when I tried it, the garage door would open with the remote, but would not close.
The door would close if I pushed the button on the wall, however. I Googled the problem, and found the answer, strange as it was. The two lights in the opener are LED's. According to what I read, the electronics in the LED puts out EMI that jams the receiver in the opener.

I proved it by manually turning off the lights on the wall control, and the door closed with the remote. Solution; replace the LED bulbs with incandescent bulbs.

I think this was discussed on this forum earlier, maybe years ago? It is kinda odd, but it certainly is possible, the LED is so close to the receiver, and it does have a switching circuit in it that produces some electrical noise.

Maybe it's the specific LED bulbs that were used ? I don't seem to have this problem.
Or maybe I take so long, that the light goes out before I press the remote to close the door, so it works.

Could be the LEDS, could be the specific receiver's sensitivity to the noise, signal-noise ratios, etc. Or a combination.

I think the old Edison filament bulbs are still available for this application, labelled "rough service" or something.

-ERD50

 

[Time2]

I had a strange thing happen. I just got a garage in the apartment building we live in. I was given a remote for the car, and when I tried it, the garage door would open with the remote, but would not close.
The door would close if I pushed the button on the wall, however. I Googled the problem, and found the answer, strange as it was. The two lights in the opener are LED's. According to what I read, the electronics in the LED puts out EMI that jams the receiver in the opener.

I proved it by manually turning off the lights on the wall control, and the door closed with the remote. Solution; replace the LED bulbs with incandescent bulbs.

In a previous life I repaired VCRs. I got one in where the customer said the remote control doesn't work, upon testing I could not find any problem with it's operation and returned the unit to the customer. I got a call from the customer that they set it up and it still doesn't work. We went back and forth with what was going on and then I remember an article I had recently read about the new (at the time) CFL light bulbs causing over load on the VCRs sensor. I ask if he had recently put any new bulbs in, and he said yes, he got a CFL bulb. I said turn off the light and try it. It worked, so I explained that the CFL bulb had enough light in the same spectrum that the Remote uses and is over loading the sensor. I said you can try to shield the sensor from the CFL bulb or change to a different type bulb.

 

[Lakedog]

My GE Profile refrigerator (around 7 years old) quit cooling a couple of days ago while the bottom freezer was still working fine. Youtube search for this model led me to believe it was likely the evaporator fan so I ordered from Amazon and just installed. I won't know for sure if that was the only problem until I give it time to cool but I do believe that was the issue. Part was around $40. I did run out to Lowes for a mini fridge to use while I waited for the part/repair -- had thought about getting one anyway but this provided the motivation.

 

[aja8888]

My GE Profile refrigerator (around 7 years old) quit cooling a couple of days ago while the bottom freezer was still working fine. Youtube search for this model led me to believe it was likely the evaporator fan so I ordered from Amazon and just installed. I won't know for sure if that was the only problem until I give it time to cool but I do believe that was the issue. Part was around $40. I did run out to Lowes for a mini fridge to use while I waited for the part/repair -- had thought about getting one anyway but this provided the motivation.

I've fixed a lot of fridges over the years. The most common problems are the defrost timer, defrost heater and fan motor. All cheap and easy to replace. Now if a compressor goes out, forget it.

 

[Lakedog]

I've fixed a lot of fridges over the years. The most common problems are the defrost timer, defrost heater and fan motor. All cheap and easy to replace. Now if a compressor goes out, forget it.

The defrost timer and/or heater might be next but most appliance guys on youtube indicate that the fan is almost always the issue on this model. First fridge repair attempt for me but I have done a few repairs (using youtube) on washers/dryers.

 

[ERD50]

The defrost timer and/or heater might be next but most appliance guys on youtube indicate that the fan is almost always the issue on this model. First fridge repair attempt for me but I have done a few repairs (using youtube) on washers/dryers.

Check if the coils froze up - you may need to give it time to defrost?

-ERD50

 

[Lakedog]

Check if the coils froze up - you may need to give it time to defrost?

-ERD50

The coils did freeze up so I cut the power last night, and it finally defrosted by the time I got the part this afternoon. The fan appears to have been the problem as the fridge temp is already down in the 40s and dropping.

 

[skyking1]

I started on the slewing bearing job on the bigger excavator yesterday, and got a little farther along with it today. I capped all the lines to the swivel, then dropped it out the bottom and cleaned it up. The gear bay is half full of grease and whatever water has made it in there in 24 years, so it rained some icky stuff on me.
you can get an idea of the gunk from that wood tooling I made to support it.

