Your recent repair? - 2021 to ?

[harley]

But who knows? They still call Bathrooms/Restrooms "Washrooms" in Canada. What am I washing?

Hopefully your hands!

 

[Music Lover]

But who knows? They still call Bathrooms/Restrooms "Washrooms" in Canada. What am I washing?

Washroom makes sense because you can wash or shower in there. I don't get "restroom" though.

 

[JoeWras]

Hopefully your hands!

Nah, I just rest them. Gives time for whatever is on them to dissipate.


BTW, I grew up in an area of the USA where "washroom" was fairly common. So when I go to Canada, I feel like I'm bilingual.

 

[JoeWras]

Sometimes you just have to improvise. Did this quick, temporary fix for the non-profit. We need it for the next 5 days, so this isn't permanent. Pinhole leak in the copper fixed with rubber hose and a clamp.

 

[Walt34]

Pinhole leak in the copper fixed with rubber hose and a clamp.

I did that at my mother's house on a Christmas morning when a pipe picked that day to spring a leak. Cut off a piece of the garden hose and went to a gas station for some heater hose clamps like you show.

 

[yhoomajor]

Sometimes you just have to improvise. Did this quick, temporary fix for the non-profit. We need it for the next 5 days, so this isn't permanent. Pinhole leak in the copper fixed with rubber hose and a clamp.

Nice, thanks for sharing. Any idea why this won't be a semi-permanent fix? Lets say for couple of years? Does it matter if its not exposed to sun? Is it the rubber that decomposes over time? Or the water pressure causing havoc on rubber around the pinhole?

 

[Walt34]

Nice, thanks for sharing. Any idea why this won't be a semi-permanent fix? Lets say for couple of years?

I can't speak for JoeWras of course but usually when you see something like that the whole underlying pipe is deteriorating and will need replacement very soon. The repair shown is usually just a stopgap measure unless you know the cause of the hole (such as somebody accidentally drilled a hole in it). And even then the rubber won't last as long as the pipe.

So then that raises the question: "How lucky do you feel?"

 

[JoeWras]

A few things:

1) My horde came into use! So many of us have junk laying around. My pile includes an old hose. Bingo, it came in use!

2) Permanence: Yeah, rubber can deteriorate and in a "saddle" situation it is not considered permanent. Saddle valves for icemakers are no longer allowed by code, because they leak. But it usually takes decades. This building may get remodelled in a few years so maybe we'll run with it.

3) Underlying cause: Walt hit on the main point. If you have pinhole leaks, there's a concern there are more. However, it can be a one-off. Almost exactly 3 years ago, I detailed another leak I had at home. I fixed that with a Sharkbite, and so far, so good. No other leaks. BTW, Sharkbites have rubber in them but they are code approved due to the design and blah, blah.

For this current fix, the source was a freeze that pushed apart a joint. This is actually over a joint. That's really not good and one reason it may not be too permanent because the copper is likely deformed too.

 

[Music Lover]

Sometimes you just have to improvise. Did this quick, temporary fix for the non-profit. We need it for the next 5 days, so this isn't permanent. Pinhole leak in the copper fixed with rubber hose and a clamp.

I keep a couple Sharkbites on hand for emergency repairs, but looking at your pic there wouldn't have been room for one.

 

[freedomatlast]

A few things:

BTW, Sharkbites have rubber in them but they are code approved due to the design and blah, blah.

The "rubber" seal in the Sharkbite is actually a thermoplastic elastomer.

 

[JoeWras]

The "rubber" seal in the Sharkbite is actually a thermoplastic elastomer.

Cool. Thanks. Not my father's O-rings.

I keep a couple Sharkbites on hand for emergency repairs, but looking at your pic there wouldn't have been room for one.

That was for the other side. This is a utility chase that has suffered multiple freezes through the years. Copper is great, unless it freezes. This sharkbite fix actually fixes an older traditional copper fix. Must be a low spot. We're going to have to do a re-plumb some day.

 

[freedomatlast]

If it freezes again, you can reuse the same sharkbites but consider replacing the copper with PEX since it's much less likely to split when frozen, than copper.

 

[Music Lover]

The plumber that used to do work on my wife's parent's cabin said he doesn't trust Sharkbites for 3-season places. I have used 4 over the last 2 years to temporarily fix leaks and agree as 2 of them failed after winter.

I've since replaced all the old coper with pex, moved all of the plumbing inside, and will be heating the place this winter so hopefully my plumbing problems are over.

 

[JoeWras]

Yeah, this is all temporary. We replumbed a campground area with PEX and it has held up much better.

 

[NW-Bound]

After spending 3 nights up at the high-country boondocks home, I had to go back to the low-desert home. When I went to the water heater in the garage to switch it back on, I heard weird noises. It turned out to come from the water leakage sensor that I installed a while back. Apparently, the leak started soon after I left home, and the 9V battery that powers the alarm has run down, and the loud siren turned into a weird insect-like buzzing noise.

