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Subjunctive posted:What am I looking for in a whole-house humidifier? 3 stories including finished basement, about 3500 sqft, new relatively new construction with gas furnace forced air and air purifier. With forced air heat and relatively new construction, an evaporative system will probably be fine, though if you want more control over the actual humidity steam might be the better option. Your place is pretty good-sized, too, which I've heard is another reason to go steam. My house makes a sieve seem airtight and we have radiators, so I'm getting quotes on a steam system. A few months too early, it would appear, as I just found a loving crack in the poly (I hope just in the poly) on the back of my Kottke twelve-string not half an hour ago, likely because I've been busy and missed a refill on the humidifer I keep in the guitar closet. I am so loving bummed out right now.
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Dec 11, 2017 16:01
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tetrapyloctomy posted:With forced air heat and relatively new construction, an evaporative system will probably be fine, though if you want more control over the actual humidity steam might be the better option. Your place is pretty good-sized, too, which I've heard is another reason to go steam. If it's any consolation ( it's not) Leo's hands are getting that way too.
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Dec 11, 2017 16:44
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CzarChasm posted:poo poo. Total rewire it is. Well, not really other than being wired to code/new wiring. Also, one breaker per room is very far from best practice, and in some rooms is absolutely not up to code. Subjunctive posted:What am I looking for in a whole-house humidifier? 3 stories including finished basement, about 3500 sqft, new relatively new construction with gas furnace forced air and air purifier. Buddy has one of these in his similarly sized house. It's been 0 drama and just works: https://www.aprilaire.com/whole-house-products/humidifier/model-700
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Dec 11, 2017 18:03
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Motronic posted:Buddy has one of these in his similarly sized house. It's been 0 drama and just works: Yeah, Aprilaire keeps coming up well in reviews. Thanks!
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Dec 11, 2017 18:11
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Mr. Mambold posted:If it's any consolation ( it's not) Leo's hands are getting that way too. His ramblings are also getting worse, too. He used to pull it all together with a pubchline. Now he kinda tends to trail off. Dude can still play, though, for sure.
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Dec 11, 2017 19:10
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LawfulWaffle posted:I have what I believe to be a faulty igniter for my oven. It’s a gas Kenmore, probably 20 years old, and my problem is that I can’t get to the bolts to disconnect the old igniter or install the new one. They are under the igniter at an angle that points slightly into the base of the oven. I've tried to take the base out and give myself more working room, but after unscrewing a few things I couldn't see a through line that would let me get the base out without some pieces falling into unreachable places and generally not being able to feel confident about my ability to put it back together. If you haven't figured out how to get those bolts off yet you could try one of these: http://a.co/iMFIKrH They're also very handy if you do automotive work
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Dec 11, 2017 19:59
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tetrapyloctomy posted:His ramblings are also getting worse, too. He used to pull it all together with a pubchline. Now he kinda tends to trail off. Dude can still play, though, for sure. I think his trailing off is now his actual attitude/shtick, sort of a world-weary Warning, OT sidebar- so, in your opinion, does keeping a nice acoustic in a lined case do anything humdity-wise?
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Dec 11, 2017 20:17
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Mr. Mambold posted:I think his trailing off is now his actual attitude/shtick, sort of a world-weary Assuming temperature is fairly constant the lined case should limit changes in humidity, as moisture will not be lost to a dry room or gained from a wet room. It also allows you to use products such as a Damp-it to help regulate the humidity inside the case. My violin lives in a lined case and I've rarely had humidity issues with it even though the air gets very very dry around here in the winter months. I just have to remember to replace the humidity that I lose every time I open the case. If the case stays closed the humidity stays put.
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Dec 11, 2017 22:05
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The guitar has been in a lined case, so I wonder if the temperature was fluctuating too much. The closet is somewhat close to the radiator. Edit: looking at the room again, nevermind. There's over two feet space. tetrapyloctomy fucked around with this message at 22:15 on Dec 11, 2017 |
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Dec 11, 2017 22:13
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tetrapyloctomy posted:The guitar has been in a lined case, so I wonder if the temperature was fluctuating too much. The closet is somewhat close to the radiator. The big question then is what was the humidity level of the air inside that case? Humidifying the closet isn't going to help if the instruments are protected from that humidity by cases.
