DIY Life

Looks like it's time to bid farewell to another hot, humid summer and welcome a cooler season. But before you say goodbye, give your air conditioner a good cleaning to thank it for its hard work these past few months. AOL's Mr. Fix-It Eric Stromer shows us how...




An important thing to remember:
Call a technician if you have a defective condenser or any problems with the refrigeration system -- this is a closed system that you should not attempt to repair without the aid of a licensed provider.

And of course, the cleaner your air conditioner, the less maintenance you'll have in the long haul. As with all appliances, keep your unit clean, tidy and up to date on all repairs and/or maintenance checks. You'll be glad you did when next summer's heat wave hits!

Speaking of air conditioner's, consider a fun (and green!) way to garden with the last few days of air conditioner use you've got...

In cooperation with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Weil-McLain has announced a voluntary recall of about 1,800 Williamson-Thermoflo GWS and GWI gas boilers. If a leak occurs in the vent piping, the boilers can leak carbon monoxide into the building in which they are installed, posing a risk of CO poisoning. No injuries have been reported.

Manufactured in the United States and sold by plumbing and heating wholesale distributors to plumbers and contractors from October 2001 through December 2007 for between $1,500 and $2,700, this recall involves cast iron, gas fired boilers used for space heating. Please check the CPSC press release for more information.

Consumers are advised to contact their installers for a free safety inspection and repair. For more information, contact Williamson-Thermoflo at (866) 783-9516, or visit their website at www.williamson-thermoflo.com.

FYI: Weil-McLain has issued a voluntary recall for Weil-McLain gas boilers; see that recall here.

In cooperation with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Weil-McLain has announced a voluntary recall of about 32,000 Weil-McLain CG's and CGi gas boilers. If a leak occurs in the vent piping, the boilers can leak carbon monoxide into the building in which they are installed, posing a risk of CO poisoning. No injures have been reported.

Manufactured in the U.S. and sold by plumbing and heating wholesale distributors to plumbers and contractors from October 2001 through December 2007 for between $1,700 and $2,700, this recall involves cast iron, gas fired boilers used for space heating. Please check the CPSC press release for model names and serial numbers.

Consumers are advised to contact their installers for a free safety inspection and repair. For more information, contact Weil-McLain at (866) 783-9276 or visit their website at www.weil-mclain.com.

As you fire up your central air conditioner, is the temperature really what it says? If it's not, you could be spending extra bucks on your electricity bills. The good news is that you can take care of it yourself without calling a service person. And if you know it's not right, follow these steps before buying a new one:

1. Turn off the power to the heater and A/C.
2. Remove the cover.
3. Obviously, change any batteries.
4. Clean the bimetal coil with a soft, clean brush. On a round thermostat, you might have to turn the dial for complete access.
5. Remove the body from the base on a round model. There are usually screws involved.
6. Clean the switch contacts with a piece of bond paper.
7. Replace the body on a round model.
8. Adjust the anticipator. Start by finding and noting the amp setting; it may be in your manual, on the furnace service panel or on the boiler's transformer. Look at the anticipator setting on the scale. If it's off, adjust it with your fingernail; or you nail-biters (you know who you are), use the point on a pen.
   NOTE: On an air heating distribution system set it to the amp setting. On a water heating distribution system set it to (amp setting X 1.4). I have no idea why.
9. Replace the cover.
   

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Goodman Manufacturing Co L.P., has announced a voluntary recall of about 1,000 Package gas-electric heating and cooling units. The serial plates on the units contain inaccurate information which could result in consumers using undersized installation wiring, posing a fire hazard.

The recalled single package gas-electric heating and cooling units were manufactured in the United States and sold by heating and cooling equipment dealers nationwide from December 2007 through February 2008. Please check the CPSC press release for model and serial numbers involved in the recall.

Goodman is directly contacting consumers who have purchased the units to arrange free replacement of the serial plates and a free inspection of the installation wiring. Consumers may contact Goodman at (800) 394-8084 or visit their website at www.goodmanmfg.com.

There's a damp patch in my garage. I've been in denial for a long time, telling myself it's probably caused by rainwater seeping through the garage's concrete foundation. However, the patch has gotten bigger...and bigger. Meanwhile, there's been no rain for at least a week now. Time to face facts: I may have a leaking water heater. Bah!

Looking on the bright side, I might be able to fix this problem myself and avoid shelling out precious dollars for a plumber. (Please, oh, please!) Off I go to look for advice on the Web. Here' s what I found most useful:

Sites to check out:

• Home Tips is an ideal starting point, with a for-beginners-style intro to tank repair, and a ton of other problem-solving articles.

Stumped by a difficult DIY task or a fix-it job gone wrong? Here's a possibility to consider: How to Mend it.com. This Brit site lets readers submit questions for other readers to answer. It's a lot like super-popular Yahoo Answers, but it's devoted entirely to fix-it topics. Car repair, home maintenance, renovations, large and small appliance jobs, computers, plumbing, lawn mowers, film projectors, boats, heating and cooling systems, toys, roofing, car alarms, and even musical instruments. Yep. They're all covered here.

Lots of questions seem to go unanswered. However, many others get one or even several replies. Worth a shot if you're having a problem and don't want to pay big bucks for a repair service. To test the site's mettle, I searched washing machine repair. This brought up over 15,000 questions on the topic. Problem is, (assuming you're searching for answers) you're going to have to hope that plugging in a more specific search term will take you to the questions best-suited to your situation. Obviously, you are not going to want to scroll through all those questions page by page.

Bottom line: if there's one fix-it this site could use, it's a more sophisticated search function. But give it a whirl anyway. It's free advice, people!

Although the cost of natural gas continued to escalate this year, those looking to heat their domiciles using some type of alternative energy probably investigated solar power in some form. Did you? I have a neighbor who uses solar energy to heat his water heater (and has for years) and he saves a wallop in gas costs using the sun as his source for that morning hot shower.

Even if that is not on your horizon, heating one or more of the rooms in your home using captured solar rays is great idea if you're into some tinkering with aluminum cans and such.

Now, warning: I'm not sure if this project will generate the kind of instant heat we're mostly accustomed to with gas-fired furnaces, but it's interesting nonetheless. Aluminum is a great conductor of heat, so the premise of an air heater using aluminum cans sounds like a tempting idea, to see if it works or even to debunk it.

If you decide to try this plywood, plexiglass and aluminum can heater project, let us know how it works. Note: the space you want to hat should already be well-insulated or the effectiveness of any solar air heater will be minimally noticed.

Summer is slowly drawing to an end here in the Northern hemisphere, which means this post is geared primarily to our hillbilly brethren South of the equator. However, it's never too early to get a jump on next Summer's oppressive heat, so I guess us Northenders can glean something from it as well.

Okay, here's the problem: it's hotter outside than two muskrats making love in a wool sock in the middle of the Sahara, and your pathetic ride doesn't have air conditioning. What's a sweat-hating hillbilly to do? You could always roll down the windows, allowing your sweaty pits to air out through your functional sleaveless flannel, but then you'll run the risk of making the back of your mullet all frizzy! Their must be some other way to stay cool!

Enter the ultra-portable hillbilly car/truck air conditioner!