1. Replacing 120V breakers in your distribution panel looks a lot scarier than it actually is.
I'm not advocating that everyone go out to their garage with a long-handled metal screwdriver and start popping out those old breakers for higher ratings. But I am saying that for a couple hours' research and $5 I was able to avoid an electrician's fee of-- what-- $100? Assuming one would even bother to come out to the house for such a pissant project?
The implications are huge. We have a storage shed far down in the backyard that would be a lot nicer and much more convenient for power yard/woodworking tools with 240V/120V workshop power. I'm pretty confident in my ability to dig a trench and lay the waterproof conduit from my panel to the shed. I know how to wire GFCI receptacles and now I can start figuring out how to add the breaker to the house's distribution panel. It all started with a $12 subscription to Family Handyman, augmented with the book "Wiring a House". The tuition has been minimal, I've enjoyed the learning, and we'll save a bundle on labor.
Of course I'm admonishing everyone not to do this unless they're electrically safe and knowledgeable of local code & permit requirements. My point is that, if you're interested, you can achieve those skills with not that much effort and very little money.
2. Tripping the 240V breaker of an electric clothes dryer still allows it to tumble the wet clothing, although it won't dry anything. If, while you're re-installing the cover of your garage distribution panel, you bonk the breaker for the electric dryer, thus tripping that 240V breaker, the dryer will still turn its motor. In other words tripping the electric dryer's 240V circuit breaker does not totally remove all power from its 240V receptacle. I don't know who the heck designs these things but the only way to safely work on your dryer is to unplug it. EDIT: There doesn't appear to be a way to safely work on your dryer receptacle yet, unless it's popping that 240V breaker out of the panel. (Even I'm not sure that's such a good idea.) Maybe the house feeder breaker has to be tripped HFWR raises a good point that turning the breaker to OFF should cut off power to the receptacle, but I'd bring a multimeter to the distribution panel receptacle before I'd stick my fingers in the 240V receptacle.
Anyway the point I'm trying to make is that even if the breaker is tripped, the dryer will still run on 120V power. However, because it doesn't have 240V power, it won't heat its dryer coils and it won't dry the clothes. This confuses the heck out of people who've been trained for their entire adult lives to think that electrical appliances don't run when their circuit breakers are tripped. After I'd field-stripped the dryer, checked the heater coil sat and started wondering about its thermocouple sensors, I finally went to the Internet and found out about the 120V/240V breaker tripping issue. I also learned that the Samurai Appliance Repairman's website rocks.
So from now on if our electric dryer stops drying, even if it's still rotating, I'm going to reset the 240V breaker.
3. Bradford-White water heater anode rods suck.
Every handyman eventually learns that they're supposed to check their water heater anode rods every few years. (If you have no idea what one is or what it does, just stop reading now. You won't lose any sleep or longevity over being blissfully ignorant of water-heater corrosion protection.) Again, I challenge anyone to find a plumber who'll happily skip out to your house to tackle such a pissant project, let alone for under $100. It's probably cheaper to have a plumber install a new water heater every 10-15 years than to prolong the original heater's life by having the plumber install new anode rods.
The problem is that the manufacturers install anode rods with pneumatic wrenches at a fairly high torque (perhaps even with pipe dope), and most plumbers don't bother to pull out the anode rods & wrap the threads with Teflon tape when they install the heater. Four or five years later that rod is firmly entrenched in, perhaps even rusted into, the heater.
When we bought our solar water heater I was at least aware of the anode rod issue from watching "This Old House". However checking our anode rod required a 1-1/16" deep socket plus a 3/8" driver and a three-foot cast-iron pipe. These are not the tools one typically uses to assault a tiny little bolt in a water heater that's easily torqued off the wall with such potential force. But now the heater anode's threads are wrapped with Teflon tape and I'm much wiser about the torque requirements.
So infused with knowledge & self-confidence (plus a good bit of hubris) I went to our tenant's house to replace their anode rod. (Hint: Do this only when the tenants are on a Mainland vacation.) A Bradford-White gas water heater has its anode rod incorporated into the hot-water nipple, which only sticks above the tank by about 1" and is all piping thread. You can barely see a quarter-inch band of smooth ring of pipe below the water-piping threads, let alone the threads going into the water tank. That anode rod has kicked my butt for over five years. Sure enough, once again my confidence evaporated (along with my hubris) and I called Bradford to learn about their special tool. They nonchalantly declared "Oh, yeah, whatchagotta do is slap a pipe wrench around those threads and crank on that sucker! Hey, you're replacing it so you don't care about the threads anymore! Oh, but when you put the new one in you hafta be careful not to gall the threads with the wrench. Havaniceday!"
Well, with that tech support it only took two minutes for me & the pipe wrench (augmented with that three-foot cast-iron pipe again) to take out the anode rod. Or, should I say, hot water nipple-- because after nine years there wasn't any anode left on the rod.
Bradford-White's anode rod is a rigid four-foot pole topped by the water nipple. The 40-gallon water heater is about five feet tall and the anode rod goes in the top of the tank. The laundry room ceiling is eight feet tall. Luckily I was able to move the gas exhaust duct aside and stick the new rod up into the ceiling hole to insert it back down into the tank. I wrapped the threads with Teflon tape, "cranked on that sucker", and managed not to gall the threads too badly with the pipe wrench-- not an easy task in the corner of a room with only 60 degrees of available wrench arc. It looked fine, but today we'll go back to the house to see if any of the joints are leaking!
Thanks for listening! I'm basking in the warm glow of task accomplishment augmented with the avoidance of expensive contractor hassles. If any of you have similar advice to enhance that feeling, I'd appreciate hearing about it.
