Your recent repair? - 2021 to ?

[homestead]

Our internet went out this morning and turns out the cause was hundreds of tiny ants in our FIOS box. I turned it off and killed all the ants. The circuit board was covered with ants. Don't know what attracted them to the box. Disassembled the box and cleaned it.
Put alcohol on the circuit board and cleaned it with a small brush. Reassembled all the pieces and was surprised when it worked normally.

 

[Sunset]

I had 2 suitcases where the handles stopped coming out all the way. One was stuck fully closed.

I watched some you tube videos, but nobody had my suitcases, however I noticed some commonality in the handle engineering.

I took mine apart, saw the ball bearings were rusted, and soaked them in vinigar overnight, then wiped them clean of rust and greased them and reassembled and now the suitcases work perfectly.

I did it as follows:
Undid the screws holding the bottom handle tubes to the bottom plastic bracket. White circles.
Undid the ALL the screws holding the top inside plastic bracket.
Wiggled the outside plastic bracket as it had pegs going into holes in the case and the entire handle pulled out. It has the outer bracket on it in photo.
Pulled the tubes apart while pushing down the ball bearing.

On the small carry-on suit case, I couldn't get the tubes apart, so I just greased the ball bearing where it remained.

 

[mountainsoft]

We decided we'll just wait for it to fail

That was my original plan too, but after our well pump died suddenly and left us without water for three days, we decided to be proactive. I wanted to go with a heat pump water heater, but they don't work well with recirculating systems, and we didn't have enough space in the alcove or air exchange in the utility room. Our 55 gallon electric water heater cost about $950 with another couple hundred or so for other miscellaneous supplies. It cost just over $6 to drop off the old tank as scrap at the dump.

I'm glad we didn't wait, as no one had them in stock and it took about three weeks to get the heater. It would not be fun to go three weeks without hot water if it had failed.

Did you have some hot water faucets open in the house so air could enter? If not, certainly it would take much longer to drain.

Yep, and the hoses were all disconnected from the heater within 20 minutes or so. I didn't see much sediment come out, but maybe it was clogging the flow. Still, from what I read online a couple hours is fairly typical for an 80 gallon tank to drain.

 

[Surewhitey]

4 years & 10 months ago we remodeled the kitchen and I put in a fancy motion sensor faucet. Well the handle housing broke, I tried to fix it and it was a big fail.

Contacted the manufacturer and luckily it has a 5 year warranty. They're shipping me the part free... Score!

 

[BlueberryPie]

I have never worked on cars before except for changing my oil once 30 years ago (I didn't know what to do with the used oil), or changing the odd lightbulbs.
When I had my tires replaced late last year they told me my front struts needed replaced.
I looked it up on YouTube and decided I could do it. and I did.
When I took the car in for re-alignment after changing the struts, they told me my brake pads were low, so I hit YouTube again, bought new pads and replaced them. Even bled the brakes as part of it.

Who knew working on cars was that easy? (and involves getting greasy, and a lot of swearing at stuck bolts).

 

[frank]

I have never worked on cars before except for changing my oil once 30 years ago (I didn't know what to do with the used oil), or changing the odd lightbulbs.
When I had my tires replaced late last year they told me my front struts needed replaced.
I looked it up on YouTube and decided I could do it. and I did.
When I took the car in for re-alignment after changing the struts, they told me my brake pads were low, so I hit YouTube again, bought new pads and replaced them. Even bled the brakes as part of it.

Who knew working on cars was that easy? (and involves getting greasy, and a lot of swearing at stuck bolts).

youtube is one of the greatest do it yourself tools out there. When I have a problem with anything around the house I check there first to see what is involved so I know how big of a job is coming up.

 

[SJhawkins]

4 years & 10 months ago we remodeled the kitchen and I put in a fancy motion sensor faucet. Well the handle housing broke, I tried to fix it and it was a big fail.

Contacted the manufacturer and luckily it has a 5 year warranty. They're shipping me the part free... Score!

Mine did the same deal, was an American Standard. Was able to get a hose clamp in there to shore it back up, that fix lasted a good 5 year. Just ditched the old faucet last week with the replacement of new counters, sink, etc.

BTW the old faucet had a pile of corrosion on bottom along with the handel that went south, was a little disappointed, bought what I thought was the best faucet at the time 10-12 years ago. The good news I guess the cartridge never went bad!

