My washing machine is dying in stages. It started with the same symptoms as this thread. Specifically, after filling the tub for a wash cycle, it would go straight into a high-speed spin (full of water!) for a second or two (instead of the expected slow tumble), then quit. The speculation is that the tachometer is failing.

Then the machine got worse. I now cannot even start any program. No matter what program I select, I press start and after a few second pause the start button LED just blinks. It’s a generic blunt signal of a fault. The blinks are evenly spaced non-stop, so there is no error code of any kind.

To test the universal commutative motor, I followed the linked video and took resistance measurements. All seems okay in that regard (but this is based on vague resistance ranges that are not specific to my machine). Test results:

tachometer

Expectation: any reading that is no

Wall radiators have a valve that has this progression of settings: “❄ 1 2 3 4 5”. Naturally as you turn it a pin changes position which opens a mechanical valve a precise amount.

The question is what happens at “❄”? I always thought of that as zero, completely closed. But my central boiler seems to target 5°C/40°F even when off to protect pipes from freezing. So what happens if all the radiator valves are off/closed (❄) and the boiler is triggered to prevent freezing? Does each valve also have a thermostat to open at freezing?

I thought for years the snowflake just meant cold (closed). But I wonder if it actually means frost protection, where it does something smarter. There are times when it’s in that ❄ position and yet the radiator still heats up. I thought the valve was broken, but then other radiators occasionally did the same. Is that normal?

The wash cycle is broken. Just after the tub fills, it does a high-speed 2 second spin, as fast as it can get in 2 sec before pausing. Then it pauses for at least a minute. Then it tries again, repeatedly. It’s really strange. Why would it try to do a high-speed spin with a tub full of water? Normally in the wash cycle it just spins very slowly in one direction, then changes direction periodically.

Whatever it’s doing, it gives up and the start button just blinks, which is apparently a blunt non-specific way to say there is a problem. I tried reducing the load to just a couple t-shirts for diagnosis and it still does this even with a nearly empty drum.

The manual does not list this behavior in the troubleshooting section. And I found no chatter about this behavior in web searches¹. This problem sounds similar but in their case it happens in the spin cycle. In my case it s

I have a Vaillant ecoTech Plus combi boiler. The central heating works fine. But the hot tap water became intermittent. If I got lucky and hot water would come from the tap, it never went cold as long as it was running. So I think it’s likely a flow switch because there were times when it simply did not seem to detect that hot water was on. I heard no boiler fan and the faucet icon did not appear on the display on the times it failed to produce hot water. The moments where it would work are now history. Now it’s cold water every time. So it was a gradual manifestation.

I popped the cover off and there’s some kind of scaling or buildup of something on the pump. The clip that holds something in place above the pump is corroded. So while the system behaves as if it does not detect water use, the pump does not look good. Would a faulty pump cause my issue?

About two years ago I had an intermittent hot water problem and it turned out the secondary heat exchanger was blocked by limescale.

Like it says in the title, just woke up to a thunderstorm and saw this when i took a peek outside.

I have a plastic cistern which has started leaking, only when flushing. The cisterns in the region are installed to sit on a foam ring (~12mm thick), which serves as a gasket. The foam eventually fails. I’m baffled because failing foam looks no different than new foam. They charge €10 for these gaskets that probably shouldn’t cost more like 50¢.

I bought a new gasket and it fails as well.

One shop had some uncommon gummy play-dough-like stuff for this purpose. It comes out in a strand with about the same diameter as a sharpie marker. So I stuck that to the toilet around the cistern ingress hole. Then I put an old foam disc on top of that and pressed it down. Even that leaks. Maybe I was supposed to really pile up this gummy stuff and not use the foam ring at all.

DiY shop says “buy a new cistern for €40”. I hate that option because it rewards the same poor design and I’d be spending more than I should have to.

Fuck that.

Alternatively the standards have changed and the new design

I just visited some web galleries of bathroom remodelers in the US, and it looks uncommon to have external shower fixtures. They tend to bury as much of the fixture as possible in the wall. From the photos, I don’t get the impression they are using thermostatic mixing valves. But it’s hard to tell. Can anyone confirm or deny?

I think I might favor external fixtures because they tend to be much cheaper and also more easily servicable.

Wondering if anyone has done this.

I have converted my showers to the external style of thermostatic shower valve. Made a huge upgrade to showering UX. Why not do the same for bathroom faucets?

It seems the same benefit could be had with the bathroom faucet, but no bathroom faucets in local shops have this capability (I didn’t check online nor would I shop online). So to wash my hands (or whatever), I start with full blast hot water to get the hot water hurried along the pipes. Then of course it can get screaming hot soon enough and I have to adjust the valve in the middle of what I’m doing.

So the hack I have in mind is to install a mixer valve that is intended for showers. It can be installed under the sink with the output of that going to the hot input of the faucet. Then when I put the faucet on full hot, it opens the hot input 100% just until the preset temp is reached, at which point adjustments are made automatically and instantly. This would give warm water as quickly as pos

As house problems can manifest in many ways, I recall reading some basic advice “if water is ending up in the wrong place, it’s in the plumber’s domain”.

Exceptionally, if water appears on the ceiling of the top floor, I would skip the plumber and call a roofer. But what about showers?

