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(Note, this is not my house) Any tips on getting dog piss odor out of an apartment? The place has formerly nice wood floors, so i want to be sure the cleaning product is safe on wood.
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Aug 6, 2023 23:25
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Head Bee Guy posted:(Note, this is not my house) Any tips on getting dog piss odor out of an apartment? The place has formerly nice wood floors, so i want to be sure the cleaning product is safe on wood. The key words here are "enzyme cleaner", nothing else is going to work as well. They make them supposedly safe for hardwood floors, but that's really a tough thing to say, because are you talking about floors that are thinly covered with shellac or damaged enough that are essentially still porous or a floor covered with a modern coating that is essentially not even a hardwood floor anymore but some nonreactive polymer.
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Aug 6, 2023 23:30
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Motronic posted:The key words here are "enzyme cleaner", nothing else is going to work as well. They make them supposedly safe for hardwood floors, but that's really a tough thing to say, because are you talking about floors that are thinly covered with shellac or damaged enough that are essentially still porous or a floor covered with a modern coating that is essentially not even a hardwood floor anymore but some nonreactive polymer. The reliable brand is now Mister Max Anti-Icky-Poo . Unfortunately, Nature's Miracle reformulated and it doesn't work as well.  HelloIAmYourHeart posted:I would get on Etsy or Ebay, personally.
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Aug 6, 2023 23:55
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The Wonder Weapon posted:I need to buy a power washer I think. Nothing professional, just enough to clean off a wood fence for painting, get the dirt off a patio, etc. Any suggestions I should take into consideration before I start looking at what's well rated/on sale? https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3384038&pagenumber=488#post533662640 The conclusion seemed to 'just buy a cheap electric one from Harbor Freight, it'll be fine.' But if you have more specific questions/needs, that thread would be a good place to ask.
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Aug 7, 2023 01:39
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The Wonder Weapon posted:I need to buy a power washer I think. Nothing professional, just enough to clean off a wood fence for painting, get the dirt off a patio, etc. Any suggestions I should take into consideration before I start looking at what's well rated/on sale? I have an electric Ryobi unit that supposedly goes up to 1800 psi and it's been great. It was barely over $100, packs up the size of a small tool box and has everything I needed. I bought some extra tips of different sizes.
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Aug 7, 2023 02:03
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Arsenic Lupin posted:The reliable brand is now Mister Max Anti-Icky-Poo . Unfortunately, Nature's Miracle reformulated and it doesn't work as well. Etsy's search is hot garbage, like 50% ads at this point, so site limited image search is your friend for this sort of thing. Just put in some adjectives onto this search: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Aetsy.com+lampshade&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images
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Aug 7, 2023 02:19
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Shifty Pony posted:Etsy's search is hot garbage, like 50% ads at this point, so site limited image search is your friend for this sort of thing. You are a dark genius, and I have turned this into a bookmarklet. Many thanks.
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Aug 7, 2023 02:39
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Verman posted:I have an electric Ryobi unit that supposedly goes up to 1800 psi and it's been great. It was barely over $100, packs up the size of a small tool box and has everything I needed. I bought some extra tips of different sizes. I also have this one. I wouldn’t use it to strip a deck but to knock loose paint off a fence/clean a garage floor, etc. it works well. I haven’t needed anything stronger yet.
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Aug 7, 2023 03:04
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Shifty Pony posted:Etsy's search is hot garbage, like 50% ads at this point, so site limited image search is your friend for this sort of thing. it's awful for sellers too, they've just gone totally to poo poo after going public
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Aug 7, 2023 05:07
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My kitchen faucet broke today. It was old and sucked so whatever, fine. Can anyone give me decent pointers on what to look for, Brands, styles, price points etc. to make sure I end up with something that is actually quality? I just don't want to have something that breaks/doesn't work well.
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Aug 7, 2023 18:06
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emocrat posted:My kitchen faucet broke today. It was old and sucked so whatever, fine. Can anyone give me decent pointers on what to look for, Brands, styles, price points etc. to make sure I end up with something that is actually quality? I just don't want to have something that breaks/doesn't work well. Depends on what kind of style you want and what your budget is. I'd just go with a name brand faucet from LowesDepot that you like. I've got a Moen single handle pulldown faucet and it's a faucet. It works, matches the rest of the stuff. It does it's job.
