> RichA
>
> https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62476690

I’ll agree that my 20 year old nephew probably couldn’t fix anything but this sounds like a good idea;

> What should start to make repairs easier are the new "right to repair regulations" that came into force for England, Scotland and Wales last summer.
>
> Mirroring similar European Union legislation that applies to Northern Ireland, they legally require manufacturers of electrical goods to start making
> spare parts available to buy. There are however, exemptions, for smartphones and laptops.
>
> To help give people more confidence to try to repair things, a growing number of individuals and organisations are taking matters into their own hands,
> and organising 'repair cafes' - both in the UK and overseas.
>
> More often held in a communal space, such as community hall, library or church building, the idea is that people can take along broken electronic items,
> and volunteers will help fix them, or offer advice.
>
> There are now an estimated 2,400 such repair cafes worldwide, and more than 250 in the UK.
>
> Earlier this year, Restart Project also launched two permanent sites or "Fixing Factories" in London. In Camden and Brent volunteers repair people's
> broken electronics on a pay-what-you-like basis.

On 2022-08-12 12:21 PM, Ed Stasiak wrote:
>> RichA
>>
>> https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62476690
>
> I’ll agree that my 20 year old nephew probably couldn’t fix anything but this sounds like a good idea;
>
>> What should start to make repairs easier are the new "right to repair regulations" that came into force for England, Scotland and Wales last summer.
>>
>> Mirroring similar European Union legislation that applies to Northern Ireland, they legally require manufacturers of electrical goods to start making
>> spare parts available to buy. There are however, exemptions, for smartphones and laptops.
>>
>> To help give people more confidence to try to repair things, a growing number of individuals and organisations are taking matters into their own hands,
>> and organising 'repair cafes' - both in the UK and overseas.
>>
>> More often held in a communal space, such as community hall, library or church building, the idea is that people can take along broken electronic items,
>> and volunteers will help fix them, or offer advice.
>>
>> There are now an estimated 2,400 such repair cafes worldwide, and more than 250 in the UK.
>>
>> Earlier this year, Restart Project also launched two permanent sites or "Fixing Factories" in London. In Camden and Brent volunteers repair people's
>> broken electronics on a pay-what-you-like basis.

It would be great if there were some simple way to FIND these groups.
I've got a few things I'd like to fix but don't know how to do it and
don't want to pay big money to the manufacturer's repair depot for
repairs that have only a minimal warranty.

--
Rhino

In article <td65uk$2ik0u$1@dont-email.me>,
Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

> On 2022-08-12 12:21 PM, Ed Stasiak wrote:
> >> RichA
> >>
> >> https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62476690
> >
> > I'll agree that my 20 year old nephew probably couldn't fix anything but
> > this sounds like a good idea;
> >
> >> What should start to make repairs easier are the new "right to repair
> >> regulations" that came into force for England, Scotland and Wales last
> >> summer.
> >>
> >> Mirroring similar European Union legislation that applies to Northern
> >> Ireland, they legally require manufacturers of electrical goods to start
> >> making spare parts available to buy. There are however, exemptions, for
> >> smartphones and laptops.
> >>
> >> To help give people more confidence to try to repair things, a growing
> >> number of individuals and organisations are taking matters into their own
> >> hands, and organising 'repair cafes' - both in the UK and overseas.
> >>
> >> More often held in a communal space, such as community hall, library or
> >> church building, the idea is that people can take along broken electronic
> >> items, and volunteers will help fix them, or offer advice.
> >>
> >> There are now an estimated 2,400 such repair cafes worldwide, and more
> >> than 250 in the UK.
> >>
> >> Earlier this year, Restart Project also launched two permanent sites or
> >> "Fixing Factories" in London. In Camden and Brent volunteers repair
> >> people's broken electronics on a pay-what-you-like basis.
>
> It would be great if there were some simple way to FIND these groups.
> I've got a few things I'd like to fix but don't know how to do it and
> don't want to pay big money to the manufacturer's repair depot for
> repairs that have only a minimal warranty.

I replaced a burnt out lower heating element in my oven a few years ago.
Got the part on eBay for $17. A repair man would've charged me $60 just
to walk through the door.

Then I got really confident and also replaced the top left stove element
even though I rarely used it, it was working but had these weird white
spots on it for some reason.

