Your recent repair? - 2021 to ?

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Music Lover Because it draws a lot of current and can drain the battery faster than it can recharge. The owner's manual even suggests not to overuse it for that reason. I also like to use the heated steering wheel and seats in winter to make it more comfortable so there's additional drain on the battery, but a heated windshield is rarely required.

Thanks, makes sense.

[Time2]

I went to bed last night when I got to the 'end of the internet'. I got up this morning and the my computer was dead. I pulled out the power supply and found the fuse was open. I clip leaded a fuse in and it immediately blew, I unplugged all the power supply cables from the motherboard and tried a second fuse, it also blew. I drove to Best Buy, paid $64 for a new power supply and installed it in the computer. It fired right up and is working fine.
It was going on 3 hrs without my computer, I got it fixed just as I was starting withdrawals.

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Time2 I went to bed last night when I got to the 'end of the internet'. I got up this morning and the my computer was dead. I pulled out the power supply and found the fuse was open. I clip leaded a fuse in and it immediately blew, I unplugged all the power supply cables from the motherboard and tried a second fuse, it also blew. I drove to Best Buy, paid $64 for a new power supply and installed it in the computer. It fired right up and is working fine. It was going on 3 hrs without my computer, I got it fixed just as I was starting withdrawals.

You need to have a spare. That's why I have two extra Chromebooks and and an old laptop on Linux in reserve. I love my big desktop but who knows?

[Music Lover]

I fixed my cordless trimmer today, it had a broken wire right by the motor. A little tricky because I only had a half inch to work with but I managed to connect it back together with a small wire nut.

[stephenson]

Generac time!

Controller would not program and rpm speed sense kept shutting down auto start sequence.

Bit of online research - bad ground or power from battery, and also required pulling power for the controller itself with one of the sets of wires.

Worked!

[braumeister]

My Cuisinart food processor, 35 or 40 years old, had a bit of the plastic connector break right where it's critical for the connection, making it unusable. They haven't made the replacement part in many years, and none were available anywhere, not even eBay. The closest thing I could find was a whole replacement assembly for over $150, so I decided to try an epoxy fix of the old one. Less than $7 so worth a try, even if I was skeptical.

Been using it for a month now and it seems rock solid. JB Weld to the rescue again!

[Walt34]

I finally gave up on fixing the icemaker for the refrigerator. All of the following events are a minimum of two days apart or less. First it leaked at the bend in the plastic tubing on the pressure side. Then it leaked at the low pressure side after the solenoid. Then I gave up on plastic tubing and went "old school" with copper tubing for the pressure side. That worked on one day, then leaked at the refrigerator connection. Fixed that, then it leaked at the water valve. Went through this cycle again. Fixed both, then it worked fine for a week, but with the refrigerator pulled about six feet out from the wall. When I pushed it back, the valve on the wall started leaking. At that point I gave up and called a plumber to replace the valve at the wall. And DW was ready to buy not only a new refrigerator, but a whole new house, which seemed a bit extreme to me.

Decision time: Other than the icemaker, the refrigerator works fine. A set of old-school plastic ice cube trays is $3 on Amazon vs. $700++++ for a new refrigerator. Heck, both of us grew up with the really old fashioned aluminum ice cube trays that you needed a strong arm to break the ice free, so the plastic ones are much better. So - Is an automatic icemaker worth a thousand bucks, plus or minus?

NO!

I really, really, hate plumbing.

[MC Rider]

On our last frig we gave up on the icemaker when a couple repair guys could not fix it. A few years later the in door water stopped working, then all the lights quit. But, it kept the beer cold and the ice frozen.
So, we lived with it. and it was included in the sale of that house.

The new house one is super sized. May it live forever. I don't even want to think about pulling it out.

[Music Lover]

More of a replacement than a repair. About 12 years ago I bought 5 outside lights for the house and garage but made the mistake of buying lights with built in LEDs. 2 of them have started flickering so I replaced all 5, but these ones use replaceable LED bulbs.

I also replaced a damaged door piston at my parents house.

[Walt34]

Pipes with water in them hate me. I know that now, given the frequency that they leak. I'm reminded of the book and movie Christine.

This morning (VERY early this morning) I step into the bathroom for a moment and find there is water on the floor near the toilet. This is pretty much never a good thing.

