Home Improvement Thread

[meow]

Start eating

[shafnutz05]

There are few things more stress inducing as a homeowner than realizing that your freezer is suddenly not cold enough. Especially when you have about 300 pounds of meat stored inside it.

[Sam's Drunk Dog]

The water dispenser on the refrigerator is not working. Light turns on when the button is pressed. I hear a click and electronic buzz. Yet no water.

A. Did the earth run out of water

B. If the answer to A. Is “no” then what happened

@Shyster

If you have a Whirlpool, try taking out the filter to see if it still works. If it does, then it is a problem with the filter not completely connecting. This is a common problem with their filters. The solution I've found online is to fold up a paper towel and stick it between the filter and the filter cover. That usually works for a while until the cover will start popping open every time the ice maker is refilled. You can then either shut off the icemaker, or duct tape the cover closed like I did.

[NTP66]

There’s also a switch that can go bad, but yeah, removing and replacing the filter is step 1.

[DigitalGypsy66]

We still have the Kenmore fridge my wife bought for her first home in 2001. It has an ice maker, but no water dispenser.

My parents and brother have high end Samsung fridges where the water or ice makers have broken multiple times. These are $2000+ models, of course, and the repairs were outside of warranty. My sister constantly has a towel under her freezer door beneath the ice maker/water dispenser, because it leaks constantly.

When we replace our fridge, we won’t be getting one with a water dispenser. Which is very hard to find a big fridge without one, but GE makes a couple of them.

[MWB]

The water dispenser on the refrigerator is not working. Light turns on when the button is pressed. I hear a click and electronic buzz. Yet no water.

A. Did the earth run out of water

B. If the answer to A. Is “no” then what happened

Is the water dispenser in front of the freezer? If so, I would bet the water line is frozen. This used to happen to mine. Open up the freezer door, put some cardboard up to block the cold air from coming out of the freezer, and the line will thaw. Unfortunately, not a permanent fix. Some freezer doors don’t put enough insulation around the line.

[NTP66]

We still have the Kenmore fridge my wife bought for her first home in 2001. It has an ice maker, but no water dispenser.

My parents and brother have high end Samsung fridges where the water or ice makers have broken multiple times. These are $2000+ models, of course, and the repairs were outside of warranty. My sister constantly has a towel under her freezer door beneath the ice maker/water dispenser, because it leaks constantly.

When we replace our fridge, we won’t be getting one with a water dispenser. Which is very hard to find a big fridge without one, but GE makes a couple of them.

I don’t think the issue is the feature, but the manufacturer. Between myself, my parents and my sisters, we all have nicer Kenmore/Kenmore Gallery fridges, and none of us have ever had an issue with the ice maker or water. You’re the third person that I know of who has mentioned an issue in a Samsung fridge.

[Shyster]

If you have a Whirlpool, try taking out the filter to see if it still works. If it does, then it is a problem with the filter not completely connecting. This is a common problem with their filters. The solution I've found online is to fold up a paper towel and stick it between the filter and the filter cover. That usually works for a while until the cover will start popping open every time the ice maker is refilled. You can then either shut off the icemaker, or duct tape the cover closed like I did.

That might have been it, but it's too late for me. When the water line stopped working, I went to turn off the water line where it tapped into the cold water pipe under my sink, but that pierce valve stated leaking all over the place when I tried to shut it off. I had to call a plumber, and I decided to just have the water line removed entirely, so there's no longer water running to the fridge. The plumber said that the pierce valves are pieces of **** and a lot of companies these days won't install fridges with water unless there's a regular water service line with a full-size, regular valve on it.

[NTP66]

He’s right - those tap valves are trash and will eventually fail. It takes 5 minutes to install a compression valve on for the water line, or even solder a slip fit on.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Good bump.

I ordered a new filter ($40 or whatever, no big deal, all part of doing business, right?) Still not working. Next step is to figure out if it is frozen.

[tifosi77]

We have a fridge with a variable-speed compressor, and the control board died. $500 fix; we had determined if the estimate was $600+ we'd just get a new fridge.