Went to HD to get a replacement 50-gal WH for $589 after tax. It's installed and running, though I have to wait till tomorrow morning when it's not as hot to sweat a new pipe for the TPR valve which is situated differently from the old WH.

I had no record showing when I bought the old WH, but it must be quite old, or at least earlier than 2010 when I started tracking expenses with Quicken. A safety label on the WH has the date of 2008, so that is about right. These come with only a 6-year warranty.

PS. The leak was still slow. I saw just a bit more than 1/4" of water in the plastic drip pan, and it has not overflowed the pan. This is the 1st time I caught a leak before it made a mess in the garage, wetting a lot of stuff I stored there.

 

[bjorn2bwild]

The Maytag gas dryer here was not heating properly - the igniter would light the flame, burn a few seconds, then go out.
A little searching indicated a likely fault in one or both of the gas solenoid valve coils. Fortunately, this model had a handy access panel for easy parts removal.
Maytag parts wanted ~$40 plus shipping, I found some on Amazon for $8.40 delivered, so took a chance.
Two days later, we are back in business, I like when that happens.

 

[Telly]

The Maytag gas dryer here was not heating properly - the igniter would light the flame, burn a few seconds, then go out.
A little searching indicated a likely fault in one or both of the gas solenoid valve coils. Fortunately, this model had a handy access panel for easy parts removal.
Maytag parts wanted ~$40 plus shipping, I found some on Amazon for $8.40 delivered, so took a chance.
Two days later, we are back in business, I like when that happens.

A couple years ago I did the exact same job on our decades-old Kenmore (made by Whirlpool) dryer. One coil is two-terminal, the other is 3-terminal. One of them opened up, don't remember which. I went with Whirlpool FSP parts, from one of the online appliance parts places. Or maybe it was Sears parts online.

 

[bjorn2bwild]

A couple years ago I did the exact same job on our decades-old Kenmore (made by Whirlpool) dryer. One coil is two-terminal, the other is 3-terminal. One of them opened up, don't remember which. I went with Whirlpool FSP parts, from one of the online appliance parts places. Or maybe it was Sears parts online.

Sounds like the same parts, they are shared by Whirlpool and a few other brands.
The number of vendors on Amazon offering the parts suggest this is a common point of failure.
For someone else tackling the diagnosis, both of the old coils had continuity, just not enough field strength to keep the valve open more than a few seconds.
While I was at it, I replaced the old vinyl slinky with a flexible aluminum vent to reduce the fire hazard. We are house sitting for some dear friends, this was done as a favor.

 

[JoeWras]

Saved $8,500 yesterday

OK, maybe I didn't save $8,500. I absolutely, definitely saved $250. Let me explain.

We're in our hottest heat wave of the year in the southeast. My AC went out. I successfully diagnosed the problem as a failed start up capacitor. I replaced the capacitor for $20. This definitely saved $250 for a repair call, perhaps more.

My sort-of-joke about $8,500 is due to the fact that many companies may recommend a full replacement of the system. Oh, they may make this fix, but the story goes like this: "Your system is 24 years old, it is on borrowed time. I can make this quick patch, but let me have our sales department call you to get you a modern system."

For them, the timing is perfect. It will soon be between seasons. Keep their workers busy.

For me, I'm going to hold onto this R-22 system as long as possible. It is built like a tank. The installer was a master at brazing copper. R-22 runs lower pressure, and isn't as likely to leak. Yeah, it is 24 years old. It may go out tomorrow, but it may also last another 5 years. I don't touch the service ports and have no intention of anyone touching those schrader valves until it finally dies. The last time they were opened was 2001.

Repair timeline:
- Woke up a 3AM, felt warm, didn't hear any noises at all, complete silence
- Temperature was rising and failing to achieve set point, uh oh
- Went outside, compressor is not running, flipped breaker and hear a 500 ms attempt at a start (loud buzz) then nothing
- Wait until dawn, open unit, see capacitor is swollen and oil leaked. That's an easy diagnosis of a failure. You can see the picture below, the top connection is crowned and if you look hard, you can see oil dropped out too.
- Order device at 7:30am on Amazon. $20.
- Device arrives at 3:05pm
- AC back running at 3:30pm. Good thing, it was hottest day, 102F degrees

 

[Qs Laptop]

Repair timeline:
- Woke up a 3AM, felt warm, didn't hear any noises at all, complete silence
- Temperature was rising and failing to achieve set point, uh oh
- Went outside, compressor is not running, flipped breaker and hear a 500 ms attempt at a start (loud buzz) then nothing
- Wait until dawn, open unit, see capacitor is swollen and oil leaked. That's an easy diagnosis of a failure. You can see the picture below, the top connection is crowned and if you look hard, you can see oil dropped out too.
- Order device at 7:30am on Amazon. $20.
- Device arrives at 3:05pm
- AC back running at 3:30pm. Good thing, it was hottest day, 102F degrees

Nicely done!