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Aug 7, 2023 18:21
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Make sure you're in the $400+ section. There are built-to-cost ones around $150-200 and built-to-last ones in the other aisle. Or just go to a fixture store and get better service for the same price.
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Aug 7, 2023 18:45
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skipdogg posted:Depends on what kind of style you want and what your budget is. I'd just go with a name brand faucet from LowesDepot that you like. I've got a Moen single handle pulldown faucet and it's a faucet. It works, matches the rest of the stuff. It does it's job. I was under the impression that Moen was fairly poor quality. Is that not the case? H110Hawk posted:Make sure you're in the $400+ section. There are built-to-cost ones around $150-200 and built-to-last ones in the other aisle. Or just go to a fixture store and get better service for the same price. This is sorta my suspicion. You think $400 is around the inflection point for quality vs not?
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Aug 7, 2023 18:48
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Yeah, it's largely that: $400 and up. Maybe it's even more now? There will be a better selection of these at a kitchen and bath store. Moen, Kraus and Grohe and the like are lifetime warranty. Kohler is 12 months. Take from that what you will.
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Aug 7, 2023 18:50
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I have put in half a dozen delta faucets since buying my house 5 years ago. They are working well and had simple installations. I think we did spend in $400 range for kitchen faucet. I believe we have the trinsic line.
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Aug 7, 2023 19:18
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emocrat posted:I was under the impression that Moen was fairly poor quality. Is that not the case? Moen has "built to cost" and "built to last" just like most of the other brands. Get the nicer ones because: Motronic posted:Yeah, it's largely that: $400 and up. Maybe it's even more now? And generally speaking at the fixture stores you don't have to worry about being taken advantage of because they simply won't sell the flipper-grade stuff. Tell them you want good quality but not luxury. Easy parts, not special order. Point at the style on the wall you like and they can basically produce that for you from any brand at 3 price points. You want the middle price point.
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Aug 7, 2023 19:40
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I tend toward Delta after getting to visit their headquarters and tour their R&D lab ten years ago, I was impressed by the way they approached things. I've not been let down so far by anything of theirs. They told a great story about how they didn't used to make toilets, but they saw a customer opinion survey that showed them as the number two most trusted toilet brand, so they figured they might as well start. Then they had to figure out how to get videos of lots of different people's usage so they could see all the different ways people interacted with toilets. When they did this for showers, the solution was to hire strippers to come in and allow themselves to be filmed showering. I think for toilets they didn't revisit this method and mostly just had anonymized videos of employees in a work bathroom that was clearly designated for the purpose. Because toilet usage is done in private, there's very little standardization about how each person does things -- we don't adjust our behavior based on what we see others do. But the one pattern that stood out is that, when sitting down, women pulled their pants down just enough to uncover their butt while men dropped their pants all the way to the floor.
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Aug 7, 2023 21:08
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Honest question, has anyone actually had the lower end faucets from Lowesdepot catastrophically fail on them in under 10 years? I could be wrong but it just seems like a class of product that it in my personal experience isn't failing in a way that requires replacement in a timeline that's not measured in decades. Could just be lucky I guess. Every faucet I've replaced has been for aesthetic or functional reasons except for one instance where my in-laws got a faucet that failed immediately out of the box. One bit of advice I have for removing an old kitchen faucet is if the lock nut is giving you even the little bit of a fight, consider where or not it'd be easier to just take a reciprocating saw to it, just make sure to put down some plastic to contain the metal bits. First kitchen faucet I ever replaced took hours and involved 3 trips to the store for different tools to try and fight it loose in the tight confines, the second one took 5 minutes when I realized I don't care if the old faucet comes out in pieces, just cut halfway through it above the counter and everything falls loose.
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Aug 7, 2023 22:21
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Elem7 posted:Honest question, has anyone actually had the lower end faucets from Lowesdepot catastrophically fail on them in under 10 years? Absolutely yes. Both in my own home (twice, I was broke and learn things the hard and slow way) and others I've helped. Some of these faucets (like Glacier Bay) are literally more plastic than metal. The ones that have some more metal parts often have critical parts that are plastic and break anyway. And even if it's not catastrophically broken and just needs a small part or cartridge there's almost no chance parts will be available at the store if at all.
