Your recent repair? - 2021 to ?

[CO-guy]

Years ago I spent time teaching my spouse, who was a new driver at the time, how to change a tire, how to check tire pressure on the gauge, how to check the oil,etc. and how to use jumper cables properly. Just in case she was stuck. The days before cell phones! I was out of town frequently on business.

Mine came that way. And knowing how to read a map, use a compass, start a fire and a host of other basic skills that a surprising number of people seem to lack.

For example, my BIL got a flat for the first time in his life a few years ago. Though it apparently took a while, he was able to put the spare on and then discarded the entire wheel in a nearby dumpster. He did not realize that the wheel and tire are two separate parts.

 

[JoeWras]

We just had our washing machine repaired. Somehow in the process of them moving the unit to replace the faulty controller, it became unbalanced and un-level.

So, not sure if it counts as a repair, but adjusted the unit back to level to prevent it from excessively vibrating, which seemed to fix the balance issue as well.

If we could crosspost, I'd crosspost this to the pet peeve thread. What is it about "repairs" causing more problems?

My neighbor had preventative maintenance done on his HVAC a few weeks ago, and they ended up breaking it. "Coincidence" of course.

 

[Walt34]

My neighbor had preventative maintenance done on his HVAC a few weeks ago, and they ended up breaking it. "Coincidence" of course.

Well, it could be that "coincidence". Or it could be the coincidence that the system is 15 years old, at the end of it's useful life, and just because the tech replaced one part may have nothing to do with the fact that another was about to fail anyway.

I heard a lot of those accusations when I was an HVAC tech and it wore thin pretty quick. Granted some of them are in fact outright thieves but most are not. And unless one understands what is going on it can be difficult to tell the difference.

 

[imjustawarrior]

Last year my neighbor hired a crew to re-landscape her front yard. They kept coming into my yard while working. They piled rocks in my yard, cut rock in my yard, and who knows what else. They broke a fence picket, scratched my fence, left rock in my grass and on my drive. I kept asking them to stay out of my yard, but they didn't care. I even spoke to the owner of the business. He didn't care.

Yesterday, when I started my sprinkler system for the year, I noticed they had broken one of my sprinkler heads. I went out and replace it this afternoon. Fortunately, that is only a 5 minute job.

I still need to stain a new picket and replace the broken one.

 

[CO-guy]

Well, it could be that "coincidence". Or it could be the coincidence that the system is 15 years old, at the end of it's useful life, and just because the tech replaced one part may have nothing to do with the fact that another was about to fail anyway.

I heard a lot of those accusations when I was an HVAC tech and it wore thin pretty quick. Granted some of them are in fact outright thieves but most are not. And unless one understands what is going on it can be difficult to tell the difference.

I've got to agree that the two issues weren't related. The washer had been getting progressively louder, and dragging a flimsy aluminum box in and out twice to service the unit made the unevenness worse.

With HVAC, sometimes there's more than one issue going on, which takes time to diagnose and often requires multiple visits. This past winter we had furnace issues which turned out to be a faulty capacitor for the igniter (not an HVAC guy so no idea of the exact part). However, the furnace was also overheating, which is probably what caused the issue in the first place, but wasn't apparent until the unit was running for an extended period of time.

With overnight temps in the teens and single digits, we were without a furnace for more than two weeks waiting on parts and had to use our wood burning stove to heat our entire +3000sf home. Thankfully, the stove worked as designed and after 6-7 visits the tech got the furnace working again. We were so grateful for all of their efforts to try to get us back up and running as quickly as possible. I believe we sent an edible arrangement and donuts to the office on the same day we paid the bill.

 

[mountainsoft]

I don't know that it qualifies as a "repair" but I cleaned the custom colored caulking in our tile shower yesterday. I've tried most of the shower cleaners in the grocery store, bleach on rolled up paper towels, and even hydrogen peroxide. Most would clean the surface mold off (and really stink up the house), but they never removed the staining deep down in the caulking. I figured I would have to recaulk some day, but found this mold remover on Amazon after seeing a similar product on YouTube. I just applied a bead of the goop along the caulk, let it set for several hours, and wiped it away. There's absolutely no sign of the mold now, and it didn't have any odor that I could detect. I'm very impressed and just ordered another bottle to have on hand.

Amazon.com

 

[Qs Laptop]

I don't know that it qualifies as a "repair" but I cleaned the custom colored caulking in our tile shower yesterday. I've tried most of the shower cleaners in the grocery store, bleach on rolled up paper towels, and even hydrogen peroxide. Most would clean the surface mold off (and really stink up the house), but they never removed the staining deep down in the caulking. I figured I would have to recaulk some day, but found this mold remover on Amazon after seeing a similar product on YouTube. I just applied a bead of the goop along the caulk, let it set for several hours, and wiped it away. There's absolutely no sign of the mold now, and it didn't have any odor that I could detect. I'm very impressed and just ordered another bottle to have on hand.