 

[mountainsoft]

Repair FAILURE - Tablet Battery Replacement

The battery in my three year old Dragon Touch Max10 tablet started failing. Initially it started draining faster, then it wouldn't charge up more than 7% or so. It worked great otherwise, so I thought I would see if I could fix it. After looking around a bit I actually found a replacement battery from a company in China. It only cost $28 with shipping, which I figured was worth the gamble, and took a bit over two weeks to arrive. While I waited I also picked up a set of plastic "opening tools", for another $16.

I received the battery so yesterday I actually managed to get the case open without breaking anything. Then I carefully removed the battery, unplugging it internally, and using one of the tools in the pack to cut through the double sided tape on the back side of the battery. Everything was going well, except the ribbon cable over the top of the battery got in the way. I removed the cable, and installed the new battery. All went well up to this point. That's when I discovered I had accidentally broken the lever that locks the ribbon cable in the connector. Dang! I was so close...

I tried several things to secure the cable in the connector, eventually wedging some electrical tape in the connector to hold the ribbon in place. The tablet fired up (80% charge still on the new battery) and opened to the lock screen. I thought I was home free. Unfortunately, the touch control doesn't work, so I can't open the lock screen or do anything with the tablet. I don't know if I damaged the cable fussing with it so much, or if my makeshift tape clamp didn't work completely.

I did more research and actually found the exact ribbon cable on Ali Express ($15 +shipping). I could probably have tracked down a new connector, but that would have been more money and my old eyes have a hard time with those tiny parts these days. And there's still no guarantee things would work after doing all that.

So, with already $44 invested in the old tablet I decided to cut my losses and get a new tablet instead. I just ordered a new Samsung A9+ tablet that should be here Wednesday.

It sucks that modern electronics aren't made with easily replaceable batteries. This perfectly good tablet is now ewaste just because the battery failed.

 

[BlueberryPie]

I had a similar experience with my wife's brand new laptop. She set it on the floor one time and managed to drop something heavy on it, breaking the screen. I ordered a new LCD panel from China (took about a week to get here) and managed to break the connector the ribbon cable seats into, and no wedging/taping seemed to work.
so I reassembled the laptop without the top/screen half and told her it was now a table top computer than needed to be plugged into an external screen.

Next time I'll take it to work and ask one of our techs with steady hands and years of practice to plug the cable in for me

 

[euro]

Our internet went out this morning and turns out the cause was hundreds of tiny ants in our FIOS box. I turned it off and killed all the ants. The circuit board was covered with ants. Don't know what attracted them to the box. Disassembled the box and cleaned it.
Put alcohol on the circuit board and cleaned it with a small brush. Reassembled all the pieces and was surprised when it worked normally.

Exactely the same issue shut down my heatpump unit a couple of years ago. And just like yours, once the ants were cleared off, it jumped back to life. I thought that was amazing as I expected SOMETHING to have shorted out for sure. But no, just some bad connections made by the ants...

 

[mountainsoft]

I had a similar experience with my wife's brand new laptop. She set it on the floor one time and managed to drop something heavy on it, breaking the screen. I ordered a new LCD panel from China (took about a week to get here) and managed to break the connector the ribbon cable seats into, and no wedging/taping seemed to work.

It has been many years since I've done any real electronics work, so the FPC connectors were new to me. I didn't realize the little lever just swiveled up to unlock the cable. I know now, a little too late... Odds are I'll never need to know again.

 

[ncbill]

It has been many years since I've done any real electronics work, so the FPC connectors were new to me. I didn't realize the little lever just swiveled up to unlock the cable. I know now, a little too late... Odds are I'll never need to know again.

even pros get it wrong.

my iPad was too old by a year or so to be swapped via Apple so I had a local 3rd party company do a battery replacement.

they managed to partially damage the digitizer...screen is fine but a small area is now non-responsive.

 

[Walt34]

A few months ago I discovered that the sill plate for the shed doors underneath the screened-in porch wasn't really attached to anything and what was holding it in place was pretty much gravity and friction. The trouble with that is, the double doors are locked in place with a pole inside one of the doors that goes into a hole in the sill plate. But nothing had been stolen in the last 20+ years so I didn't make it a priority until the weather warmed up.

The floor in the shed is concrete that was poured at the same time as the basement floor. So I got my regular drill and the SDS plus drill and drilled holes in the sill plate and the underlying concrete for some Tapcon screws and used half a dozen screws to secure the sill plate from sliding. Hopefully that'll hold for the duration.

