Home Improvement

(If anyone knows a better community for this please point me in the right direction!)

My house came with a Frigidaire scratch and dent fridge. I don't know the model but it seems to be the professional line and from my research it seems closest to this one but probably an older model because mine doesn't have a water dispenser.

Anyway, I'm trying to remove one of the door bins because it has a big crack in it I want to glue. I can't get it off though. Everything I've found seems to imply you can simply lift it up, but looking at mine whoever installed this seems to have put them inside a different part of the bin than I'm seeing in tutorial videos. The tab seems totally stuck inside and I can't figure out how to remove it.

Am I boned on getting this out, or does someone know a trick? I'm afraid to pry it away from the side too hard because of the cracked section on one side.

Closeup of tab inside part of the bin. Tutorials seem to imply the part below that is where the tab is supposed to go (with that little roundy part going over and behind the tab).

Bin more zoomed out

Just noticed this when getting a new AC installed yesterday. Not sure if it's a bird or squirrel nest, or even active. It's super high up that I don't have a ladder to reach, also I am not super cool with being that close to electrical wiring but I feel like it's a hazard that needs to be removed. Anyone else experience this and what you suggest my approach should be or what service might need to be hired?

I have this single pole 3 way dimmer switch where I attached all 4 wires in the correct spot for my living room lantern, or so I thought. My lantern successfully worked, however, all the light switches in my kitchen either stopped working or worked not as expected.

For example, the light switch in my kitchen that's on the same wall as my living room light would only turn my kitchen light on and off if my dimmer switch was on.

What am I doing wrong? Am I using the wrong dimmer switch? More photos in the comments.

Hey folks,

I noticed some of the trim around this door is bending. I assume it is likely due to humidity but any other possible causes? This is in the basement where it is typically cool.

What do you recommend I do to fix it? Just some simple wood glue and something to hold it in place as the glue dries?

Hello,

I have an idea, but I lack the technical expertise to implement it.

I possess an old gasometer, and I currently document its readings by taking a photograph each month and manually entering the data into a Calc spreadsheet, along with the corresponding dates.

I am hoping to automate this process.

My initial thought is that a system could capture the images automatically, input the data into a database, and then present the information in a user-friendly format on a display.

Would anyone have any suggestions or insights on how to achieve this?

Thx

My small garage was built in the 40s and has wood siding which was damaged by a recent hail storm. Insurance cut us a settlement check and I decided to challenge myself to repaint the garage myself

The hail mostly damaged the paint, with some small chips in a couple of spots. My plan is to sand the portions that are to be repainted, fill the chips with wood filler and repaint

I'm looking at getting an air compressor (Partly as I'm seeing commentary on it being far easier and faster than rollers, and partly out of buying a tool I might not ever have a decent enough reason to buy in the future that'll be useful to have on hand) and a sprayer to do the bulk of the painting

Given I'm mostly looking to repair some quarter size damage to the paint splottered all over 2 sides of the garage, do I need to sand all of the old paint off before repainting or can I simply paint over the old paint? The old paint is in pretty good shape where the hail didn't sand it away. Looks like its been repainted within the century, possibly even within the last decade, and I'm not changing colors dramatically, just doing a flat "white" over a flat "white" which shouldn't be a very obvious difference after weathering. Basically am I reducing the durability of the paint job if I paint over the existing undamaged matte paint?

Additionally, any other gotchas I should be aware of?

I can provide photos tomorrow of the damage and existing paint if needed

My daughter is renting the basement apartment of a 100-year-old home. It's a fairly decent little place. Except for this. Can someone please tell me why there are cast iron pipes cut open, with air registers over them? Yesterday during the storm they were all full of flowing water. I checked a couple of them and they were all the same, cracked open cast iron pipe under the floor registers. What is going on here? I have more pictures if needed.

Edit: everyone, I'm grateful for all of the suggestions. Once she's finished unpacking, I'm going to do some investigating. It does not smell. .the water running thru it looks crystal clear. Well figure it out. Maybe.

Hey all. I'm building a fire pit for my back yard and I'm looking for recommendations on what kind of rock to use.

My pit is going to consist of 2 concentric metal rings, one at 48" wide and one at 36" wide, leaving a 12" gap between them. I'd like to fill this gap with some kind of rock (and maybe cap it with flagstone) but there's not any good information about what kind of rock is ok for that purpose.

I understand that for the base, I'd want to use either sand or lava rock, and if i was just surrounding the inner ring I'd need heat bricks or something similar, but I'm stuck on what can go between the rings without worrying about explosions.