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Dec 11, 2017 22:37
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PremiumSupport posted:The big question then is what was the humidity level of the air inside that case? Humidifying the closet isn't going to help if the instruments are protected from that humidity by cases. It shouldn't have been atrocious? The house gets dry in the winter when it gets super cold but it's not much below 30% RH right now, so that's the worst-case scenario based on when I played it last. I generally leave the closet open when I play so the room gets some extra humidification. It's also possible that the hygrometer on the unit is hosed. It always measured about 10% higher than my handheld hygrometer read, and maybe it's just too far gone. Or maybe it's completely unrelated and there always was a much smaller defect there that got worse? I don't loving know anymore. I'm still really loving irritated regardless. Getting a icture of this thing was pretty difficult -- it's to the left of the midline here.  I don't see any wood defects looking at the corresponding spot on the inside, so I'm hoping I somehow caused a mechanical scratch rather than this being a wood separation, but I just can't think of when or how that might have happened.
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Dec 12, 2017 13:17
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It does look more like a scratch than a crack to my eye.
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Dec 12, 2017 15:21
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PremiumSupport posted:It does look more like a scratch than a crack to my eye. That's what I'm hoping, though hosed if I know how it got there since I am generally careful as gently caress with this thing. Man, is it a fantastic instrument; it's strung heavy and tuned down and just sounds wonderful.
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Dec 12, 2017 15:55
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What is the method for testing a tipover switch for a heater? Is there typically some prep work one has to do before it will work? I assumed I could just put a multimeter in short/diode mode, connect it across the contacts, hold the switch upright, and bask in the beeping glory. I get nothing. The switches in my patio heater seem to have failed. The pilot goes out as soon as I get up on the gas control. Furthermore, this does not happen when I short the tipover switch's contacts. I am doubting myself because I ordered replacements and they don't work either.
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Dec 12, 2017 16:23
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tetrapyloctomy posted:It shouldn't have been atrocious? The house gets dry in the winter when it gets super cold but it's not much below 30% RH right now, so that's the worst-case scenario based on when I played it last. I generally leave the closet open when I play so the room gets some extra humidification. It's also possible that the hygrometer on the unit is hosed. It always measured about 10% higher than my handheld hygrometer read, and maybe it's just too far gone. Can you feel it rubbing your fingers over it? It looks too even to me to be a scratch, but it could well be so shallow in the back that the finish could be rubbed out. Do you have any kind of warranty?
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Dec 12, 2017 17:44
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Rocko Bonaparte posted:What is the method for testing a tipover switch for a heater? Is there typically some prep work one has to do before it will work? It's probably a mercury switch. Mercury is a liquid metal at room temperature, so it conducts electricity. Like you guessed, it comes down to gravity and how the contacts are oriented in its little vial. For a tip over switch, my guess would be that it breaks a circuit if the switch isn't in the position it's in when attached where it goes in the heater. Oh, and be careful disposing of the old one. Mercury is toxic. kid sinister fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Dec 12, 2017 |
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Dec 12, 2017 18:06
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Mr. Mambold posted:Can you feel it rubbing your fingers over it? It looks too even to me to be a scratch, but it could well be so shallow in the back that the finish could be rubbed out. Do you have any kind of warranty? I felt it before I saw it, it definitely is at least a poly scratch. No warranty, to my knowledge, its a 2010 and thus definitely isn't a manufacturer's defect.
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Dec 13, 2017 00:11
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Furnace question: Unit is an Intertherm CRFYUA, it's at least 1 million years old, but it works. Until today. The limit switch keeps tripping, which seems to be because the furnace is getting too hot. The fan is running, but airflow seems very low. I have checked, and temporarily removed the filter, and the ducts and plenum are unobstructed. How possible is it the fan motor is just getting slower from age, and that it slowed down a lot from one day to the next? It seems to be direct-driven electric with a typical squirrel cage fan. edit: I scrubbed the crap out of each fan blade and it seems to have picked up speed. I assume it was dirtier than I realized on first inspection. Hopefully feeding myself a snoot full of dust is all that was required. mr.belowaverage fucked around with this message at 01:54 on Dec 14, 2017 |
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Dec 14, 2017 01:27
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mr.belowaverage posted:Furnace question: Disconnect and test your blower motor run capacitor with a capacitance meter. Compare against the value on the side of the capacitor. If it's bad, replace it for $15. Your local HVAC supply house or contractor should have them in stock.