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Aug 7, 2023 22:25
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I need to cut a fairly large hole (~2 inches) in drywall between my garage and the interior of the house. I'm going to have a couple of hefty cables for a home backup battery system running through the wall. What's the best product for filling the hole and restoring the seal for insulation? Some kind of caulk? I don't care what it looks like because the cables are ugly as hell regardless, there is no way to make this aesthetic so I will not worry about it.
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Aug 7, 2023 22:50
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Kylaer posted:I need to cut a fairly large hole (~2 inches) in drywall between my garage and the interior of the house. I'm going to have a couple of hefty cables for a home backup battery system running through the wall. What's the best product for filling the hole and restoring the seal for insulation? Some kind of caulk? I don't care what it looks like because the cables are ugly as hell regardless, there is no way to make this aesthetic so I will not worry about it. Then just use fire caulk. Because you need to maintain a 2 hour rating between the storage enclosure (garage) and living space. https://www.homedepot.com/p/3M-10-1-fl-oz-Red-Fire-Barrier-CP-25WB-Plus-Sealant-CP25WB-10/100166701
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Aug 7, 2023 22:57
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Perfect, thanks.
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Aug 7, 2023 23:00
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These are going to be in conduit or attached to an approved box for this pass through, right?
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Aug 7, 2023 23:01
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Motronic posted:These are going to be in conduit or attached to an approved box for this pass through, right? What's an approved box  Right now the backup system is sitting on wire shelving inside the garage next to the subpanel it plugs in to, I could just leave it there but I figure garage temps probably aren't good for batteries.
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Aug 7, 2023 23:04
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Kylaer posted:What's an approved box So you are going to pass a high voltage cable through sheetrock? That's not at all to code or safe. This requires proper wiring. If that's not an option your best option is to do nothing at all. Also, take one step back here. If you just "figure" heat is "bad" for the batteries I suggest you start looking up if that's actually true or not for your specific batteries/system/etc with information and specs from the manufacturer.
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Aug 7, 2023 23:08
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Kylaer posted:What's an approved box As I recall the spec sheet I was looking at for the systems I'm reviewing show reduced output at 45C ambient. That's really hot. I would suggest insulating your garage instead.
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Aug 7, 2023 23:11
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Motronic posted:So you are going to pass a high voltage cable through sheetrock? That's not at all to code or safe. This requires proper wiring. If that's not an option your best option is to do nothing at all. It's an Ecoflow home backup system and has a big proprietary cable to connect the battery unit to the subpanel, the cable is not something that can be altered. Well, I'm sure it can be, but it's not something I would consider altering. The optimal temperature per the manual is 68 to 86 F, although it is stated to remain functional up to 113 F. The current temperature of the battery unit is 95 F. If I can't run the cable through the wall, I'll look into other solutions.
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Aug 7, 2023 23:15
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Can you post a picture of this setup as-is, including your inlet and interlock?
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Aug 7, 2023 23:22
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Kylaer posted:It's an Ecoflow home backup system and has a big proprietary cable to connect the battery unit to the subpanel, the cable is not something that can be altered. Well, I'm sure it can be, but it's not something I would consider altering. The optimal temperature per the manual is 68 to 86 F, although it is stated to remain functional up to 113 F. The current temperature of the battery unit is 95 F. This is either something that doesn't need to be done or has one or more common and acceptable methods for doing it that will meet with the NEC or more stringent codes. You should call the vendor and ask them. It wouldn't be out of the ordinary for there to be some sort of pass through box that is code compliant for both electrical and fire made specifically for the purpose.
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Aug 7, 2023 23:23
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 I did not DIY the subpanel installation, I paid an electrician to do that. The wall just to the right of the subpanel is where I was thinking to run the cables through.
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Aug 7, 2023 23:30
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Kylaer posted:
There should definitely be a code compliant solution to making that work, but I have to ask: does it matter at all? If heat reduces the capacity of the batteries and your power goes out when the garage is hot, surely those two little batteries aren't running your home AC so the inside of the house is gonna be just nearly as hot soon enough. And even sooner with those things offloading their waste heat from.....I don't know what (an inverter?), but they obviously have fans on them.
