repairing things

Ya i dont even have one but was very shook by that intro

oh i hate my dualit toaster, literally the worst toaster i've ever had

I'm always planning on getting something else but i only do toast on the grill bc of it

classic plax kitchen utensil opinion, how does he do it

sounds too John Lewis for me as well, not the good John Lewis, the bebop neoclassicist with the golden fingers from the MJQ either. The cunt who sells toasters for 200 quid!

they are insanely expensive. but i went through three toasters in like… six or seven years? and was like, this is ridiculous.

american toasters are all massive and i hate them and miss £14.99 plastic argos toasters every day, but this is nice ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OfxlSG6q5Y

they mangle yr bread

like they look nice-ish but then they just pincer your toast to the side of the toaster when its finished

my £20-30 russell hobbs toaster is nearly 3 years old now and still going strong, and doesn't mess with my toast.

no honestly i used to have a tesco value one before and i wish i'd just bought another one after that died

i do like my fancy kettle though

it is true that fragile stuff does not fare well in a dualit. it will get mashed. i use tongs to get that stuff out.

Lads what’s the point of having an expensive toaster though

Heh. One of my neighbors asked my how everybody's favorite local watering hole prepared food. I asked another guy and he told me "I think they have a small toaster oven behind the bar." Then I was in there on Tuesday and saw what looked like a pretty extensive piece of equipment with the brand name Merrychef and later the owner proceeded to tell me all about it.

My bf is always saying we should get a little table toaster like they have in 1930s movies

replaced the 2 igniters in our old gas oven. Previously took 40 minutes to reach 300F. Now takes 8.5 minutes.

Lubricated the street door cos I'd noticed it was sticking again. Seems rlike it's not getting done apart from by me. Surprised it's lasted a yearand a bit if so.& idiot next door is still going to the mindless bother of lining up latch handle so it looks like door locked when it isn't. Noticed that as soon as they started but douche anyway.

Finally fixed laser lens on cd player last week. Found out how to remove case and wiped out the cradles. Plugged in the player and saw how a cd was picked up for play. Tried using a disc cleaner but it read as No Disc then wound up taking a qtip with isopropyl alcohol and wiping the lens then clearing off excess with the other end of the stick cotton wool.
Nothing much in the unit otherwise. Did think there might be 15 years worth of dust accumulating. But no, a couple of long hairs but otherwise no.
Did find laser has a shutter that I hadn't anticipated so maybe cleaning disc just not getting to it.
Anyway playing ok now. Not skipping discs either.
Biggest chore was getting to plug and moving the unit. Probably not been moved in a decade. Plus I had a pile of boxes trapping the plug that I had to move then put back.
So got music now.

patched the drywall holes mentioned upthread. followed recommendations here not to bother with patch kit 👍🏻

replaced flush valve in toilet (american toilets boy, i don't know).

What, caek, can’t handle all that freedom?

Flush valves, flappers, and freedom

my toilet was struggling with all the freedom sauce

I once discovered a dissolving tank-to-bowl gasket that caused the water to run depending on how the flapper hit. The toilet wasn't ancient, but the average lifetime for these things is 4-5 years! Who wants to troubleshoot their running toilet twice per decade?

I replaced gaskets and washers on one of the bolts holding the tank to the bowl and no longer find tiny mysterious pools at the base of the toilet … we won’t go into how many years it took to figure out the problem

the paperwork for the flush valve on my thing said "replace all toilet cistern fixtures and supply lines every five years" ?!

this is Big Plumbing's scam. Same goes for shower valves that start letting water leak through after a bit of deposit build up on the mechanism.

you’re also supposed to clean the filter on your dishwasher after every cycle lol

I had to remove a piece of our clothes washer's armor just to clean the filter when it wouldn't drain. If you know it will need to be cleaned, you could at least make it easily accessible! they want you to depend on them.