My house is due for some plumbing work and I have decided to go with copper pipe for said work. The thing is I am garbage at soft soldering copper. I never do it so I'm awful at judging the temp and I hate dealing with flux. On the other hand I'm a refrigeration mechanic so brazing copper pipe is my bread and butter. I could practically make a good leak free braze joint with my eyes closed. Also, considering most of the plumbing will be copper to copper connections, I could just use silphos filler rod and not have to worry about flux for most of it. I know brazed joints are not standard for water pipe but I already have the tools, the skill set, and I don't see any way it could be worse than soft solder. Sure it's overkill but is there any other reason I shouldn't just braze my water pipes?

My business has a swamp cooler (evaporative), but none of the windows open so I have no way to vent air. There is a vent in the alcove (?) over my front door facing downward. The vent is about the size of a box fan. I have been thinking about putting one face down on top of the vent.

If this is not a good idea is there a better option? I have an outlet not too far from the area, but do not think that there is anywhere near to hard wire. I could run a wire out the vent for a solar panel, but the awning is north west facing.

Vent opening:

With fan laying on top:

New home owner, I assume it is for my air circulation system but unsure how to use it to the best of its abilities. Does More Humid make the house more humid, or should I turn it to that setting when the house is humid to negate it?

Hey folks,

Apologies if my questions are ignorant, first time home owner and don't know much about these things. I am looking to find out if my idea is possible or suggested. Bought a house last year and noticed the house gets pretty warm in the summer.

We have what looks to be a mini-split system - wall mounted unit that shoots out cold air. There is no central air (not common in this area or when these houses were being built), but we do have an air circulator system.

The wall unit is located at the top corner of the central stairwell but the way our house is laid out, it doesn't do a good job of getting cool air into the upstairs bedrooms or the mid-level main bedroom because it is around the corner of the stairs and then opens up into a much bigger room.

I have noticed that all the rooms (aside from the main bedroom) have an exhaust for the air circulator system. My thought are, is it possible to leverage those ducts and connect the mini split system to it, that way cool air can flow through the air circulator system into the bedroom.

It doesn't really solve the main bedroom issue, for that we might need to add another wall mounted unit directly in the bedroom since summers are humid here and a fan doesn't often cut it.

What do you think?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/30403895

I'm trying to wire Shelly 1PM gen 3 to my wall outlet. Is the diagram correct?

This is really RV improvement, not home improvement, but I figure you would appreciate this.

We have a 1995 Airstream travel trailer that we bought in 2011. It still has the original rooftop air conditioner, which still cools very well.

During one trip, the air conditioner seemingly stopped working, but when I turned the thermostat down all the way, it cycled on again. After some trial and error, we found that it was now about 10 degrees off - if we wanted 72 degrees inside, we had to set the thermostat to 62. "Well," I said. "This thing is probably on the way out, and we'll be buying a new AC soon."

That was August, 2013. It continued to work that way until this January, during a trip to Disney World in Florida. It was cold enough early on that we didn't need the AC at all; in fact we got a picture of ourselves in the Magic Kingdom wearing our winter coats.

Later in our stay, it did warm up enough to need the AC, but now, with the thermostat on the lowest setting possible (60), we were only getting down to about 78 in the trailer. I had the trailer on a trip a few weekends ago, and had the same thing then; the problem didn't magically fix itself. Both times, it cooled and cycled on and off perfectly, as though 78 was the temperature I had selected.

78 isn't too bad, but it's like, what's next? When will it decide that, say, 90 is low enough? We travel with pets, and it's just not something I want to deal with. And neither of us sleep well in warm temperatures - and inevitably the cats and dog will curl up with us in that situation, making matters worse.

Maybe I'm cheap, but I hate to toss a working AC unit. And I like how that unit works - it's quieter than many new ones (not at all quiet, but quieter), and it can either run the fan constantly or change the fan speed as needed. It also has a heat strip, basically an electric heater, whereas newer ones have a heat pump instead - more efficient, but they don't work below about 45 degrees (I know home units can do much better than that, but RV units do not).

Note for this, the thermostat is right on the unit in the ceiling - it's not a separate part on the wall like in a house or even in newer RVs. Or even in some other RVs of that era, really. The actual control to set the temperature is a slider with markings that run from 60 to maybe 90.

Anyway, I figured the problem had to be either in the slider to set the temperature, or however it sensed the temperature. The slider seemed unlikely, because the issue is extremely consistent, and you'd think the slider wearing out would mean it would work sometimes and not others, that sort of thing, especially in a vehicle that gets bounced around on the road a lot. So that left the temperature sensor. I learned what a thermistor is - a variable resistor that changes resistance based on the temperature, and I realized one was mounted on the control board, with a section of the board carved away around it to let air get to it easily.