On 2022-08-12 7:35 PM, super70s wrote:
> In article <td65uk$2ik0u$1@dont-email.me>,
> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>
>> On 2022-08-12 12:21 PM, Ed Stasiak wrote:
>>>> RichA
>>>>
>>>> https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62476690
>>>
>>> I'll agree that my 20 year old nephew probably couldn't fix anything but
>>> this sounds like a good idea;
>>>
>>>> What should start to make repairs easier are the new "right to repair
>>>> regulations" that came into force for England, Scotland and Wales last
>>>> summer.
>>>>
>>>> Mirroring similar European Union legislation that applies to Northern
>>>> Ireland, they legally require manufacturers of electrical goods to start
>>>> making spare parts available to buy. There are however, exemptions, for
>>>> smartphones and laptops.
>>>>
>>>> To help give people more confidence to try to repair things, a growing
>>>> number of individuals and organisations are taking matters into their own
>>>> hands, and organising 'repair cafes' - both in the UK and overseas.
>>>>
>>>> More often held in a communal space, such as community hall, library or
>>>> church building, the idea is that people can take along broken electronic
>>>> items, and volunteers will help fix them, or offer advice.
>>>>
>>>> There are now an estimated 2,400 such repair cafes worldwide, and more
>>>> than 250 in the UK.
>>>>
>>>> Earlier this year, Restart Project also launched two permanent sites or
>>>> "Fixing Factories" in London. In Camden and Brent volunteers repair
>>>> people's broken electronics on a pay-what-you-like basis.
>>
>> It would be great if there were some simple way to FIND these groups.
>> I've got a few things I'd like to fix but don't know how to do it and
>> don't want to pay big money to the manufacturer's repair depot for
>> repairs that have only a minimal warranty.
>
> I replaced a burnt out lower heating element in my oven a few years ago.
> Got the part on eBay for $17. A repair man would've charged me $60 just
> to walk through the door.
>
> Then I got really confident and also replaced the top left stove element
> even though I rarely used it, it was working but had these weird white
> spots on it for some reason.

I figured out why the basement toilet was leaking, figured out how to
remove the failing part, found the replacement part and installed it.
Total cost: under $10. No plumber required! Most of the thanks goes to
YouTube which has an astonishing number of videos on just about any
aspect of home repair.

--
Rhino

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
> On 2022-08-12 7:35 PM, super70s wrote:
>> In article <td65uk$2ik0u$1@dont-email.me>,
>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On 2022-08-12 12:21 PM, Ed Stasiak wrote:
>>>>> RichA
>>>>>
>>>>> https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62476690
>>>>
>>>> I'll agree that my 20 year old nephew probably couldn't fix anything but
>>>> this sounds like a good idea;
>>>>
>>>>> What should start to make repairs easier are the new "right to repair
>>>>> regulations" that came into force for England, Scotland and Wales last
>>>>> summer.
>>>>>
>>>>> Mirroring similar European Union legislation that applies to Northern
>>>>> Ireland, they legally require manufacturers of electrical goods to start
>>>>> making spare parts available to buy. There are however, exemptions, for
>>>>> smartphones and laptops.
>>>>>
>>>>> To help give people more confidence to try to repair things, a growing
>>>>> number of individuals and organisations are taking matters into their own
>>>>> hands, and organising 'repair cafes' - both in the UK and overseas.
>>>>>
>>>>> More often held in a communal space, such as community hall, library or
>>>>> church building, the idea is that people can take along broken electronic
>>>>> items, and volunteers will help fix them, or offer advice.
>>>>>
>>>>> There are now an estimated 2,400 such repair cafes worldwide, and more
>>>>> than 250 in the UK.
>>>>>
>>>>> Earlier this year, Restart Project also launched two permanent sites or
>>>>> "Fixing Factories" in London. In Camden and Brent volunteers repair
>>>>> people's broken electronics on a pay-what-you-like basis.
>>>
>>> It would be great if there were some simple way to FIND these groups.
>>> I've got a few things I'd like to fix but don't know how to do it and
>>> don't want to pay big money to the manufacturer's repair depot for
>>> repairs that have only a minimal warranty.
>>
>> I replaced a burnt out lower heating element in my oven a few years ago.
>> Got the part on eBay for $17. A repair man would've charged me $60 just
>> to walk through the door.
>>
>> Then I got really confident and also replaced the top left stove element
>> even though I rarely used it, it was working but had these weird white
>> spots on it for some reason.
>
> I figured out why the basement toilet was leaking, figured out how to
> remove the failing part, found the replacement part and installed it.
> Total cost: under $10. No plumber required! Most of the thanks goes to
> YouTube which has an astonishing number of videos on just about any
> aspect of home repair.
>

I can’t stop my guestroom toilet from running. First I cleaned the flap and
checked all the seals and such but that didn’t do it then I found that
actually raising and lowering the mechanism didn’t stop the water either so
it was clearly broken. To replace it I of course need to turn off the water
But the handle at the base of the John turns all the way in and the water
doesn’t slow a bit. I am afraid to force it because if I break it I’ll have
to turn off the water to the house. But then it turns out that the lever
that turns off the water to the house died and fell off from old age. At
that point I am needing to call a plumber.

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

In article <td6puc$2kir0$1@dont-email.me>, Rhino
<no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

> On 2022-08-12 7:35 PM, super70s wrote:
> > In article <td65uk$2ik0u$1@dont-email.me>,
> > Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
> >
> >> On 2022-08-12 12:21 PM, Ed Stasiak wrote:
> >>>> RichA
> >>>>
> >>>> https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62476690
> >>>
> >>> I'll agree that my 20 year old nephew probably couldn't fix anything but
> >>> this sounds like a good idea;
> >>>
> >>>> What should start to make repairs easier are the new "right to repair
> >>>> regulations" that came into force for England, Scotland and Wales last
> >>>> summer.
> >>>>
> >>>> Mirroring similar European Union legislation that applies to Northern
> >>>> Ireland, they legally require manufacturers of electrical goods to start
> >>>> making spare parts available to buy. There are however, exemptions, for
> >>>> smartphones and laptops.
> >>>>
> >>>> To help give people more confidence to try to repair things, a growing
> >>>> number of individuals and organisations are taking matters into their own
> >>>> hands, and organising 'repair cafes' - both in the UK and overseas.
> >>>>
> >>>> More often held in a communal space, such as community hall, library or
> >>>> church building, the idea is that people can take along broken electronic
> >>>> items, and volunteers will help fix them, or offer advice.
> >>>>
> >>>> There are now an estimated 2,400 such repair cafes worldwide, and more
> >>>> than 250 in the UK.
> >>>>
> >>>> Earlier this year, Restart Project also launched two permanent sites or
> >>>> "Fixing Factories" in London. In Camden and Brent volunteers repair
> >>>> people's broken electronics on a pay-what-you-like basis.
> >>
> >> It would be great if there were some simple way to FIND these groups.
> >> I've got a few things I'd like to fix but don't know how to do it and
> >> don't want to pay big money to the manufacturer's repair depot for
> >> repairs that have only a minimal warranty.
> >
> > I replaced a burnt out lower heating element in my oven a few years ago.
> > Got the part on eBay for $17. A repair man would've charged me $60 just
> > to walk through the door.
> >
> > Then I got really confident and also replaced the top left stove element
> > even though I rarely used it, it was working but had these weird white
> > spots on it for some reason.
>
> I figured out why the basement toilet was leaking, figured out how to
> remove the failing part, found the replacement part and installed it.
> Total cost: under $10. No plumber required! Most of the thanks goes to
> YouTube which has an astonishing number of videos on just about any
> aspect of home repair.

Good job.

I once had to replace the taillight on my Toyota truck. The garage
wanted more than $200 for the part, plus two hours of labor at $24 per
hour. The part cost about $60 direct from Toyota and the job took me
less than twenty minutes. (Thanks for the demo and all the good
advice, YouTube.)

One discovery I made was that the replacement part, which was from
Toyota, was tinted just a little bit pink. You couldn't tell from more
than a few inches away.

On Friday, August 12, 2022 at 9:43:31 PM UTC-4, A Friend wrote:
> In article <td6puc$2kir0$1...@dont-email.me>, Rhino
> <no_offlin...@example.com> wrote:
>
> > On 2022-08-12 7:35 PM, super70s wrote:
> > > In article <td65uk$2ik0u$1...@dont-email.me>,
> > > Rhino <no_offlin...@example.com> wrote:
> > >
> > >> On 2022-08-12 12:21 PM, Ed Stasiak wrote:
> > >>>> RichA
> > >>>>
> > >>>> https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62476690
> > >>>
> > >>> I'll agree that my 20 year old nephew probably couldn't fix anything but
> > >>> this sounds like a good idea;
> > >>>
> > >>>> What should start to make repairs easier are the new "right to repair
> > >>>> regulations" that came into force for England, Scotland and Wales last
> > >>>> summer.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Mirroring similar European Union legislation that applies to Northern
> > >>>> Ireland, they legally require manufacturers of electrical goods to start
> > >>>> making spare parts available to buy. There are however, exemptions, for
> > >>>> smartphones and laptops.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> To help give people more confidence to try to repair things, a growing
> > >>>> number of individuals and organisations are taking matters into their own
> > >>>> hands, and organising 'repair cafes' - both in the UK and overseas..
> > >>>>
> > >>>> More often held in a communal space, such as community hall, library or
> > >>>> church building, the idea is that people can take along broken electronic
> > >>>> items, and volunteers will help fix them, or offer advice.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> There are now an estimated 2,400 such repair cafes worldwide, and more
> > >>>> than 250 in the UK.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Earlier this year, Restart Project also launched two permanent sites or
> > >>>> "Fixing Factories" in London. In Camden and Brent volunteers repair
> > >>>> people's broken electronics on a pay-what-you-like basis.
> > >>
> > >> It would be great if there were some simple way to FIND these groups..
> > >> I've got a few things I'd like to fix but don't know how to do it and
> > >> don't want to pay big money to the manufacturer's repair depot for
> > >> repairs that have only a minimal warranty.
> > >
> > > I replaced a burnt out lower heating element in my oven a few years ago.
> > > Got the part on eBay for $17. A repair man would've charged me $60 just
> > > to walk through the door.
> > >
> > > Then I got really confident and also replaced the top left stove element
> > > even though I rarely used it, it was working but had these weird white
> > > spots on it for some reason.
> >
> > I figured out why the basement toilet was leaking, figured out how to
> > remove the failing part, found the replacement part and installed it.
> > Total cost: under $10. No plumber required! Most of the thanks goes to
> > YouTube which has an astonishing number of videos on just about any
> > aspect of home repair.
> Good job.

> I once had to replace the taillight on my Toyota truck. The garage
> wanted more than $200 for the part, plus two hours of labor at $24 per
> hour. The part cost about $60 direct from Toyota and the job took me
> less than twenty minutes. (Thanks for the demo and all the good
> advice, YouTube.)
>
> One discovery I made was that the replacement part, which was from
> Toyota, was tinted just a little bit pink. You couldn't tell from more
> than a few inches away.

I had a fuel pump go out on a little GMC S-10 pickup that officially required dropping the tank to do the repair. mime said screw that, examined the area above the fuel tank where the pump was located, and fired up the saw-zall, cutting 3 sides of a rectangle in the bed floor, directly above the pump. Peeled back the 3 sided flap and removed the bad pump and installed the new one in 30 minutes. Pushed the flap down level with the rest of the bed and continued to drive the little truck for a few years until I turned a corner one day and a front ball joint fell off. That's a story for another time.

In article
<949990672.682046266.555335.anim8rfsk-cox.net@news.easynews.com>,
anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:

> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
> > On 2022-08-12 7:35 PM, super70s wrote:
> >> In article <td65uk$2ik0u$1@dont-email.me>,
> >> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> On 2022-08-12 12:21 PM, Ed Stasiak wrote:
> >>>>> RichA
> >>>>>
> >>>>> https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62476690
> >>>>
> >>>> I'll agree that my 20 year old nephew probably couldn't fix anything but
> >>>> this sounds like a good idea;
> >>>>
> >>>>> What should start to make repairs easier are the new "right to repair
> >>>>> regulations" that came into force for England, Scotland and Wales last
> >>>>> summer.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Mirroring similar European Union legislation that applies to Northern
> >>>>> Ireland, they legally require manufacturers of electrical goods to
> >>>>> start
> >>>>> making spare parts available to buy. There are however, exemptions, for
> >>>>> smartphones and laptops.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> To help give people more confidence to try to repair things, a growing
> >>>>> number of individuals and organisations are taking matters into their
> >>>>> own
> >>>>> hands, and organising 'repair cafes' - both in the UK and overseas.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> More often held in a communal space, such as community hall, library or
> >>>>> church building, the idea is that people can take along broken
> >>>>> electronic
> >>>>> items, and volunteers will help fix them, or offer advice.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> There are now an estimated 2,400 such repair cafes worldwide, and more
> >>>>> than 250 in the UK.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Earlier this year, Restart Project also launched two permanent sites or
> >>>>> "Fixing Factories" in London. In Camden and Brent volunteers repair
> >>>>> people's broken electronics on a pay-what-you-like basis.
> >>>
> >>> It would be great if there were some simple way to FIND these groups.
> >>> I've got a few things I'd like to fix but don't know how to do it and
> >>> don't want to pay big money to the manufacturer's repair depot for
> >>> repairs that have only a minimal warranty.
> >>
> >> I replaced a burnt out lower heating element in my oven a few years ago.
> >> Got the part on eBay for $17. A repair man would've charged me $60 just
> >> to walk through the door.
> >>
> >> Then I got really confident and also replaced the top left stove element
> >> even though I rarely used it, it was working but had these weird white
> >> spots on it for some reason.
> >
> > I figured out why the basement toilet was leaking, figured out how to
> > remove the failing part, found the replacement part and installed it.
> > Total cost: under $10. No plumber required! Most of the thanks goes to
> > YouTube which has an astonishing number of videos on just about any
> > aspect of home repair.
> >
>
> I can’t stop my guestroom toilet from running. First I cleaned the flap and
> checked all the seals and such but that didn’t do it then I found that
> actually raising and lowering the mechanism didn’t stop the water either so
> it was clearly broken. To replace it I of course need to turn off the water
> But the handle at the base of the John turns all the way in and the water
> doesn’t slow a bit. I am afraid to force it because if I break it I’ll have
> to turn off the water to the house. But then it turns out that the lever
> that turns off the water to the house died and fell off from old age. At
> that point I am needing to call a plumber.

A few years ago the water meter guy knocked on my door and informed me I
was using water like crazy. I had an unknown leak somewhere in my pipes,
a plumber thought it was in the water main from the street and tore up a
large patch of my yard with a bobcat looking for it before he finally
discovered it was a bad valve in the outside faucet that I have a garden
hose hooked up to (I had it replaced a few years before that when I
jerked on the hose and the whole faucet came out of wall).

I've seen commercials hawking insurance just for water main leaks.

On 2022-08-13 20:16:42 +0000, super70s said:
>
> A few years ago the water meter guy knocked on my door and informed me I
> was using water like crazy. I had an unknown leak somewhere in my pipes,
> a plumber thought it was in the water main from the street and tore up a
> large patch of my yard with a bobcat looking for it before he finally
> discovered it was a bad valve in the outside faucet that I have a garden
> hose hooked up to (I had it replaced a few years before that when I
> jerked on the hose and the whole faucet came out of wall).
>
> I've seen commercials hawking insurance just for water main leaks.

Here in New Zealand there are two parts for the responsibility of
utility supply (phone, in-coming water, waste water, electricity, gas,
etc.):

- everything up to the house / meter box (including the
meter box*) is the responsibility of the utility company.

- everything after that connection point is the house
owner's responsibility.

although there are exceptions for those living rurally or a long way
from the public road, in which case the connection along that long
driveway is also the house owner's responsibility.

There will also of course be another exception if the outside problem
is found to be the house owner's fault (e.g. breaking the water pipe
while digging a hole).

* Many of the electricity companies here now have this scheme where they
give you free hours or a monthly free day ... what they never ever tell
you is that to actually receive that you need to have a "smart meter box",
which of course is an extra cost option. (The standard 'dumb' meter box
has no way of knowing when power is used, it just ticks up the total like
a car's odometer.)

> Your Name
>
> - everything up to the house / meter box (including the
> meter box*) is the responsibility of the utility company.
>
> - everything after that connection point is the house
> owner's responsibility.

Back in 2014 during the Great Flood hereabouts, I had a huge tree
limb break on the huge maple tree in the backand and it was hanging
off the tree onto the electric line from the utility pole to my house
(I still had electrical power, as the line hadn’t broken).

https://i.postimg.cc/CL448dWQ/Great-Flood-of-2014-01.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/135rrsS5/Great-Flood-of-2014-02.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/SRfccttM/Great-Flood-of-2014-Mound-I696.jpg

I called the electric company and told them about the problem and
the next day, there was a note on my door from them saying someone
had come out and checked and indeed deemed it a hazard and they’d
be sending out a crew to take down the tree limb.

After a couple of days with nothing happening, I called again and
they said a crew would be out but still nobody showed up to take
care of it so I kept calling, until they finally kicked me up the ladder
to some chick who told me the electric line from the pole to the
house was MY PROBLEM and I had to cut it down myself!

I told her this was preposterous as this was a _live electric line_ and
there was no way for me to disconnect it, even if there was some way
for me to get a mile up into the tree to cut the limb and if the electric
line broke and fell on the steel chainlink fence, it would electrocute
the entire neighborhood.

She hung up on me.

So I emailed our mayor Jim Fouts and he called me from his home and
said he’d look into it and the _next day_ the electric company was at
my house taking down the tree limb, after driving a douce-and-a-half
aerial bucket truck into the park behind my house to get at the tree.

> * Many of the electricity companies here now have this scheme where
> they give you free hours or a monthly free day ... what they never ever tell
> you is that to actually receive that you need to have a "smart meter box",

DO NOT EVER SIGN UP for “interruptible” electrical service!

When I bought my house, the electric company kept sending notices
for me to sign up with the program, saying I’d save a bazillion dollars
per year on my electrical bill and being a newbie home owner, I signed
up.

In the middle of July when it was 95+ degrees (and 95% humidity) they’d
shut off my air conditioning _all fucking day long_ and the house would
be sweltering hot and the AC wouldn’t turn on until 10:00 or so at night,
whereupon it would run all night long trying to cool down the house.

I called and said I wanted off the program and the electrical company
said tuff shit, I was on the hook for the rest of the year.

But luckily my neighbor worked for the gas company and had the special
key that opened the interruptible service control box and he disconnected
the system and I was good from there on out.

On 2022-08-12 9:28 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>> On 2022-08-12 7:35 PM, super70s wrote:
>>> In article <td65uk$2ik0u$1@dont-email.me>,
>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 2022-08-12 12:21 PM, Ed Stasiak wrote:
>>>>>> RichA
>>>>>>
>>>>>> https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62476690
>>>>>
>>>>> I'll agree that my 20 year old nephew probably couldn't fix anything but
>>>>> this sounds like a good idea;
>>>>>
>>>>>> What should start to make repairs easier are the new "right to repair
>>>>>> regulations" that came into force for England, Scotland and Wales last
>>>>>> summer.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Mirroring similar European Union legislation that applies to Northern
>>>>>> Ireland, they legally require manufacturers of electrical goods to start
>>>>>> making spare parts available to buy. There are however, exemptions, for
>>>>>> smartphones and laptops.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> To help give people more confidence to try to repair things, a growing
>>>>>> number of individuals and organisations are taking matters into their own
>>>>>> hands, and organising 'repair cafes' - both in the UK and overseas.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> More often held in a communal space, such as community hall, library or
>>>>>> church building, the idea is that people can take along broken electronic
>>>>>> items, and volunteers will help fix them, or offer advice.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> There are now an estimated 2,400 such repair cafes worldwide, and more
>>>>>> than 250 in the UK.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Earlier this year, Restart Project also launched two permanent sites or
>>>>>> "Fixing Factories" in London. In Camden and Brent volunteers repair
>>>>>> people's broken electronics on a pay-what-you-like basis.
>>>>
>>>> It would be great if there were some simple way to FIND these groups.
>>>> I've got a few things I'd like to fix but don't know how to do it and
>>>> don't want to pay big money to the manufacturer's repair depot for
>>>> repairs that have only a minimal warranty.
>>>
>>> I replaced a burnt out lower heating element in my oven a few years ago.
>>> Got the part on eBay for $17. A repair man would've charged me $60 just
>>> to walk through the door.
>>>
>>> Then I got really confident and also replaced the top left stove element
>>> even though I rarely used it, it was working but had these weird white
>>> spots on it for some reason.
>>
>> I figured out why the basement toilet was leaking, figured out how to
>> remove the failing part, found the replacement part and installed it.
>> Total cost: under $10. No plumber required! Most of the thanks goes to
>> YouTube which has an astonishing number of videos on just about any
>> aspect of home repair.
>>
>
> I can’t stop my guestroom toilet from running. First I cleaned the flap and
> checked all the seals and such but that didn’t do it then I found that
> actually raising and lowering the mechanism didn’t stop the water either so
> it was clearly broken. To replace it I of course need to turn off the water
> But the handle at the base of the John turns all the way in and the water
> doesn’t slow a bit. I am afraid to force it because if I break it I’ll have
> to turn off the water to the house. But then it turns out that the lever
> that turns off the water to the house died and fell off from old age. At
> that point I am needing to call a plumber.
>
You're probably right about that but not necessarily. The shutoff beside
the basement toilet was seized because it probably hadn't been turned
since the toilet was installed several decades back. However, I managed
to do the repair without turning off the shutoff to the toilet OR the
house. (The shutoff for the house almost certainly DOES work; I turned
it a year or two back just to see.)