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Dec 14, 2017 03:39
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My garage has a bunch of 8 foot Flourescent Tube lights. They seem to be burning out/stopping working one by one. What do I need to do to replace them with LEDs? Here are some pictures of what type of lights they are, the connections, and the ballast: https://imgur.com/a/eGL6C
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Dec 14, 2017 17:25
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Assuming the ballasts are still good, you can get tube LEDs that fit into them. If the ballasts are bad, you'll have to remove them and replace them with new fixtures. There are integrated LED lights that look like a fluorescent fixture + tube, or you can put a new fluorescent ballast in and, again, put tube LEDs into the ballasts.
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Dec 14, 2017 17:31
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Hay guys. I posted here a while back about some weird light switch issues I have ( https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2734407&pagenumber=517&perpage=40#post477439605 ) My motivation to fix it kinda fizzled out quickly, as I have many other annoying issues to fix in this weird frankenstein house, but it's started to irritate me again so I decided to take another look. The extent of my electrical knowledge is very limited, and most of what I know is just based on a few videos I watched of people fixing their 3-way switch issues. As far as I can tell, these switches aren't really 3 way. I removed the face plates to get a better look at things and made the little schematic thing below to try to explain what I could see and what the issues are as best as I can reckon. You'll have to forgive the crudeness of this model. I didn't have time to paint it or build it to scale. (-Doc Brown)
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Dec 14, 2017 17:58
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The thermowell for my water heater finally arrived. Seeing as the threads already have some stuff on them, should I still use teflon tape?
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Dec 14, 2017 19:10
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This is what the tops of the gable ends of my house look like: (edit: to clarify, there's a rafter underneath the trim/siding; they don't literally abut open interior space) There's basically no overhang, probably due to setback limitations when the house was built. In several places the 2x4 and quarter-round trim have gotten some degree of rot, which exposes the tar paper underneath them, as well as the top of the siding. My best guess as to cause is that I neglected to keep them painted -- they're very exposed, including to substantial amounts of wind, and can easily have water slip in somewhere. A cursory examination suggests that there probably isn't much if any rot beneath them (and the siding all looks sound). Would I be correct in assuming that the correct remediation would be:
Bonus question: a small amount of the roof deck also shows signs of rot. The roof is covered with metal shingles like these, with some kind of edge shingles at this point. I'm pretty sure that the rot here is not substantial, but I have no idea how to go about removing and re-installing these shingles in order to get access to the deck to verify. Any suggestions? Josh Lyman posted:The thermowell for my water heater finally arrived. Seeing as the threads already have some stuff on them, should I still use teflon tape? Scrape/gouge out what you can (use a utility knife or screwdriver) then apply fresh tape. Jaypeeh posted:Hay guys. I posted here a while back about some weird light switch issues I have Suggest asking in the Don't Burn Your House Down thread. TooMuchAbstraction fucked around with this message at 19:32 on Dec 14, 2017 |
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Dec 14, 2017 19:25
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Scrape/gouge out what you can (use a utility knife or screwdriver) then apply fresh tape.
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Dec 14, 2017 19:39
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Josh Lyman posted:Is that because the material is old and likely ineffective? The sticker does have a manufacture date of 12/29/2009. I'm not an expert on this, but my understanding is mostly that tape does a better job when it's clean and undisturbed. Unscrewing/rescrewing the tape once makes it not seal effectively (because the tape moves around too much) and thus means you need to reapply tape. The stuff that's really buried in the threads probably isn't going to move around, but anything you can easily get out is probably not contributing anything to making a watertight seal. In any event, tape is easy to apply and cheap, while leaks are expensive, so being wasteful with the tape is not generally a problem.
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Dec 14, 2017 19:56
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Jaypeeh posted:Hay guys. I posted here a while back about some weird light switch issues I have ( https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2734407&pagenumber=517&perpage=40#post477439605 ) If those switches say on and off on them, then they aren't 3 way switches. As for the terminals with missing wires, those are probably ground. It used to be code that you didn't need to attach ground wires to switches, but now it is, usually. The exception is for metal boxes. You can ground the metal box and use self grounding devices in it instead. Honestly, I'd get a circuit tester, turn the power off, rip out those switches and get to testing what every wire does and where it goes. Start in box A. Separate every hot wire in those boxes: every black and red wire, plus any white wire attached to a switch. Leave any white wire not screwed into a switch alone. Make sure that no wires are touching each other or anything metal. Turn the breaker back on. Next, get out that circuit tester and test every single hot wire. Touch one probe to either neutral (the bundled whites) or ground, and the other probe to each hot wire one at a time. Only one wire should light up the tester. That is your source hot. Label it, because you're going to need to use it to test further. After that, one at a time, touch another wire to that source hot, then go around to the other box/outlet/light and see if it's on now. To make it simple, just leave a bulb in the light. The tester probes will fit in the outlet slots, but you can just plug in something like a lamp to make it easier to check. Don't forget to turn it on. Once you got every single wire labeled as to where it goes, write back to us and we'll tell you how to attach everything to make your goals happen.