Then I jacked the back up with a 50 ton Porta-power, using a 6100 pound concrete block for dunnage that we happened to have.
I have it up about 3.5" in the back and have some daylight on the gear there.

The front half I lifted with the excavator itself, then I stacked 3" worth of channel iron under it until I can get back to the job.

There is the new bearing, about 500 pounds worth of machined rings, bearings, retainers and seals. It also has the ring gear.

 

[MC Rider]

I find it hard to grok what that kind of stuff weighs.
I guess that is why it is called heavy equipment.

 

[skyking1]

the track assembly is about 10,000 pounds. I will disconnect the sun gears in the planetary drives and drag it out from under with my mini excavator.
It will not move and is automatically braked where ever I park it, hence the need to remove the sun gears.
The stuff that will be hanging up there, the house and engine and whatnot weighs about 17,000 pounds.

 

[Souschef]

I had a strange thing happen. I just got a garage in the apartment building we live in. I was given a remote for the car, and when I tried it, the garage door would open with the remote, but would not close.
The door would close if I pushed the button on the wall, however. I Googled the problem, and found the answer, strange as it was. The two lights in the opener are LED's. According to what I read, the electronics in the LED puts out EMI that jams the receiver in the opener.

I proved it by manually turning off the lights on the wall control, and the door closed with the remote. Solution; replace the LED bulbs with incandescent bulbs.

Follow up:
The maintenance people came by and removed the two LED bulbs, and the opener worked fine. When I get a chance I will get a couple of incandescent bulbs. The garage has a big window and a fluorescent light, so there is no hurry.

 

[Time2]

Back to repairing my Kenmore side by side refrigerator, again. The water valve ass'y that controls water to the door or the ice machine started leaking. I got out the manual for the part number, I see I replaced this part 5 years and one month ago! The part is $48 local or $22 from Amazon, I put the part on order and shut of the water to the fridge. Part was expected to arrive next Monday, but I got it Friday! Compressor is running so I'm killing time for it to get cool before I unplug it.
About three weeks ago it would only serve crushed ice, I have previously made that repair also, it is a 1/8" roll pin that works it's way out of the solenoid plunger. So, I thought OK take it apart, but I know I wrapped it with tape so the pin could not come out, but maybe... Well the pin was in place but the external bracket around the solenoid had come apart. Hmm... I had already epoxied this together on another repair. But I don't see any better repair (without a tack weld) than what I did, so I cleaned it up and put on a thicker layer of epoxy. The bracket has tiny ears that are supposed to engage, but they are pretty worn, I tapped them into place as well as I could, and then let the epoxy cure. Put it back together and it worked. Ahh, darn compressor is still running, still need to change the valve.
The compressor shut off, valve went in with little difficulty and it didn't leak, so I hope I get more than 5 years from this valve assembly! The hardest part was getting off the floor several times during the repair.
The mind feels young, the body, no so much!

 

[euro]

Back to repairing my Kenmore side by side refrigerator, again. The water valve ass'y that controls water to the door or the ice machine started leaking. I got out the manual for the part number, I see I replaced this part 5 years and one month ago! The part is $48 local or $22 from Amazon, I put the part on order and shut of the water to the fridge. Part was expected to arrive next Monday, but I got it Friday! Compressor is running so I'm killing time for it to get cool before I unplug it.
About three weeks ago it would only serve crushed ice, I have previously made that repair also, it is a 1/8" roll pin that works it's way out of the solenoid plunger. So, I thought OK take it apart, but I know I wrapped it with tape so the pin could not come out, but maybe... Well the pin was in place but the external bracket around the solenoid had come apart. Hmm... I had already epoxied this together on another repair. But I don't see any better repair (without a tack weld) than what I did, so I cleaned it up and put on a thicker layer of epoxy. The bracket has tiny ears that are supposed to engage, but they are pretty worn, I tapped them into place as well as I could, and then let the epoxy cure. Put it back together and it worked. Ahh, darn compressor is still running, still need to change the valve.
The compressor shut off, valve went in with little difficulty and it didn't leak, so I hope I get more than 5 years from this valve assembly! The hardest part was getting off the floor several times during the repair.
The mind feels young, the body, no so much!

Sounds like virtually all your refrigerator trouble have to do with water/ice maker dispenser. This is why I got rid of my ice makers (including in all my rental properties) a long time ago. Just not worth the effort to us (we use very little ice and can easily deal with ice trays for what we use). Very few refrigerator repairs since....