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Home Improvement - Undoing Previous Owners "Landlord" Specials

I’ve used Wet and Forget before. Got that on sale at Costco the last couple years and it works great. Just spray it on and the only other work is wetting grass or plants that may have gotten residual spray.

Just saw something similar last night at another store for a third of the price but that one you had to wet, then spray, then wet again. Not like those steps are a huge strain to do, but it makes me wonder what the difference in the products are where one says to spray on as dry of day as possible and leaving it and the other needs to be put on a wet surface and then washed away soon after.
 
Praying my AC survives this week (and summer) with the heat expected.

Had an HVAC company out to clean and service it last Friday. Was told that there was potentially some airflow issues at the blower motor that could mean I'm nearing end of life with it. But everything else was good with it they claimed.

Today was it's first real test and since Noon it's been struggling to maintain 70 degrees in a 1k Sq ft home (Nest says it just cracked 73 in the house, and its sunny 92, feels like 98 out).


Current system is a hydro-heat system with a "traditional" forced air blower and AC system, but for the heat it takes my hot water from the HWHeater and circulates it in the furnace. Made by the now defunct Apollo corporation. HVAC company says there are two companies who make replacement systems otherwise I'm looking at spending a lot of cash on installing a traditional forced air furnace/ac system with new duct runs.

Oh, and that's the other "perk" of the energy efficiency features of my home, no duct work. The existing Apollo blower blows into wood framed channels that act as the duct work.
 
If it's just the blower motor, that should be like $500-$600. I know people who do that themselves for cheaper. Unless I'm missing something here.

if your blower motor is struggling, get the cheapest air filter you can find and use that instead of the ultra filters. Use a dedicated HEPA unit if you want to clean the air. The filter should keep the big junk off the coils.
 
Welp, I think the AC finally died. I mistyped earlier, the airflow blockage was a partial blockage in the loop from evaporator loop inside to the condenser outside. Tech said last week that if it held, it would struggle but should maintain somewhere between 70 and 75.

It's 10pm and it's 78 in my house and the AC has been running for 18 hours today. Temp coming from the vents has been 70 since I got home at 6. Nothing is frozen up. It's just not working.

I was hoping the night air would help get the house cool and maybe bring the AC back down but its still 91 degrees outside. This is frustrating.


*edit* The company that came to service the AC put a quote together for me for the replacement of the entire system. 9k out the door with labor. Quickest I can get them out is next Tuesday. Fingers crossed.
 
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Got invited to Nextdoor. Don’t have a real interest in joining, but I am curious what type of drama is on there given the quietness of the neighborhood.
 
I’ve been having HVAC issues, specifically, my house hasn’t been cooling down. I started with the basics, cleaning the A/C coils on the external unit, then replacing my air filter to ensure no airflow blockages. While things are better, all is not resolved. The thermostat, an Ecobee that was installed when I bought the house, is located in a hallway that has no venting and I think the lack of airflow is causing it to not register the same as the rest of the house. While the location of the thermostat makes sense, centrally located away from windows, the other side of the wall upon which it’s mounted is the stove/oven.

I’ve started aiming a floor fan at the thermostat, and I think that’s helping get the temp read the same as the actual temperature of the house. It’s frustrating because the internal portion of the a/c froze over, I think, and the condenser is flooding the tray that moves the water to the drain, so towels are employed to sop up the spillage.

Im looking to get some thermometers to place around the house. We keep one in my daughter’s room so we could track from when she was a baby, and it seems like the best option vs. paying $80 for a pair of ecobee satellite thermometers.
 
St. Clown said:
I’ve been having HVAC issues, specifically, my house hasn’t been cooling down. I started with the basics, cleaning the A/C coils on the external unit, then replacing my air filter to ensure no airflow blockages. While things are better, all is not resolved. The thermostat, an Ecobee that was installed when I bought the house, is located in a hallway that has no venting and I think the lack of airflow is causing it to not register the same as the rest of the house. While the location of the thermostat makes sense, centrally located away from windows, the other side of the wall upon which it’s mounted is the stove/oven.

I’ve started aiming a floor fan at the thermostat, and I think that’s helping get the temp read the same as the actual temperature of the house. It’s frustrating because the internal portion of the a/c froze over, I think, and the condenser is flooding the tray that moves the water to the drain, so towels are employed to sop up the spillage.

Im looking to get some thermometers to place around the house. We keep one in my daughter’s room so we could track from when she was a baby, and it seems like the best option vs. paying $80 for a pair of ecobee satellite thermometers.
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I bit the bullet and slowly added more sensors. They're in the offices, bedroom, and living rooms. It's worth it. They've saved me more than I spent on them.

Also worth looking at schedules and set temps. My AC runs from like 10 PM until 2-3 AM but then doesn't run again.

also worth mentioning that the thermostat itself is known to have fairly large accuracy in certain installs. It's why the sensors are worth the cost.

the oven wall thing will absolute cause a huge difference. The sensor on the other side of the wall from the oven sees huge swings compared to ones even in the same general area as the oven itself (same room).

I think you might have an issue with the drain as you mentioned. It should be drained directly from the coil to the drain with a trap near, but below the coil.
 
So…the igniter on my oven went out about two weeks ago. I bought a new igniter that arrived on Saturday. I then installed it and then started up the oven after reassembling all the bits and bobs. I immediately heard a slight whistle/whining sound when running the oven on my initial check. That didn’t sit well with me. I immediately thought of it being a gas leak, but I couldn't smell anything. So I the take my daughter to the store, return home about 90 minutes later only to smell a gas leak. Short story long, it’s a 14yo oven, roughly how long they’re supposed to last, and I talked it through with my entire, so we’re getting a new oven now.

I priced out the parts for what I might have broke during the igniter replacement, and I didn’t want to spend up to $400 additional for an oven that old, and didn’t exactly have the most even output by the time we bought the house.

So now my wife gets her nearly perfect replacement that comes on Saturday, and I got the added task of disconnecting the old oven from the gas line. Those pressure fittings a serious [long list of expletives deleted] pain to disconnect after roughly 14 years in place. I watched a bunch of videos on the topic because I don’t much like messing with any gas lines, and they all confirm what a pain they can be.
 
Time for a new mailbox. We have the actual box picked out, but it's also time for a new post. Logically it seems like a metal post would be better, but doing some reading it appears that despite many people sharing the same sentiment, anecdotally wood seems to last longer.
 
Spartanforlife4 said:
Time for a new mailbox. We have the actual box picked out, but it's also time for a new post. Logically it seems like a metal post would be better, but doing some reading it appears that despite many people sharing the same sentiment, anecdotally wood seems to last longer.
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Will it receive a lot of road salt?
 
Spartanforlife4 said:
The way these winters have been going, less and less, but yes, it will get its share of road salt.
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I’d agree that it seems metal ought to last longer than even ground-treated wood, but road salt might make it a closer contest.

At least with wood you don’t have to be much of a craftsman to attach the box, even artistically.
 
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