 

[homestead]

Exactely the same issue shut down my heatpump unit a couple of years ago. And just like yours, once the ants were cleared off, it jumped back to life. I thought that was amazing as I expected SOMETHING to have shorted out for sure. But no, just some bad connections made by the ants...

Hmmm, Must be something on the circuit boards that attract them.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2008/05/why-do-crazy-rasberry-ants-infest-electronic-devices.html#

Research has shown that some ant species are capable of detecting electromagnetic fields and may even use the Earth’s magnetic field as a directional cue as they search for food or nest sites. Their attraction to man-made electrical devices may be an accidental evolutionary byproduct of this natural ability.

 

[mountainsoft]

even pros get it wrong.

my iPad was too old by a year or so to be swapped via Apple so I had a local 3rd party company do a battery replacement.

they managed to partially damage the digitizer...screen is fine but a small area is now non-responsive.

These situations could be avoided if they would just make the batteries easier to replace. Unscrew an access panel for instance. For some reason it seems everything now days is made to avoid screws. Light switch covers, car panels, appliance panels, electronics, etc. Snaps, clips, etc. that all break and rattle. What's wrong with screws?

Even though I managed to get my old tablet open without breaking anything, it's kind of a brutal process trying to unclip the perimeter of the case. A few screws to remove the back panel would have been so much easier and less likely to cause damage.

Screws... Oh how I miss thee...

 

[ERD50]

... What's wrong with screws? ... Screws... Oh how I miss thee...

I feel your pain, but...

I recall from my manufacturing career, the mfg engineers HATED screws. I wasn't too directly involved with those issues (I was on the electrical side), but I know it was a constant battle to keep all the drivers torque settings calibrated. Remember, in small, personal electronics, the battle is to make everything smaller, lighter. So those screws are tiny. That means the plastic holes they go into need to be very precise. And a screw only provides a force at that once spot. It was a battle to keep them holding strong, but not stripping.

... These situations could be avoided if they would just make the batteries easier to replace. Unscrew an access panel for instance. For some reason it seems everything now days is made to avoid screws. Light switch covers, car panels, appliance panels, electronics, etc. Snaps, clips, etc. that all break and rattle. ...

Again, the battle for weight and size. And now, more than ever - water-proof designations. Every opening is another potential entrance point for water.

Gluing these things together seems to be the common approach. I thought maybe I could fix an old iPad - the connector was getting flaky and it took 20 tries to get it to charge. But it involved heating enough to loosen the glue, but not enough to damage anything. I wasn't up to the task.

But I agree with you, I think it has got to extremes. I really wish the environmental groups would get after some support for products with replaceable batteries. So many things hit the landfill before their time, just because the battery went bad, and it's too hard to replace.

So maybe everyone should pay a deposit for the battery in the device (like lead-acid car batteries). If you absolutely need/want the smallest device with a hard-to-replace battery, you should pay a premium deposit to remove that battery for recycling. That would create demand for slightly clunkier products, that most of us might prefer.

-ERD50

 

[Sunset]

We really liked our (nokia) microsoft smart phones, as they had replaceable batteries, much like a digital camera has.
New battery was ~$10

Unfortunately, it seems a rare or obsolete idea.

 

[BlueberryPie]

I just discovered dry rot at the exterior door jamb of my front door today. Looks like I need to replace maybe a door or each side..it might be easier to replace the entire length, I haven't had much time to look at it and ponder, but it looks like you need to buy wood pre-milled into a specific profile.

 

[calmloki]

Our Roomba, Rosie, has been a faithful collector of cat hair for years - she even went through partial submersion for a week after a waterline broke while we were up north. Still worked, sorta, after I cleaned contacts, but she was getting kinda gimpy. Lo and behold at a yard sale this weekend i came upon another Roomba, newer, with some issues. Had a grand parts clean and swap-a-rama and we now are running a LiOn battery vs NiCad and retaining Rosie's side brush unit. If I could get the WiFi on the newer unit to speak to me it would be Alexa-rific, but even so, progress for the princely sum of $3 and fun.

 

[mountainsoft]

I just discovered dry rot at the exterior door jamb of my front door today. Looks like I need to replace maybe a door or each side..it might be easier to replace the entire length, I haven't had much time to look at it and ponder, but it looks like you need to buy wood pre-milled into a specific profile.

