Our 20+ year-old dishwasher developed a leak at the front that I assumed was a worn-out rubber seal, but the seal looked fine.
Eventually I figured out that the problem was that the steam vent was clogged with some mush (I assume 20+ years of paper label bits from re-used jam jars, etc.). The mush was inhibiting the return-flow of the water jets shooting into the vent, so the water came out the steam vent in the front door.
(I cleaned out the gunk before I took the photographs.)
I used a flat-head screwdriver to pop out the vent cover (ours has snaps on both sides).
The vent and the cover were super-gunked-up with some unknown mushy stuff. The photos are only after I had already cleaned most of it out.
After removing most of the mushy gunk, I snapped the vent cover back in.
No more leak! :-)
(If you are doing dishwasher maintenance, you might want to check for clogged jets in the spinner arms. I make a very small (maybe 1/8th inch) hook at the end of a paper clip with a needle-nose pliers to pull out clogs from the jet holes.)
In SE PA, I think you will not find much of a better approximation of an Alpine Meadow in Spring-time.
OK, so I love dandelions in the lawn. Not only are they beautiful, they are extremely nutritious for humans and the bees that keep us in business. I once visited friends in Lausanne, Switzerland in early Spring, and almost all the cafés and bistros had signs outside celebrating (and advertising) the Dents-de-Lion ("Teeth of the Lion") salad coming in fresh.
I have a genuine knack for explaining things in written form. (Two critical-but-kind "letters to the editor" printed in the Wall Street Journal before I hit 40.)
I can offer some excellent examples of my work, which includes some intuitive GUI / UX design for a cork/rubber flooring manufacturer, and color "recipes", amongst maelstroms of other talents on loan to me from God.
I got sick of the lights constantly dimming every time our Heat-Pump kicked in. I read somewhere that a "hard-start" capacitor could not only ameliorate that, but also extend the life of our HVAC system and return the cost (about $30 on ebay) every few months just in electricity savings.
I had to give it a try.
This is potentially life-threatening stuff!!!
I ought not to have performed the work myself, as I am untrained. This is only a documentary of my foolhardy behavior.
Hire a professional.
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Carrier-brand heat pumps use wiring colors that appear to be outside the industry standard, so I wanted to share my experience in case it might help someone.
The photographs and video are of an old-ish (maybe 2002?) heat pump that has seen some non-standard replacement parts in its day. The contactor is a replacement part and, I think, mislabeled (it appears to me that L1 / L2 (thus, also, T1 / T2) were switched according to my limited understanding of the schematics and wiring diagram provided by Carrier Corporation).
The fan motor was replaced. The technician apparently installed a secondary run-capacitor for it, rather than replacing the 3-pole run-capacitor. I don't know why he chose to do so, but as our capacitors tend to degrade below spec every 2-3 years (we have near-max-allowable voltage from the mains, plus we're in a lightning-prone area), it does save us some money to replace the little guy for $6 vs. $20+ for a new 3-pole capacitor.
1 Thermostat turned to OFF
2 Heat Pump Circuit-Breaker turned to OFF
3 Heat Pump Power Physically Broken
4 Rear-View of Carrier-Provided Extra Mounting Screws
5 Carrier Label
6 Aftermarket Possibly-Mislabeled Contactor
7 Heat Pump Before Start-Capacitor Installation
8 Run-Capacitors Before Start-Capacitor Installation
Please note that in that photograph the blue wire is incorrectly connected to "C" and the yellow wire to "HERM" on the larger capacitor (it ran fine that way for quite a few years, but as following photographs will show, I put it back to normal wiring, that-is, blue-to-"HERM" and yellow-to-"C" for posterity's sake).
9 Two Screws Removed for Mounting the Relay and the Start-Capacitor
10 Relay Mounted
11 Start-Capacitor Finagling
(Please notice the small foam adhesive pad I stuck on the Start-Capacitor. As the heat-pump did not offer a convenient spot upon which to rest the the Start-Capacitor, I was concerned that vibrations might cause it to slip out of the mounting strap.)