Amazon.com

Yes, I've had good luck with a similar bleach/gel from Amazon. Besides cleaning the mold off caulk lines it works really well for vertical grout lines in showers. Because it's a gel it stays in place where you apply it. I leave it on overnight.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYLVVJ8Q?th=1

However, the price is a complete ripoff. As I said this is essentially bleach held inside a gel of some sort. I would guess the contents inside the bottle cost less than $.50. But, what can you do? The stuff works.

I've had really good luck with super cheap generic "Bathroom Cleaner" by Walmart, brand name Great Value. One doll-hair and forty-eight cents.

This stuff has more bleach in it than most other cleaners and does clean the mold off the caulk. Again, I spray on and leave overnight, then hit it with a nylon scrub brush wetted with water.

Great Value Cleaner with Bleach, 32 fl oz - Walmart.com

Buy Great Value Cleaner with Bleach, 32 fl oz at Walmart.com

www.walmart.com

 

[Pointby2]

Our beautiful LG refrigerator has the dreaded ball ice maker. It stopped working again, so we swapped it out. We already keep a back up one in stock. Since it freezes up, we just needed to pull it out and defrost it while we put the new one in.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

Our beautiful LG refrigerator has the dreaded ball ice maker. It stopped working again, so we swapped it out. We already keep a back up one in stock. Since it freezes up, we just needed to pull it out and defrost it while we put the new one in.

That's pretty clever!

 

[freedomatlast]

It's been cool and rainy here lately. Thermostat is set for 73ºF and it's 68ºF in the house. Thermostat seems fine. Open up the panels on the Trane gas furnace. Jumper over the panel switch. Furnace will not even begin to go through the start up cycle. Power down. Wait. Power back up. Reset the code. Count the red light flashes on the control board and find a code three which means most likely a bad pressure switch. Since I always keep an inventory of the parts most likely to fail for the furnace, I install the new OEM Trane pressure switch and in 15 minutes it's back up and running. Just fortunate it decided to fail in early May rather than January. Keeps the pressure off in getting the repair done quickly. So fortunate to be able avoid the time, expense and hassle of calling someone in to diagnose and repair who would most likely use the cheapest aftermarket part available and may try to pad the bill with additional unneeded parts.

 

[sdtech]

Not exactly a repair - but our HOA accidently took out a tree in our backyard - I decided to plant two trees - a cherry and an apple. Followed the pattern of whatever you job you do, you have to adjust 3 times. Planted trees... wind started to make them lean, so added supports.... deer started to eat leaves even after deer replent spray... added fencing.... Now I have to wait 18 months to remove fencing....

 

[ls99]

A minor MacGyver.

Pulled out box of facemasks, from the cupboard where I stored them, 'been there for a few years.
The thin bluee rubber which holds it around the head broke as soon as trying to stretch it. Tossed it.
Then tried another, ditto, the blue rubber broke. Then another, same thing.
Guess years of sitting, the rubber became brittle.

I really wanted a bask for mowing, this is allergy season after all.

Brain storm!
Find my roll of bailing wire, unwind about a foot, pull around head for sizing. Cut.
Bend ends to form a small hook.
Pierce the facemask where the rubber band was stapled.
Pull hooks through.
Put on head.
Voila, a functioning facemask!

 

[ls99]

Last fall installed shutoff valve in line leading to outside faucet, it was leaking and nice ice fall formed on the wall.
Today removed long valve stem, discovered demolished rubber sealing washer.
From vast collection of random stuff, dredged out a sealing washer that fit, replaced the bad one.
Faucet now functions as it should.
Do need a new Y hose adapter, the old brass one split when ice formed inside.

 

[homestead]

A minor MacGyver.

Pulled out box of facemasks, from the cupboard where I stored them, 'been there for a few years.
The thin bluee rubber which holds it around the head broke as soon as trying to stretch it. Tossed it.
Then tried another, ditto, the blue rubber broke. Then another, same thing.
Guess years of sitting, the rubber became brittle.

I really wanted a bask for mowing, this is allergy season after all.

Brain storm!
Find my roll of bailing wire, unwind about a foot, pull around head for sizing. Cut.
Bend ends to form a small hook.
Pierce the facemask where the rubber band was stapled.
Pull hooks through.
Put on head.
Voila, a functioning facemask!

My dad grew up on a farm during the depression and would often tell me you can fix most anything with baling wire and a pair of pliers.

 

[JoeWras]

Speaking of valves and the depression... My old time plumber father fixed a lot of valve leaks with a piece of string dragged through graphite powder. The equivalent of baling wire.

 

[Music Lover]

Further to that repair, a week before the well pump failed in fall the HW tank also failed. So I bought a new one and was about to install it when the well pump failed. As the season was almost over anyway I left both of them until now.