Fortunately (this time, anyway) I find that it is easy to fix because the little tube that sends water into the larger tube of the flushing mechanism has come loose and is spraying water at the top of the tank lid, which in turn runs down the outside of the tank onto the floor. It only takes one towel to clean up.

But why is it that these things always happen at 2:00 AM instead of 2:00 PM?

[euro]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Music Lover More of a replacement than a repair. About 12 years ago I bought 5 outside lights for the house and garage but made the mistake of buying lights with built in LEDs. 2 of them have started flickering so I replaced all 5, but these ones use replaceable LED bulbs. I also replaced a damaged door piston at my parents house.

Yes,, I learned exactly the same lesson the hard way. Alas, in my case "only" 3 lights were involved. I guess way back when the LEDs first came out, there was the thought that they would literally last a lifetime, so the built in design made sense. Well, turns out they last not even close to a lifetime. In fact, I already had to replace the bulbs on two of the three "new" replacement lights.

[Retired Expat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by euro Yes,, I learned exactly the same lesson the hard way. Alas, in my case "only" 3 lights were involved. I guess way back when the LEDs first came out, there was the thought that they would literally last a lifetime, so the built in design made sense. Well, turns out they last not even close to a lifetime. In fact, I already had to replace the bulbs on two of the three "new" replacement lights.

With LED’s it all seems to depend on the quality of the bulb. Here is South America the locally available LED lights (5 watt GU10 , kind of like a 50 watt MR 16). can last 1-2 years. Ones I brought from the US are still going!

[Music Lover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Retired Expat With LED’s it all seems to depend on the quality of the bulb. Here is South America the locally available LED lights (5 watt GU10 , kind of like a 50 watt MR 16). can last 1-2 years. Ones I brought from the US are still going!

I'm not overly concerned if an LED bulb fails, in fact my entire house is filled with LED bulbs (replaceable) and none of them have failed except for the outside lights with the non-replaceable built LEDs.

It's not a total loss, the new outside lights were inexpensive ($35) and are more attractive, and the remaining 3 will be repurposed on my sheds.

[Ronstar]

Ordered a new mirror and replaced this:

[Sunset]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronstar Ordered a new mirror and replaced this:

Was this a case of backing out of the garage and catching the edge of the mirror ?
It's something that I continually worry about as I back out and skim past the edge. I wish we had a 2.5 car garage, just to have extra space.

[Ronstar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunset Was this a case of backing out of the garage and catching the edge of the mirror ? It's something that I continually worry about as I back out and skim past the edge. I wish we had a 2.5 car garage, just to have extra space.

Yep. I started turning too early while backing out to line up to pull out a tree. Wasn’t thinking about the garage door opening. Only thinking about lining up the truck to take out the tree.

[skyking1]

I cut off a split fitting on the irrigation system, rummaged around in my box of stuff for a fitting, and got the irrigation water turned on. We have a system that I drain out every year when I remember. This time I got caught out by a freaky early hard freeze last fall.
We picked up a bunch of annuals and will plant some hanging pots and fence boxes.
I have a drip system and timer for that.

[Car-Guy]

We had another round of very severe weather pass through (lot's of lighting) and then I noticed two problems that needed my attention. Problem #1, The main electric swing gate to the property wouldn't open or close all the way. It's 10+years old so I thought for sure it was just worn out or maybe the battery wasn't charging anymore or maybe the control board took a power surge. So I grabbed a few hand tools and VOM and got on my 4 wheeler and drove down to the gate to check it out. I found several of the support brackets had worked their way loose, so in about ~10 minutes I had them all tightened up. Tested it out and to my surprise it opened and closed perfectly again.

On to problem #2. One of the alarms on my aerobic septic was on. The treated water tank was almost full and wasn't discharging. Checked the control box and found a circuit breaker had tripped. Reset it and the pump started immediately. Almost positive it was due to a power hit from the recent electrical storms.

Anyway, two problems today that took me a total of <30 minutes and zero dollars to fix. I can live with that.


Ah, life in the country.

[grasshopper]

Meanwhile back at the ranch, I replaced a 20 yo well pump. Replaced all the pipe sitting in static water. $3500.

[BruinBones]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronstar Ordered a new mirror and replaced this:

That looks exactly like my daughter's passenger side view mirror a few years ago when she was a teenage driver. She tried to jury rig a repair with duct tape!
I ordered an exact fit from rockauto.com and replaced it with assistance from a tutorial on YouTube.