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Aug 7, 2023 23:32
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No, they won't run the A/C, but in the garage they're getting hot every hot day, whereas inside the house they'd only get hot in the event of a power failure. Maybe it genuinely doesn't matter but it seems like it would, since the temperature is consistently going outside of the optimal zone. I am certainly not any kind of expert in battery physics though.
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Aug 7, 2023 23:47
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I would unplug them from the ATS on the wall (I assume that's what that white box is), bring them inside, plug them in to an outlet to stay charged and conditioned, then when the power goes out bring them out into the garage to re-energize the house. What's your interlock look like? I wouldn't run that cord through the wall or anything. It's not meant to - I doubt it's "in wall" rated even if it would likely be just fine. Can you open your panel door and show us the interlock? How does it prevent backfeed? I'm curious personally more than anything else. Also if it's wrong we're gonna yell at your electrician since you paid them. 
H110Hawk fucked around with this message at 00:00 on Aug 8, 2023 |
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Aug 7, 2023 23:58
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H110Hawk posted:I would unplug them from the ATS on the wall (I assume that's what that white box is), bring them inside, plug them in to an outlet to stay charged and conditioned, then when the power goes out bring them out into the garage to re-energize the house. What's your interlock look like? I wouldn't run that cord through the wall or anything. It's not meant to - I doubt it's "in wall" rated even if it would likely be just fine. This is a stock photo but mine looks identical except for having the circuits labeled  As for what the interlock looks like and how it prevents backfeed,  I suppose. It works seamlessly as-is, I've had a few brief power disruptions because of grid maintenance stuff (I got emailed warnings from the power company beforehand) and didn't even have a flicker on the circuits that it supports.
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Aug 8, 2023 00:24
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They have to be interrupting circuits discreetly (so there is a loop between the load center and their panel - breaker output goes to their panel and load goes to their panel as well with
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Aug 8, 2023 00:36
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This is all fascinating. I didn't know there was a consumerish market for this. I wonder if the units are just online ups's. The battery is always inverting for demand and rectifying to charge. That would put it as a unidirectional and no chance for backfeed. Those fans always on? Throw your main breaker for us and let us know? Now I want to download a spec sheet for it.
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Aug 8, 2023 00:54
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They do function as UPS', yes. The fans don't seem to be on constantly, or if they are, they aren't moving enough air to be audible most of the time. They definitely spin up at times though. You can also plug solar panels directly into those units and it will feed the house circuits, handling up to 1600 watts per unit. I've tested it with some panels sitting in the driveway (not the full 1600 watts but a couple hundred). It's been remarkably hard to find a solar installer who will just sell me some panels and mount them on the roof, though, instead of wanting to install their own massively expensive inverter and grid-tie setup.
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Aug 8, 2023 01:33
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The cables look like they have some communication lines in them:  Very likely so that distribution center can engage in some load shedding if needed. So splicing is right out. Motronic posted:There should definitely be a code compliant solution to making that work, but I have to ask: does it matter at all? If heat reduces the capacity of the batteries and your power goes out when the garage is hot, surely those two little batteries aren't running your home AC so the inside of the house is gonna be just nearly as hot soon enough. And even sooner with those things offloading their waste heat from.....I don't know what (an inverter?), but they obviously have fans on them. If it were a commercial/industrial install it would seem like a situation tailor made for an intumescent pass-through like this. We used similar in the fab I worked in to pass all the equipment cabling through fire rated floors. Of course that was supervised by many many PEs who were well aware of exactly what needed done. I don't even know if those are allowed in residential and I don't know that it would be ok to pass those cables through a wall even if they are fire stopped.
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Aug 8, 2023 01:47
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The install video from the website talks about there being relay modules under that front panel. The fact that they appear to be designed to be swapped quite easily kinda terrifies me.
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Aug 8, 2023 01:48
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Shifty Pony posted:If it were a commercial/industrial install it would seem like a situation tailor made for an intumescent pass-through like this. We used similar in the fab I worked in to pass all the equipment cabling through fire rated floors. Those look very similar to things I was familiar with in my code enforcement days that were used in hospitals for various types of equipment cabling between enclosures (I'm using this in the room/wing building sense) that required maintaining a fire rating. While I've never seen that in resi, I bet it would work.
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Aug 8, 2023 01:50
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