Yesterday I hooked up the new HW tank and it didn't work, plus it had a leak!! Now I have to drain and remove it and get another one.

So, I returned the HW tank and got a new one under warranty and guess what? It also didn't work and had a leak.

So, this time I took video of the leak, drained and removed it again, and brought it home.

The warranty people wanted to see the video and after viewing it told me that it just needed a new element. They wouldn't replaced the tank, so I had disconnected it and brought it home from the cabin for nothing,

Anyway, they priority shipped a new element, I put it in and took the tank back to the cabin. This time it worked as it should with no leak.

 

[Hyper]

Several days of working on DW truck. Top and front cover of engine removed to install new timing chains and cam phasers. After ordering the wrong phasers, a $400 mistake, partly my fault. Researching for hours again to finally come up with the he correct phasers. Installed the chains and phasers this afternoon.
Already forgotten how the rats nest of coolant lines went! Not particularly fun but thank the Lord I'm still able!! Lol. Maybe I better wait til it's running

 

[GrayHare]

I couldn't discard an otherwise fine toaster dating back from the Era of Good Appliances just because of a frayed power cord. So I repurposed a desktop computer power cord (13 amp!) of which there are always extras around, cut it to proper length, affixed terminals, and voila, another toaster saved from the landfill. It will probably outlive me now.

 

[JoeWras]

Fixed the 4 year old Speed Queen washer at the non-profit.

I got a bit angry when employees wanted to throw it out because "you can't fix appliances these days."

This was a donated machine, not cheap, $1500. They were not going to throw this out if I had my way!

Fixed it by replacing the drain pump for $120 in total.

Full story, including pictures here:

anyone buy a new washer/dryer recently?

I just looked ours up in Quicken, both are Whirlpool machines. The top loading washing machine was purchased June 2018 for $530 and the dryer was purchased April 2014 and was $689. The dryer is natural gas heating so it did cost a bit more than electrics do but the difference is made up in less...

www.early-retirement.org

 

[CO-guy]

Replaced the latch on our gate. The last one was burly. This one is extra burly.

 

[38Chevy454]

DW noticed that the garage frig was hot on the center divider between front doors. Doesn't help that with the heat now the garage is already quite hot ambient temp. Assuming the lines run up from the bottom to the evaporator above along this divider I figured that the condenser fan was not working. Turns out I was right, the fan was not working because a (dead) mouse was caught in the fan! So I pulled mouse out and fortunately the fan started turning. Some further cleaning of the condenser coils and around the underneath of the frig; it's now back to normal operation and maybe a slight efficiency improvement with clean condenser coils. Ended up being a no cost, just time, repair.

 

[38Chevy454]

Helped a close friend install a new awning on his RV trailer today. Not too bad of a job, but definitely a lot easier with 2 persons on the job. Old awning was 9 years old and getting very brittle with some cracking.

 

[Hyper]

Actually an on going repair for the last 3 1/2 years.
But hit a major milestone today on our and other land owners 2+ mile private road in the mountains.
Nothing but hard mountain rock and boulders!
A large hill 3/4 mile in is now semi crowned with somewhat of drainage ditches on most of both sides as of today!!
It was the last of the worst areas.
DW and I have done everything with absolutely zero help from the other land owners besides one of them giving us a few dollars.
No one would even stop to move a larger stone off the road as often was pulled up while working on it!!
Theyd literally drive off the road to miss them.
DW and I have hundreds of hours of labor, thousands of dollars and gallons of sweat into this road!!
Have done every bit of it with our own equipment.
When we started you could not traverse the road without a 4x4 period!
Now one can traverse the road in a car.
Huge accomplishment for us!!

 

[jollystomper]

Fixed a slow leak of water coming from the toilet bowl area. At first it seemed to be coming from under the bowl, but lifting it and checking the wax seal it looked fine. After putting things back it place and turning the water on, the real culprit was revealed - the bottom of the toilet tank supply line was going (in fact it came apart when I tried to unscrew it), and the water was leaking towards then around the bowl. I replaced the supply line, and all is dry again.

 

[euro]

Actually an on going repair for the last 3 1/2 years.
But hit a major milestone today on our and other land owners 2+ mile private road in the mountains.
Nothing but hard mountain rock and boulders!
A large hill 3/4 mile in is now semi crowned with somewhat of drainage ditches on most of both sides as of today!!
It was the last of the worst areas.
DW and I have done everything with absolutely zero help from the other land owners besides one of them giving us a few dollars.
No one would even stop to move a larger stone off the road as often was pulled up while working on it!!
Theyd literally drive off the road to miss them.
DW and I have hundreds of hours of labor, thousands of dollars and gallons of sweat into this road!!
Have done every bit of it with our own equipment.
When we started you could not traverse the road without a 4x4 period!
Now one can traverse the road in a car.
Huge accomplishment for us!!

Impressive!