I replaced a couple of exterior door jambs a couple years ago due to rot in the bottom corners (wicking up moisture from the bottom). The doors themselves were fine, so I made careful measurements of the door height, width, hinge sizes/shape/locations (to the 1/16"). Then I went to Home Depot and ordered COMPOSITE door frames based on my measurements. I pulled the door from the old jamb, replaced the jamb, moved the hinges to the new jamb, and reinstalled the door. They worked perfectly, and the Composite jambs won't rot like the old wood jambs.

I also add Jamsill pans beneath the doors for added protection while I had things apart. https://jamsill.com/

 

[mountainsoft]

Gluing these things together seems to be the common approach.

I received my new Samsung A9+ tablet yesterday. It has an aluminum case and no visible seams anywhere. As you said, I'm guessing it's glued together and certainly not something that is ever meant to come apart again. Sadly, once the battery dies it will just be more ewaste. So far it seems like a nice tablet though.

 

[mountainsoft]

Mini Split Fan Motor Replacement

After just three years, the fan motor in the indoor unit of our Mr Cool mini-split started making a squeaky noise. It sounded like loud crickets chirping all day long. Not loud, but extremely annoying over time.

I contacted Mr Cool and after a few email exchanges they agreed to send a new motor. "Free" warranty part with $45 shipping. Still, cheaper than new. They also sent a link to a YouTube video on how to replace it.

I watched the video 3-4 times, turned off the power, and started pulling ours apart. A bit tricky working 9 feet in the air over the kitchen stove, but manageable. Naturally, our model is different than the one in the video and other than the outer casing nothing else was the same. So it took a long time to figure out how to dismantle the unit to get to the fan. Then it was really tricky getting to the set screw that connected the fan to the motor. I had to have my wife climb up and help hold things while I got that loose.

Eventually I got the old motor out and the new one in. Slowly reassembled everything, turned it on.... and the fan was rubbing. Dang. So it all came apart again and we had to loosen the set screw and carefully adjust the position of the fan so it wouldn't rub.

Reassemble again, almost done, realized I forgot a screw on one of the inside covers. So, disassemble again to fix that. Overall I think I had to take the unit apart about 4-5 times for various reasons. Unfortunately, (as usual) some of the plastic clips on the surround broke off in the process, but once it was all reassembled it all worked nicely with no vibration and no fan noise. Yay!

However, when I turned the unit on the fan worked perfectly, but it wouldn't heat or cool. I feared we had cracked a refrigerant line or something fussing with it so many times. Tired and frustrated I gave up and walked away for an hour or two. I gave it another try later and everything started working again. I don't know why, but very relieved. Maybe the temp sensors were too hot from me handling them. Who knows. I'm just glad it works, and am thankful the squeaking is gone.

 

[mountainsoft]

Catalytic Converter Heat Shield

My car developed a really annoying rattle in the exhaust. I lived with it for a few months but it was getting really bad lately. So I climbed under the car yesterday and tracked the noise down to loose heat shields on my catalytic converter. They were only held on with six spot welds, half of which were broke. The others broke when I was poking around with a screwdriver to find the noise, so I just took off the heat shields. No more noise!

My car has it's own heat shield in the exhaust tunnel, and most of the other aftermarket converters don't have shields anyway, so I'm not too worried about the extra heat.

I did see some videos on YouTube to use large hose clamps to secure the shields in place. So I might try that in the future if I get motivated enough to jack the car up and climb underneath again.

 

[homestead]

After just three years, the fan motor in the indoor unit of our Mr Cool mini-split started making a squeaky noise. It sounded like loud crickets chirping all day long. Not loud, but extremely annoying over time.

Glad you got it working. Looks like a difficult replacement. Our MrCool unit is still working ok after 7+ years but recently replaced our Pellet stove combustion fan. Made a big difference in running noise.

 

[Sunset]

My car developed a really annoying rattle in the exhaust. I lived with it for a few months but it was getting really bad lately. So I climbed under the car yesterday and tracked the noise down to loose heat shields on my catalytic converter. They were only held on with six spot welds, half of which were broke. The others broke when I was poking around with a screwdriver to find the noise, so I just took off the heat shields. No more noise!

My car has it's own heat shield in the exhaust tunnel, and most of the other aftermarket converters don't have shields anyway, so I'm not too worried about the extra heat.

I did see some videos on YouTube to use large hose clamps to secure the shields in place. So I might try that in the future if I get motivated enough to jack the car up and climb underneath again.

The heat shield on our 26 yr old camry fell off in the garage.

We've been driving like that for ~10 years now.

Just don't park on grass with it.