[mac5155]

I think it was NTP66 that put me on it but I really like the Ecobee 3 Lite so far. It'll take a month of use before I get the really deep metrics and stuff, but it's interesting to see how much my new system is actually running. It charts the target temp, inside temp, and outside temp on a graph so you can watch the fluctuations. I knew my house was fairly well insulated but I was very surprised to see how little heat it loses overnight and that the unit barely runs until the morning. I never would have guessed that.

The only thing it doesn't do that I thought it would is tell me when the supplementary electric heat is running rather than the heat pump, when it gets really cold. That's the most important thing to know and it doesn't appear to have that capability.

Mine will tell me when heat pump vs aux heat is on... I'm pretty sure I have the full blown 3 though not the lite...

[LITT]

miter saw recommendations? currently borrowing a 7 1/4" kobalt slider. i like that it's light so i can set it up were needed but not super useful. i have 350 store credit for lowes so would spend more if needed. probably going to end up with a dewalt 10 or 12 but they are so big

I think that kobalt was on sale recently for under 150. I'm not a fan of Lowes, more invested in the ridgid line at HD but I don't think you can go wrong with it.

ended up getting the dewalt 779 on saturday. love it

[dodint]

Mine will tell me when heat pump vs aux heat is on... I'm pretty sure I have the full blown 3 though not the lite...

*sigh*

It should. But I think my system doesn't interface with any thermostat that way. These are my connectors, at the air handler motherboard and the thermostat:

Motherboard:


Thermostat:


The Ecobee is seeing my system as a Furnace and a two-stage A/C compressor. Since there is no O/B wire and no Aux wire for the auxiliary heat it will never report second stage heat or what the aux electric heat is doing. This makes me very sad. And since it appears that is how the air handler is designed I don't see how I can fix it. The '1' and '2' wires at the bottom of the motherboard go to the heat pump outside.

This is how an Ecobee should be hooked to a heat pump:



TL;DR: The Ecobee isn't given all the information from the HVAC system because the air handler is controlling all of the HVAC logic and not sending it to the thermostat.

[mac5155]

Makes sense. I had to install something at my parents furnace to get the ecobee to work. But they just have a traditional gas furnace, no 2 stage/heat pump

[Willie Kool]

We still have the Kenmore fridge my wife bought for her first home in 2001.

We still have the Whirlpool Gold that we bought when we moved here back in early 2000. It just died last night - or at least I thought it did. Thermometer in the fridge was almost to 40 when I noticed it. After a few minutes of panic and packing 50 lbs of frozen meat into coolers and other stuff into totes to set outside (got down to 27 here last night), I realized that the condenser fan wasn't running. Took the back off and gave it a spin and it took off but was pretty noisy. That lasted about a half hour before it seized. Was going to just get a new fridge, but because of the old house/small kitchen thing my choices of in-stock were pretty limited. Decided to rig it with a box fan blowing over the coils (which worked really well) and try to find a replacement part, but everyone online showed it was backordered for several weeks. Called every parts dealer and appliance store in Erie County first thing this morning and all backordered. Finally found one in stock down in Crawford County, so I took the hour and a half round trip drive to get it. Took me less than 10 minutes to change it, and all has been good since lunchtime. Fridge at 34 and freezer at -10.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Nice.

[mac5155]

Speaking of DIY fixes, my dog chewed the wheel on my Swiss gear check lite spinner bag. I've searched everywhere for a replacement, no luck on ebay and can't find any parts stores. I did message Swiss gear about buying a new wheel, but any other ideas?

[NTP66]

Yeah, carry it like a man.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Sportscenter live in game update: problem solved by using a hair dryer on the spout and on the inside of the freezer where the water line runs next to the ice machine. Thanks YouTube!

[meow]

Welcome to homeownership.

[DigitalGypsy66]

It never ceases to amaze me how people can renovate an entire condo - new floors, marble counter tops, appliances, etc. - but leave the old 70s or 80s yellowed light switches and outlets in place. It looks awful. I guess they wanted to cheap out and not pay an electrician to have to put GFCI outlets in?

[AuthorTony]

People can't change their own outlets? Even a rube like me can handle that.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Same here, I’ve done two outlets this year alone.

[NTP66]

Two outlets? Look at Bob Vila over here!