This weekend, I noticed that our front loading washing machine was leaking from the seal. The machine is quite old - 16 years or so. We moved in about a year and a half ago and decided to get it replaced. Great, easy so far.
So in anticipation of that, I attempted to shut off the water, since the delivery guys are gonna have to do that. No dice - the old hot and cold stem valves weren’t budging. So I decided I needed to install new valves. This is a pretty easy DIY task.
I went and did that on Saturday. I took the old valves off, and saw that the supply line out of the wall that connected to the house’s copper (known as a nipple) was galvanized steel and corroded with rust like crazy. It would explain the stains we’d occasionally see on our loads of laundry. Doing this is a much more advanced task. So, after watching some videos on Youtube, I went back to buy the proper tools to extract the corroded nipple.
An hour or so later, I had replaced the old galvanized nipples with two new brass ones, installed two new heavy duty USA-made ball valves, and upgraded the supply hoses with thicker, stainless steel braided burst-proof lines. I just need to patch the walls after I verify after a few days that there aren’t any leaks and it’s good to go.
All of this work would have been well over $500 had I hired a plumber to do it. I paid about $100 for high quality parts (new hoses, new valves, new brass nipples and connectors) and gained some know-how about how to fix this in the future. Youtube has totally changed the DIY game and it’s an easy way to save money.
Definitely true. I’ve been doing DIY auto maintenance for several years now as well. I can’t count the number of times a 2 hour project turns into a 2 day affair after you uncover the unexpected. But, it’s fun for me so I don’t mind. It’s a little less fun when it’s an electrical or plumbing project and the wife isn’t happy that the water or the power has been cut off.
It makes sense that you’d save. On all those simple DIY projects, you’re paying a little bit in parts and a lot for the expertise and time of the person doing it. Youtube is basically replacing much of the expertise and time of the professional you’d be hiring. And you’re much more in control (for better or worse) of the process and material used, especially not being at the mercy of some so-called pro who’s gonna charge you for one things and install a much lower quality part.
That said, there are projects where labor time is not that large but expertise is crucial. On those the savings of doing it yourself has to be carefully weighted vs. the risk of screwing up and damaging things way worse than they were originally. Also there are some where you gotta have some expensive tool to do it. Some can be rented but short of that, you’re pretty much stuck since buying the tool for one-time use would be a waste for a DIYer.
Congrats, and while you’re still fresh with plumbing things, you may want to check the anode rod on your hot water tank to add years of life, and for safety, test the pressure relief valve. If the tank is under 10 years old, it also won’t hurt to flush it once a year. Just be careful with the valve, as the stock ones are cheap/flimsy.
The previous owners installed a Noritz tankless unit, so it’s a different ball of wax. That thing has a different set of problems - it wasn’t working right when they sold the house to us. Turns out about half the burners weren’t firing because of an insufficient gas supply. We were upsizing the gas meter anyway to accommodate a generator so we killed two birds with one stone there.
Yes it basically gets corroded instead of the glass lining of the tank itself. You can replace them every 5-7 years or longer if you have a dual anode water heater tank.
Replacing them is one of those where DIY vs getting it done is borderline in terms of cost effectiveness. You don’t do it often enough that the tools needed to get the rod out (air compressor (small one $150) and impact wrench ($100-150)) don’t pay for themselves the first time you do it. You’re gonna pay $300-400 for the tools + replacement rod when a pro coming to your house will do it for $250-300.
I’d recommend a breaker bar instead. Cheaper and more versatile, unless you’re going to be doing a lot of work with air tools in which case you’d probably want a bigger compressor.
Absolutely! Regularly on sale at Harbor Freight for $10, or double that at any Autozone/O’Reilly’s. That plus the 1 and ?1/8? socket, some teflon tape, muscle, and time (cooling the water, mainly) is all you need. If possible, use a magnesium rod instead of aluminum. The aluminum ones are a pain to remove, as they tend to splinter and expand, becoming wider than the hole thru which they are removed.
The glass lining won’t corrode. However, that lining is never perfect, and the metal that is exposed in the flaws of the lining will corrode. The length of time between changes is also dependent on the quality of the water. I check mine every four years.
It is amazing how many people don’t change them. My parent’s have never replaced a water heater under 25 years old. For a significant period of that time they were on iron-laden well water.
My favorite two tools are my breaker bar and torque wrench. The former gets the annoying bolts off, and the other ensures that I won’t tighten anything down too tight.
That $10 Harbor Freight breaker bar of mine has saved my behind more times than I can count when working on my car. In fact, I used it on the plumbing repair above - I hooked up my breaker and a socket to an interior pipe wrench to get the old rusted pipe off.
Bought Hoover WindTunnel 2, brand new, few years back for small money. Failed after circa ten to twenty hours of use. But I have other vacuums so was out of warranty by time it failed.
Disassembled vacuum. Removed and tore down motor. Bad armature/dirty commutator/horrid sparking. Cleaned it up on lathe and tested motor. Still bad. Horrid Chinese QC. Shorted windings. Cannot be repaired.
Bought another motor on eBay. Installed into vacuum. Unit is now up and running . . . . . . for how long dunno. New motor was manufactured couple of years after one that failed. Sure hope their quality became better over that span of time.
Years ago, when I was just starting out, spent time as observer in factory in South Carolina where they made small motors for Sears. The winding machine operators there were conscientious and did good work. Today those jobs have moved to China.