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Dec 14, 2017 19:58
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Josh Lyman posted:Is that because the material is old and likely ineffective? The sticker does have a manufacture date of 12/29/2009. Teflon tape is one time use. Once your screw it in and leave it for any set period of time you want to get it off. It doesn't have to be perfect, but this is what's between the water and your floor.
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Dec 14, 2017 20:28
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Josh Lyman posted:Is that because the material is old and likely ineffective? The sticker does have a manufacture date of 12/29/2009. TooMuchAbstraction posted:I'm not an expert on this, but my understanding is mostly that tape does a better job when it's clean and undisturbed. Unscrewing/rescrewing the tape once makes it not seal effectively (because the tape moves around too much) and thus means you need to reapply tape. The stuff that's really buried in the threads probably isn't going to move around, but anything you can easily get out is probably not contributing anything to making a watertight seal. Is that the new component sold with sealant on the threads? If so leave it and use as is.
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Dec 14, 2017 20:29
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cakesmith handyman posted:Is that the new component sold with sealant on the threads? If so leave it and use as is. A more distressing problem though. Now that I have everything hooked back up, when I try to ignite the pilot light I get this problem. I tried to soap the connection to check to a leak but it seems to be okay. When the water heater leaked last Thursday, some water probably did go down the gas tube but that was 7 hours short of a full week ago so I would think it dried out. Should I try spray compressed air down it or something? Not sure I even could get it down since the opening is so small. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_BP4hETaKo edit: Spray compressed air down the pilot gas line and up into the gas valve and it fixed everything. Josh Lyman fucked around with this message at 23:24 on Dec 14, 2017 |
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Dec 14, 2017 21:01
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One Day Fish Sale posted:Disconnect and test your blower motor run capacitor with a capacitance meter. Compare against the value on the side of the capacitor. If it's bad, replace it for $15. Your local HVAC supply house or contractor should have them in stock. Does the capacitor affect the speed on different settings? This furnace has a single-stage fan motor. My thermostat has an ON and an AUTO selection. If I leave it on auto, it runs slow. If it set it to ON it runs fast. If I get it going fast with the ON setting, and then switch back to auto when the furnace is burning, it slows down again. I kind of thought the cap was needed to get the fan moving from a stop. Anyway, that's where I'm at today. After running all night just fine, it started tripping the limit switch again. On AUTO it runs slow, ON it runs fast (normal). But even set to ON it managed to trip the limit.. not sure what to check from here.
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Dec 15, 2017 00:19
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mr.belowaverage posted:Does the capacitor affect the speed on different settings? This furnace has a single-stage fan motor. My thermostat has an ON and an AUTO selection. If I leave it on auto, it runs slow. If it set it to ON it runs fast. If I get it going fast with the ON setting, and then switch back to auto when the furnace is burning, it slows down again. I kind of thought the cap was needed to get the fan moving from a stop. I'm not sure what might be going on there unless maybe there are two different relays that can energize the motor and one's not making good contact. And yeah, you're thinking of a start capacitor which I guess I haven't seen on modern furnace blower motors. If you have two capacitors, one of them is a start capacitor and both are worth checking. Discharge them with a incandescent bulb or very carefully with a screwdriver before testing. If you can do so safely, I would check the voltage going to the motor while it's running in each case to start to narrow down what's happening. If you have your furnace manual it should have a schematic in the back. I suggested the run capacitor right away because I had the exact situation you described in your earlier post, slow blower motor and over-temp resets.
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Dec 15, 2017 01:06
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I have this fan/light combo in my basement bathroom. The fan worked when we moved in about 18 months ago, but has since stopped spinning. We don't really use it at this point, so it's been a low priority, but we have some family staying downstairs over the holidays and I'm curious if there's any easy things I could look for to get it working?
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Dec 15, 2017 06:36
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Pull it down and find out. The fan unit may be mounted further away in line with the exhaust tubing however, in which case if you have access from above start there.