This is a bit of a mystery:

A shower is leak is manifesting two rooms away from the shower. It’s clear that the shower is the source of the leak because water only leaks when the shower is running. The plumber claims to have fixed the drain pipework. But it still leaks, just at a very slight trickle or drip. So apparently the pipework was leaky and the fact that it’s significantly less water leaking means there is still another problem. Plumber made a 2nd visit and claims the new pipework is solid up to and including the drain, and makes a vague statement: “replace the shower pan”. When someone stands on the showerpan while showering, water leaks at a higher rate. The shower pan flexes when standing

There are a lot of mixed messages about plumbing with dissimilar metals. Mainstream local plumbing shops sell brass manifolds. They say I can connect the brass manifold to steel pipe. Copper is very dissimilar to steel, and fittings for copper are brass. So if it’s okay to connect brass to copper and brass to steel, why couldn’t a copper pipe be connected to a (steel) hot water tank simply using a brass fitting? It’s supposed to be a dielectric fitting that insulates using rubber so the metals don’t touch.

OTOH, there is a gas-fired tankless boiler with internal copper pipe and a professional directly attached those copper pipes to galvanized steel pipes. Youtubers say copper should never join steel and they show examples of corrosion.

The question at the moment is whether this is a good idea:

galvanized steel pipe → brass manifold → galvanized steel pipe

I can get brass that is nickel plated externally, or it can be simple brass. The nickel-plated manifolds have integrated PEX va

There are a few youtube videos where someone suggests using sulfuric acid to clean a secondary plate-style heat exchanger (for example). Yet I’ve heard sulfuric acid is extremely corrosive to metal, so something seems off about that advice. I certainly would not want an internal leak to cause radiator fluid to enter the tap water. I saw a drop of sulfuric acid land on a galvanized steel pipe once and within minutes it was rusted on the spot.

This guy also says sulfuric acid is an option but also says there is a safer alternative acid -- yet he did not mention what it is! Does anyone know?

This guy says he uses an ultrasonic bath but he does not say what chemicals he uses. Would distilled white vinegar be good for this?

Note these questions are very loosely related to this thread which describes a pr

My #Vaillant combi-boiler was working fine for both central heating and tap water, then suddenly there is no hot tap water. These are the clues that seem to imply the secondary heat exchanger would NOT be the problem:

• radiators heat up fine, which I think must prove the radiator side of the secondary heat exchanger is clear (OR does the secondary heat exchanger get bypassed when central heat runs)?
• the “hot” (cold) tap water flows with good pressure, which seems to suggest the tap water side of the secondary heat exchanger is probably clear as well.
• new secondary heat exchanger was installed in February 2019, which would be unlikely to clog this early.
• when I last showered the hot water was good and continuous. In 2019 when an exchanger clogged shower water would alternate between hot and cold. But in the case at hand I had solid hot tap water one day and not the next.

When I turn on a hot water tap, the boiler LCD should normally show an icon of a faucet to indicate th

A top-floor room that’s not currently used has mold from excessive dampness. For a month I have been running a dehumidifier as it’s too cold to open the window.

Is this a good idea?

My concern: I heard about running a dehumidifier long-term in a damp basement is a bad idea because making the air more dry than the wall causes moisture to continuously flow from the outside in. That flow supposedly has the effect of washing the masonry through the capillaries and causing it to break down and weaken. In my case it’s not a basement, but similar because the exterior wall is non-stop wet from the frequent rains (possibly even leaky.. i think water seeps in).

I have the humidity set to 55%. I wonder if there is an optimum setting that would inhibit mold without overly causing water to flow through the wall (which is very old brick+mortar and rendered over on both sides, no insulation).

BTW, the water collected in the dehumidifier looks clean. Is it good for drinking?

I have this:

https://www.aquaplan.com/product/easy-band/

I need to attach it vertically to some thick hard rubber roofing. There is a small section of roof which should probably normally have a parapit but instead the roofing rubber is not backed by anything. Then below it is a wood panel. So when it rains sideways the water runs down the roofing rubber and behind the wood panel.

I just need a piece of shingle to divert water to the exterior side of the panel. Roofing glues are made to never cure. Probably rightfully so, but that probably wouldn’t work to attach a shingle vertically as gravity would over power that tar-like never fully dry stuff. I tried construction adhesive & it didn’t hold.

My façade is highly absorbent of water. I think the water even passes through the wall (effectively a leak). I plan to render some lime on top of it. It’s the kind of lime that turns to chalk if it oxidizes over the span of a year. The stuff I have is about a year old, so I have to use it up anyway.

Should I “paint” a layer of PVA (wood glue) on the façade first to help bind the lime? Then should I mix some PVA in with the lime? Or would that choke off the breathability?

The whole [email protected] community is gone… out of the pure blue, all content and history vanished. WTF happened? Anyone know? This is seriously a grave weakness of #Lemmy.

That said, disflux.org has to be a better place. Smaller and free from Cloudflare.

This project has taken so long, we started right around the start of the pandemic. We knocked down the wall and made this small area (about 8' x 8') that cuts into our unfinished utility room.

I still need to finish the flooring, and add some shelves to the back of the bar, but so far its coming along. I installed a 2 faucet beer tower that is fed from the other side of the wall.