Needed to change a lightbulb in the oven, which should be the easiest thing in the world. Just to be safe I googled and found the official LG how-to: turn bulb cover counter clockwise, remove bulb, replace bulb, replace cover. Easy, right? Except the goddamn oven bulb cover won't come off, and googling again, this is apparently a really common oven problem. Some folks took months to find a way to get it off. Some people literally took *years*. Some people - which is to say, more than one! - suggested just breaking the glass cover with a hammer, because it's easier to replace than remove. Wtf? The solution several suggested (and we'll see if it works) is getting a $10 universal oil filter wrench (like, for a car) that attaches to a ratchet. Never thought I'd be going to Autozone to change an oven lightbulb.

it's just a big adjustable spanner.

would something that works via suction do the job? or can you improvise a belt wrench?

I don't think so, because it's in such an awkward space in the oven. Some folks suggested a swivel wrench, but the oil filter wrench should serve the same purpose. I watched one video where a guy succeeded, and he had grippy gloves and used brute strength and still it looks like it took him a while.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MoWcqC8EWA

Had a similar situation in my MiL's fridge where the water filter hadn't been changed in years and was super-awkward to remove.

Holy crap the oil filter wrench worked. The more you know ...

he water filter hadn't been changed in years

this is something that needs replacing?!

lol my thought exactly

Every three months, or at least according to the mailers we keep getting sent by the manufacturer increasingly panicked sounding because we aren't ordering a filter directly from them in a timely enough fashion (or, at all, in our case - I have actually changed it twice, but did not pay the exorbitant fees they want).

They *totally* need to be changed. Our fridge shows a countdown (6 months, iirc) until it's time. But I have a friend whose fridge doesn't mention it, and he noticed the water pressure of the dispenser getting worse and worse. Each time he had his guy out to try to adjust and tweak the pressure, but to no avail. No matter how strong and powerful the pressure, the dispenser still barely streamed. Eventually he did a deep dive on the internet and, duh, realized he had never changed the filter, which was more or less literally bricked solid. He got a new filter and installed it, which was easy enough, but ... forgot to readjust the pressure, so when he pressed the water dispenser it, finally relieved and unblocked, jetted out into his face with the force of a fire house.

ohh y'all are talking about fridges with like water taps or ice makers, not applicable

Yeah - only fridges with water hookups...

Yeah, I was freaking out for a second; I have no water or ice dispenser

last month I learned: 5/8" drywall is significantly heavier and harder to cut than 1/2" drywall, they actually sell 2x2 squares of drywall that are termed "repair size" but really are ideal for working with rooms with 10 foot ceilings, almost two decades later, I still have retained muscle memory of creative mudding techniques developed from having to make nice looking art walls out of drywall scraps scavenged from construction site dumpsters

also realized the freedom of having the walls I'm working on _not_ be art gallery walls, thus the surface doesn't have to be perfectly smooth

Here is a question tangentially related to repair. The waste management people managed to break a bottle or two in the alley, so we're talking about hundreds of pieces of glass on an uneven strip of rough concrete, full of nooks and crannies. It's not my job to clean it up, but I'm sick of seeing all the broken glass, so what's the best way to get it up? I don't have a shop vac, the alley is too rough to sweep, there's too much to clean up by hand ...

is the alley public space? if so call 311?

don't they recommend using bread for picking up glass or have i imagined that? not on this scale, obv, but even though it sounds like an accident waiting to happen.

ha, yes, https://homeservicesforamerica.com/using-bread-to-pick-up-glass/

Yeah, maybe I'll just call the local government into action.

May take a while to get action---I've got some long, thick gloves, supposedly protective against thorns etc., for gardening; haven't used them yet, but also I got ads for ones to be worn when handling dogs (you know which online store all this is coming from)If some of the glass is where a barefoot person might step on it, or a critter get it in pawpads, you might try gloves, otherwise I'd leave it for the gov.

Maybe just attach slices of bread to the soles of your shoes and walk around the alley.

I saw someone essentially suggest wearing a glove wrapped in thick tape.

shop vacs are only like $30 and handy for many things, just saying