12 More Finagling of the Start-Capacitor
13 Even More Finagling of the Start-Capacitor
14 Start-Capacitor Strapped-In and Screwed-In
14.2 Start-Capacitor Strapped-In and Screwed-In / alternative view
15 Stripey Wire to the "HERM" terminal of the compressor's Run-Capacitor
16 Red Wire from the Start-Capacitor to the "C" terminal of the compressor's Run-Capacitor
17 Black Wire from the Start-Capacitor Relay to the Black Wires Terminal on Contactor
Sorry I don't have a clamp-on amp-meter. I do think it's running more quietly now.
Thursday, March 15, 2018
Replaced the Spring in a Particular Delta Faucet Soap Dispenser
My language skills are less than what one might require: read further at your own risk.
The spring in our Delta kitchen faucet soap dispenser had broken, and at that time I had forgotten that Delta offers a lifetime guarantee on their products.
I have since received a replacement spout kit (about 20 years after my purchase!) after a bubble in the hot water line caused a pressure surge that blew off the spout. The spout is a goose-neck style that swivels on its base.
(Our water is very acidic and our pH amelioration system has not worked in years -- green (Copper Oxide) stains are still a problem. Sigh.)
It was Christmas-cookie baking time, and they even put a rush on the order which they also shipped for free.
Anyway, I don't think I can recommend Delta enough!
And now Back to My Point...
The soap dispenser spring had broken and I'd forgotten about Delta's life-time guarantee for original purchasers, so I searched seriously high and low for the proper-sized spring, but did not find one.
The solution was so simple it still makes me laugh over a year later -- but this story is only for people trained-in and familiar-with safety for working with sharp , difficult and in otherwise potentially dangerous items!! It is ONLY my STORY -- it IS NOT advice.
You could really hurt yourself, or even die!! If you were to attempt any acts herein noted you would do so at your own risk.
(First, a reminder -- if you are the original purchaser, just contact Delta for a free replacement.)
You would probably want to have a pair of tin-snips (there are 3 styles which are differentiated by their design to go straight or curve to the left or curve to the right). In this case, any type would work just fine.
I managed to get the spring out of the Method bottle, snip it down to approximately-proper length, and use it as a temporary replacement. I don't know if will survive a test of time (I suspect the sharp end at the point of snipping might abrade or otherwise wear-down the plastic parts -- perhaps some sanding-off would have been in order).
If anyone finds this interesting, please feel free to contact me for further information (e.g. photographs) -- I don't want to bother with that unless I could thereby serve as a "Good Samaritan" to you or others.
Ugly, UGLY welding attempt (my first humble attempt at welding). I've been trying to fix a leaky water heater tank. Hope it fixes the leak...
(We neglected to replace the sacrificial magnesium anode rod (s) in a timely fashion.)
Any tips on filling up the grooves would be greatly appreciated.
UPDATE: I failed. AND I ruined the air filter in our HVAC system -- the flux-core welding wire produced so much smoke that it totally clogged up the filter (a 16x25x4 inch!!). I thought our capacitors in the heat pump had gone bad. (Actually, they had degraded below spec, but it was the clogged air filter that really put the damper (sorry -- I love puns) on the HVAC system in the middle of a cold winter.)
Love those cellulose sponges in your kitchen but can't stand the way they start to smell stinky after a while?
I've tried the microwave trick, but that stinks up the whole kitchen.
I've tried soaking them in bleach or tossing them in the top rack of the dishwasher, but that shortens the life of the sponges. (Chlorine is very corrosive to cellulose.)
Now I soak them in hydrogen peroxide for a while.
> Wash and rinse-out the sponges & squeeze dry.
> Put them in a small container or canister and slowly pour hydrogen peroxide over them until it about covers them.
> Let soak (a few hours or overnight).
> Rinse them out.
Presto! Very effective, easy and inexpensive. It appears to kill most of the microbes, and it deodorizes the sponges quite well.
*******
To help keep them from getting smelly so quickly in the first place, don't lay them flat. Stand them on edge. (The increased surface area exposed to air will help them dry out much faster, impeding the growth of the microbes that cause the smells.