I ordered an assortment of thermistors from Amazon. I guessed it might be a 10k ohm thermistor, but I really didn't know for sure, and if the old one is bad, I can't trust the readings from it. I still can't find any documentation that states it either - it's 30 years old, and RV air conditioners tend to be disposable, and even if someone did diagnose it, they'd probably just replace the board. So, figuring I had nothing to lose, I desoldered the old one and soldered in a new 10k thermistor, and I put the board back in the AC.

IT WORKED! With the thermostat set to 70, it cycled off at about 72, which is good enough for us (and within the bounds of measurement errors on the thermometers I was using). Putting the thermistor in the cold air flow for a moment caused it to cycle off immediately. I'll have to test it more to see if the thermostat is roughly accurate (there are different 10k thermistors), but it's definitely usable, even if the thermostat isn't perfectly accurate.

Total cost, about $12 and a few hours, most of that sitting in an air conditioned trailer to see what would happen. Versus probably $1500 for a new AC installed. And I learned something and practiced my rarely used desoldering and soldering skills!

Now I just have to find a use for the other 99 thermistors...

I have an patio like the one on the example (not actual photo) of which I want to rebuild the glazed area into an outdoor kitchen for all-year round usage. The "only" requirements are :

• work area
• placement of a charcoal grill ( likely to be replaced by a kamado style one)
• a place for my ooni (wood heated).
• open in summer
• shelter from rain/snow (it's Sweden we talk about)
• some shelter from wind

I thought about building something against the sliding doors so you can stand outside in summer and inside when the weather is bad. But also of making something on wheels.

Internet searches gives many photo's but not much on the last two wishes. Anyone built something for all-year usage in the northern areas? Photo's will be much appreciated!

• thank you for all the votes and comments! -

A followup to my "kitchen completed" post a while back. After 6 years of completely rebuilding this place by myself, we finally moved in. Im very happy.

More pics here.

I live in a 1960s-built single-story ranch in Ohio. The house was originally built with a covered back patio, floored with concrete. At some point, the original owners closed it up into a large sunroom.

The sunroom conversion was done extremely haphazardly - the exterior siding doesn't match, carpet was laid with no padding on the concrete, the hood in the kitchen vents into it, and the walls are uninsulated and undrywalled - wainscoting panels attached directly to studs. I don't know what the plan was, but at some point they must have been tired of it being so cold back there because they added a woodburning stove in the middle of the room (without properly screening off the chimney, so a few times a year a starling or a squirrel falls in and either breaks their neck or starves to death) and it must have too hot as they also ran wiring to install a large through-wall A/C unit.

I'm sure it's obvious from my description but the room is impractical to use as anything but storage at this point. In the winter, it gets colder in there than in my garage but I'm not about to run that woodstove and burn my house down, and in summer it's so leaky and humid from the poorly installed a/c unit and ancient single-pane sliding windows that every attempt to habitate it has resulted in having to clean blue mold off the walls and furniture in there. Thankfully the old patio door seals it all off pretty well, and that's what we've done for the last few years since we realized just how bad the situation in there was.

I'd like to make the space functional again, especially as it would increase my square footage by around 40%, but don't really know where to start.

How can I unscrew and remove this from my tub drain? It won't loosen when turning by hand or flat head screwdriver. It cracked when I tried a wrench

I have recently purchased a home with solar panels. The previous owner didn't have a ton of information on them as she inherited the house from her mother who passed away. She has the purchase agreement, but the company that did the installation in 2014 has gone bankrupt (in 2020).

I'd like to somehow figure out how much energy I'm getting out of the panels. I got information from the previous owner on their electric bill, which shows me I won't be paying much. But that doesn't really answer my question about electricity generation.

Looks like I have 14 solar world Mono Black panels with model number 275.

Any advice on how I can go about figuring out exactly how much energy generation I'm getting?

Ancillary Information: the panels are owned outright. They were originally purchased with cash so no loan or lease on them.

Useful infographic design

What’s this thing inside my drip irrigation tube? 🤔

The center slab is pretty thrashed and has some failing previous repairs. A couple of other slabs have more minor damage. At the very least, I'm interested in removing and repouring the center slab, but a contractor recommended against doing anything less than a full demo/replacement of the whole patio based on foundation/structural reasons.

Beyond aesthetic reasons, is this advice legit or just an upsell? If I need to do the whole thing and not just one or two slabs, I might consider pavers instead of concrete, but any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks!