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Website owner: 
Dave Harnish
CEO: Sadie
Dave's Repair Service
1911 Heath Hill Rd
New Albany, PA 18833
Email:
drs@sosbbs.com


Psalm 118:8


 

 

 

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The DRSNews
October 2004

In this issue:

1) Why There's a Pair of Nylons in My Toolbox
2) Are Your Sockets Thrown in a Box? Chain 'em!
3) Solving Your Refrigerator's Drain Problems

(I'm still looking for testimonials to post on my website, and I'll BRIBE you for yours! <grin> Visit: www.DavesRepair.com/testimonial_invit.htm )

1)  OK, I'd better explain this one pretty fast! Whenever I hear the complaint 'My washer's tearing clothes', I make sure I take some nylon hosiery along on the job.

Rubbing an old pair of nylons or pantyhose around the inside of the washer tub, including the agitator and its edges,  is a great way to find the sharp spot that's causing damage. 

You'll feel the hosiery catch on whatever's causing the problem. It's often a burr or sharp spot on the agitator. It doesn't take much of a burr to catch knits. 

I've carried old hosiery in my toolbox for years, and although they can raise a few eyebrows now and then, they really are a handy tool (Honest, Dear!).

2) Here's a really neat tip for keeping all those sockets organized, especially now that we have to keep several sets of both standard and metric ones on hand without getting them too mixed up. 

Store them on a chain. Strings each set, from smallest to largest, on a piece of beaded chain (typically used for light-fixture pulls, but the bigger, heavier duty stuff). 

When you need a specific type and size of socket, just rotate the chain connector to that socket, open the chain, and remove the socket. Hardware stores sell beaded chain by the foot, so you can customize the loop size for any socket set. 

I have a box of 'backup' sockets, both English and metric, 
that I use only occasionally, and this little trick makes it a LOT easier to find the particular one I'm after - fast! 

3) Here's a little trick I've used for over 40 years, and it's saved countless return trips on refrigerator jobs. 

One of the most common problems with frost-free refrigerators is drain freeze up. This is usually caused by the defrost drain clogging, then freezing. On older units, it can also happen when the insulation around the drain gets 'waterlogged' - as it usually does over the years - and no longer keeps the drain above freezing temperatures.

The first symptom, at least in top-mounts, is water under the crisper drawers, on the floor of the refrigerator section. (In side-bys it'll appear as a slab of ice on the freezer floor).

Before I found this little trick, this was a frustrating problem that was hard to keep from recurring. 

Now I keep a handful of 'drain heat exchangers' in the truck, and use a dozen or two most summers, when humidity is highest and refrig. drains have to handle the most water. 

These are easy to make. Just cut a piece of #12 copper wire (strip from regular 12-2WG 'Romex' household wiring ) about 6 inches long and bend it around a 1/4 inch round rod. A screwdriver shaft works well for this, but any 1/4 inch dia. piece of metal will do. They look like this: 

Drain Heat Exchanger

Now when your refrig drain clogs and you find the trough under the evaporator full of ice, here's what you do. Clear the ice, open the drain (use hot water in your one gallon pressure sprayer and the wet-vac - you DO read the DRSNews back issues, Don't You? Hmmm?), and hang this little piece of copper on the defrost heater, so it extends down the drain. On most units, this is a black rod under the evaporator coil. Some use a radiant heater inside a glass tube, with which you can use this method, but you must carefully bend the hook on your copper wire to the diameter of the glass, being sure it puts no pressure on the glass. 

This heater is responsible for melting all that frost that we don't have to deal with since the advent of Frost-free units, and it glows a dull red during the defrost cycle, so there's plenty of excess heat for our purpose.

Anyway, since copper's such a good conductor of heat, some of the defrost heater's energy will transfer down the copper wire, into the drain, and keep it open. What I like to call 'stupidly simple', this uses no extra electricity and works very well!

One precaution: hang this piece of copper *loosely* over the defrost heater. Don't squeeze or crimp it on, or you risk damaging the heater. 

***

Thanks again for inviting me into your inbox!

If you have any topics you'd like to see covered in an online article, let me know and I'll do my best to oblige. And don't forget those testimonials! Thanks to those of you who've already sent yours in! I'm posting them just as fast as I can! You guys are great!

May God richly bless you & yours!

Sincerely, 
Dave Harnish
Dave's Repair Service

New Albany, PA
drs@sosbbs.com
www.DavesRepair.com
 

Isaiah 40:31

 

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"Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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