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Dec 15, 2017 07:13
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One Day Fish Sale posted:I'm not sure what might be going on there unless maybe there are two different relays that can energize the motor and one's not making good contact. And yeah, you're thinking of a start capacitor which I guess I haven't seen on modern furnace blower motors. If you have two capacitors, one of them is a start capacitor and both are worth checking. Discharge them with a incandescent bulb or very carefully with a screwdriver before testing. Well I found a run cap locally for $15 so I changed it out, as my multimeter can't do proper capacitance testing anyway. No change. I can't find schematics for my furnace, due to its age I think. But it seems most motors are similar. I have a red wire connected that operates the fan on LO, and a black wire that operates the fan on HIGH. It seems this machine is capable of more than one speed. So, the red wire is part of the heating logic and runs on LO, but this speed is much lower than it was before. Too low, as the furnace overheats. The red wire seems to be what is energized when fan mode is set to ON, and that is the HIGH speed setting. This seems to work normally. There is a blue wire identified as LO-MED, which is disused. I'm going to connect that in place of the red wire next and see if that setting works. I believe something has changed with whatever sends the power signal down the red wire. Just not sure how to find out what is it. Edit: Confirmed, works normally at a normal, if slightly higher, speed using the blue motor wire. Now to find out exactly what the red wire connects to (on the fan motor) and why that function has failed. mr.belowaverage fucked around with this message at 17:08 on Dec 15, 2017 |
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Dec 15, 2017 16:48
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BeastOfExmoor posted:I have this fan/light combo in my basement bathroom. The fan worked when we moved in about 18 months ago, but has since stopped spinning. We don't really use it at this point, so it's been a low priority, but we have some family staying downstairs over the holidays and I'm curious if there's any easy things I could look for to get it working? Take down the cover. The fan is mounted to a bracket inside. Remove the bracket and take that to the hardware store. First off, find the maker's mark stamped on it, then compare it to the models they have. You may need to open boxes in the store. Find one with the same bracket size and buy it. Then you just need to swap in that one part instead of replacing the whole drat thing.
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Dec 15, 2017 22:50
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mr.belowaverage posted:I can't find schematics for my furnace, due to its age I think. But it seems most motors are similar. I have a red wire connected that operates the fan on LO, and a black wire that operates the fan on HIGH. It seems this machine is capable of more than one speed. Sorry the run cap didn't work out, but it sounds like you're on the right track. There's probably a relay at the other end of the red wire, and if you can safely probe across the high-voltage side you can see if there's voltage drop across it. There shouldn't be any voltage drop across the relay; if your furnace motor is 120V it should be getting the full 120V coming out of the relay. If you're getting 100V, then it's dropping 20V across the relay and means that the relay contacts are toast. Also see if you can google the furnace model number to find a schematic.
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Dec 16, 2017 00:08
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One Day Fish Sale posted:Sorry the run cap didn't work out, but it sounds like you're on the right track. There's probably a relay at the other end of the red wire, and if you can safely probe across the high-voltage side you can see if there's voltage drop across it. There shouldn't be any voltage drop across the relay; if your furnace motor is 120V it should be getting the full 120V coming out of the relay. If you're getting 100V, then it's dropping 20V across the relay and means that the relay contacts are toast. One caveat: Measure the input power to your system. If it's plugged just unplug it and meter the outlet. This sets your baseline. Seeing 115V input power is totally normal. If the baseline is 100V then you have different though related issues. 
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Dec 16, 2017 00:56
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H110Hawk posted:One caveat: Measure the input power to your system. If it's plugged just unplug it and meter the outlet. This sets your baseline. Seeing 115V input power is totally normal. If the baseline is 100V then you have different though related issues.
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Dec 16, 2017 02:05
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cakesmith handyman posted:Pull it down and find out. The fan unit may be mounted further away in line with the exhaust tubing however, in which case if you have access from above start there. kid sinister posted:Take down the cover. The fan is mounted to a bracket inside. Remove the bracket and take that to the hardware store. First off, find the maker's mark stamped on it, then compare it to the models they have. You may need to open boxes in the store. Find one with the same bracket size and buy it. Then you just need to swap in that one part instead of replacing the whole drat thing. Thanks. I couldn't even find a marking on the fan, but searching around for Broan fans revealed a similar looking part for $55 on Amazon. I wasn't really thrilled about spending that much to replace something I hate, so I cleaned it up, spun it around a bit, and tested it in the garage. Worked fine for a bit, so I put it back into service for the moment. I'd much rather replace it with a whole new fan, but I don't have easy access from above (it's the lower floor of a two story house). I'm assuming that replacement would involve removing the sheetrock around it in the ceiling? If so I'll try to keep it limping along until we remodel the downstairs. Thanks for the advice.
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Dec 16, 2017 07:17
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