Gosh I miss submarine maintenance...
I'm not advocating that everyone go out to their garage with a long-handled metal screwdriver and start popping out those old breakers for higher ratings. But I am saying that for a couple hours' research and $5 I was able to avoid an electrician's fee of-- what-- $100? Assuming one would even bother to come out to the house for such a pissant project?
The implications are huge. We have a storage shed far down in the backyard that would be a lot nicer and much more convenient for power yard/woodworking tools with 240V/120V workshop power. I'm pretty confident in my ability to dig a trench and lay the waterproof conduit from my panel to the shed. I know how to wire GFCI receptacles and now I can start figuring out how to add the breaker to the house's distribution panel. It all started with a $12 subscription to Family Handyman, augmented with the book "Wiring a House". The tuition has been minimal, I've enjoyed the learning, and we'll save a bundle on labor.
Of course I'm admonishing everyone not to do this unless they're electrically safe and knowledgeable of local code & permit requirements. My point is that, if you're interested, you can achieve those skills with not that much effort and very little money.
2. Tripping the 240V breaker of an electric clothes dryer still allows it to tumble the wet clothing, although it won't dry anything. If, while you're re-installing the cover of your garage distribution panel, you bonk the breaker for the electric dryer, thus tripping that 240V breaker, the dryer will still turn its motor. In other words tripping the electric dryer's 240V circuit breaker does not totally remove all power from its 240V receptacle. I don't know who the heck designs these things but the only way to safely work on your dryer is to unplug it. EDIT: There doesn't appear to be a way to safely work on your dryer receptacle yet, unless it's popping that 240V breaker out of the panel. (Even I'm not sure that's such a good idea.) Maybe the house feeder breaker has to be tripped HFWR raises a good point that turning the breaker to OFF should cut off power to the receptacle, but I'd bring a multimeter to the distribution panel receptacle before I'd stick my fingers in the 240V receptacle.
Anyway the point I'm trying to make is that even if the breaker is tripped, the dryer will still run on 120V power. However, because it doesn't have 240V power, it won't heat its dryer coils and it won't dry the clothes. This confuses the heck out of people who've been trained for their entire adult lives to think that electrical appliances don't run when their circuit breakers are tripped. After I'd field-stripped the dryer, checked the heater coil sat and started wondering about its thermocouple sensors, I finally went to the Internet and found out about the 120V/240V breaker tripping issue. I also learned that the Samurai Appliance Repairman's website rocks.
So from now on if our electric dryer stops drying, even if it's still rotating, I'm going to reset the 240V breaker.
3. Bradford-White water heater anode rods suck.
Every handyman eventually learns that they're supposed to check their water heater anode rods every few years. (If you have no idea what one is or what it does, just stop reading now. You won't lose any sleep or longevity over being blissfully ignorant of water-heater corrosion protection.) Again, I challenge anyone to find a plumber who'll happily skip out to your house to tackle such a pissant project, let alone for under $100. It's probably cheaper to have a plumber install a new water heater every 10-15 years than to prolong the original heater's life by having the plumber install new anode rods.
The problem is that the manufacturers install anode rods with pneumatic wrenches at a fairly high torque (perhaps even with pipe dope), and most plumbers don't bother to pull out the anode rods & wrap the threads with Teflon tape when they install the heater. Four or five years later that rod is firmly entrenched in, perhaps even rusted into, the heater.
When we bought our solar water heater I was at least aware of the anode rod issue from watching "This Old House". However checking our anode rod required a 1-1/16" deep socket plus a 3/8" driver and a three-foot cast-iron pipe. These are not the tools one typically uses to assault a tiny little bolt in a water heater that's easily torqued off the wall with such potential force. But now the heater anode's threads are wrapped with Teflon tape and I'm much wiser about the torque requirements.
So infused with knowledge & self-confidence (plus a good bit of hubris) I went to our tenant's house to replace their anode rod. (Hint: Do this only when the tenants are on a Mainland vacation.) A Bradford-White gas water heater has its anode rod incorporated into the hot-water nipple, which only sticks above the tank by about 1" and is all piping thread. You can barely see a quarter-inch band of smooth ring of pipe below the water-piping threads, let alone the threads going into the water tank. That anode rod has kicked my butt for over five years. Sure enough, once again my confidence evaporated (along with my hubris) and I called Bradford to learn about their special tool. They nonchalantly declared "Oh, yeah, whatchagotta do is slap a pipe wrench around those threads and crank on that sucker! Hey, you're replacing it so you don't care about the threads anymore! Oh, but when you put the new one in you hafta be careful not to gall the threads with the wrench. Havaniceday!"
Well, with that tech support it only took two minutes for me & the pipe wrench (augmented with that three-foot cast-iron pipe again) to take out the anode rod. Or, should I say, hot water nipple-- because after nine years there wasn't any anode left on the rod.
Bradford-White's anode rod is a rigid four-foot pole topped by the water nipple. The 40-gallon water heater is about five feet tall and the anode rod goes in the top of the tank. The laundry room ceiling is eight feet tall. Luckily I was able to move the gas exhaust duct aside and stick the new rod up into the ceiling hole to insert it back down into the tank. I wrapped the threads with Teflon tape, "cranked on that sucker", and managed not to gall the threads too badly with the pipe wrench-- not an easy task in the corner of a room with only 60 degrees of available wrench arc. It looked fine, but today we'll go back to the house to see if any of the joints are leaking!
Thanks for listening! I'm basking in the warm glow of task accomplishment augmented with the avoidance of expensive contractor hassles. If any of you have similar advice to enhance that feeling, I'd appreciate hearing about it.
Gosh I miss submarine maintenance...