I had a similar problem with the start-up capacitor on the blower fan several years ago. I got lucky because the nearby Lennox parts supplier let me buy from them on a Saturday morning. Even though my HVAC system was Carrier they had the right part. IIRC, the part was around $4.00.

 

[bjorn2bwild]

I had three AC capacitor failures within 2-3 years on the rental house I have been maintaining.

I don't know whether or not these large size caps were part of the great 'capacitor plague' of 1999-2007. In any case, only one showed a slight swelling, the other two looked perfect.
When the failure is on the fan side only, the blade can be push started to buy a little time (get through the night) while sourcing the replacement.

 

[JoeWras]

I had three AC capacitor failures within 2-3 years on the rental house I have been maintaining.

I don't know whether or not these large size caps were part of the great 'capacitor plague' of 1999-2007. In any case, only one showed a slight swelling, the other two looked perfect.
When the failure is on the fan side only, the blade can be push started to buy a little time (get through the night) while sourcing the replacement.

I was disappointed by this capacitor. I replaced it in 2015. That was the original from the unit installed in 1999. So the first one got 16 years.

As you say, that failure was the fan only. The compressor started, which was a bit alarming because the unit was just sitting there cooking, with no air flow to draw away the heat.

This time the compressor was a no-go. Fan didn't come on either, but that may be tied to the state of the compressor. Or the whole cap was blown.

 

[John Galt III]

I thought my trans fluid drip was getting worse, under my 1988 GTA Trans Am, but it turned out to be an antifreeze leak. I traced it up to a 7 inch length of heater hose in front of the air intake. Old and rotted. Removed the old hose, will go out today to Autozone for a new foot of hose. Surprising how much effort it was to get the old one off. Without damaging any of the other stuff in the area. Waiting for that feeling of satisfaction when I hook up the new hose !

This was one of those 15 minute jobs that turns into a multi-hour job. See pics of Wittek clamps. Ended up using regular 'worm gear' hose clamps. I had lots of 'dead ends' during this job, which weren't really dead ends. Thought I could not use regular clamps at one point. I needed a pre-molded hose. Can't just bend a piece of heater hose, since it would kink. Most frustrating part of the task was not being home for long enough to order the hose, and be sure to be home when it showed up on my doorstep. Away from home too much, and unpredictable when. About the Wittek clamps. Some people love them, some hate them. Most just try to use the regular clamps instead. The clamps being replaced were on my 1988 GTA Firebird and some folks wanted me to reuse the old Wittek clamps, or use new ones, since they were the original clamps, lol. I got the molded hose online for $7 plus $5 shipping. Not bad. All hooked up and working fine now, no more leak. Next project may be to locate source of transmission fluid drip in same car.

 

[5Miler]

For me, I'm going to hold onto this R-22 system as long as possible. It is built like a tank. The installer was a master at brazing copper. R-22 runs lower pressure, and isn't as likely to leak. Yeah, it is 24 years old. It may go out tomorrow, but it may also last another 5 years. I don't touch the service ports and have no intention of anyone touching those schrader valves until it finally dies. The last time they were opened was 2001.

I've been down this road as well since I have two HVAC systems in my Atlanta area home. One for downstairs is about 12 years old while the upstairs system covering the bedrooms is now 32 years old. I had a capacitor failure on the downstairs systems about 5 years ago but fastest Amazon delivery was two days. Fortunately my buddy had a spare capacitor the right size so I was back running the same day. My friend had a new system installed and his spare capacitor no longer worked for his new system.

Since then I keep a spare capacitor around. At a cost of $7.50 it's pretty cheap insurance. Odds are that since I now have a spare, I'll never need it.

 

[Sunset]

OK, maybe I didn't save $8,500. I absolutely, definitely saved $250. Let me explain.

We're in our hottest heat wave of the year in the southeast. My AC went out. I successfully diagnosed the problem as a failed start up capacitor. I replaced the capacitor for $20. This definitely saved $250 for a repair call, perhaps more.

Great work !

My sort-of-joke about $8,500 is due to the fact that many companies may recommend a full replacement of the system. Oh, they may make this fix, but the story goes like this: "Your system is 24 years old, it is on borrowed time. I can make this quick patch, but let me have our sales department call you to get you a modern system."
.....

+1

At my rental
Once had a valve/the coil for the A/C go bad.
Cost to fix would be $1,600 but lucky me I had a maintenance agreement that covered it.
Tech told me the system is 10 years old and they could offer $1,500 off the price and just replace the system with a new one.

I went with the free repair (replace the coil) as I figure it will last a few more years , and later found out they often have $1,500 off coupons..