All I did to work around the jammed shutoff valve was to keep the long
rod on the float from dropping so that it would try to refill the tank.
(I had bailed the tank out already with a measuring cup.) I simply put a
longish screwdriver whose shaft was the width of the tank across the
width of the tank underneath the rod. When I was done replacing the
leaky bolts that held the tank to the toilet, I simply pulled the
screwdriver out of that position, and let it refill the tank.

The whole repair took several hours because I had to research how to
proceed so the rod to the float may have gotten slightly bent; after I'd
withdrawn the screwdriver, I found that the tank was overfilling. But I
found another video that showed me how to adjust the fill height and
followed that to get the tank filling to the correct height and then
everything was good again. Assuming your toilet has a rod connecting the
float to the rest of the mechanism, you could imitate what I did.

Newer toilets use a design without a float rod and I don't know how to
keep those from moving but if you ask on a plumbing forum like I did,
you may be able to get some suggestions on what you can do. I just
googled for "plumbing forum", registered, and posted my question. I was
pleasantly surprised to find that I got an answer back very quickly,
probably less than an hour, and the guy implied he was a professional
plumber, not a novice like me.

You could try using a forum to see if there's any way to shut off the
water to the house if your house shutoff is broken. There may be another
shutoff somewhere between the street and your house. I have to believe
there's SOMETHING you can do. After all, if you stop paying your bill
the city will have some way to shut off your water for non-payment that
probably doesn't require them to enter your house. A plumbing forum may
be able to tell you how to deal with that. You can't be the first guy in
history who's ever had a house shutoff fail.

--
Rhino

On 2022-08-12 9:43 PM, A Friend wrote:
> In article <td6puc$2kir0$1@dont-email.me>, Rhino
> <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>
>> On 2022-08-12 7:35 PM, super70s wrote:
>>> In article <td65uk$2ik0u$1@dont-email.me>,
>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 2022-08-12 12:21 PM, Ed Stasiak wrote:
>>>>>> RichA
>>>>>>
>>>>>> https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62476690
>>>>>
>>>>> I'll agree that my 20 year old nephew probably couldn't fix anything but
>>>>> this sounds like a good idea;
>>>>>
>>>>>> What should start to make repairs easier are the new "right to repair
>>>>>> regulations" that came into force for England, Scotland and Wales last
>>>>>> summer.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Mirroring similar European Union legislation that applies to Northern
>>>>>> Ireland, they legally require manufacturers of electrical goods to start
>>>>>> making spare parts available to buy. There are however, exemptions, for
>>>>>> smartphones and laptops.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> To help give people more confidence to try to repair things, a growing
>>>>>> number of individuals and organisations are taking matters into their own
>>>>>> hands, and organising 'repair cafes' - both in the UK and overseas.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> More often held in a communal space, such as community hall, library or
>>>>>> church building, the idea is that people can take along broken electronic
>>>>>> items, and volunteers will help fix them, or offer advice.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> There are now an estimated 2,400 such repair cafes worldwide, and more
>>>>>> than 250 in the UK.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Earlier this year, Restart Project also launched two permanent sites or
>>>>>> "Fixing Factories" in London. In Camden and Brent volunteers repair
>>>>>> people's broken electronics on a pay-what-you-like basis.
>>>>
>>>> It would be great if there were some simple way to FIND these groups.
>>>> I've got a few things I'd like to fix but don't know how to do it and
>>>> don't want to pay big money to the manufacturer's repair depot for
>>>> repairs that have only a minimal warranty.
>>>
>>> I replaced a burnt out lower heating element in my oven a few years ago.
>>> Got the part on eBay for $17. A repair man would've charged me $60 just
>>> to walk through the door.
>>>
>>> Then I got really confident and also replaced the top left stove element
>>> even though I rarely used it, it was working but had these weird white
>>> spots on it for some reason.
>>
>> I figured out why the basement toilet was leaking, figured out how to
>> remove the failing part, found the replacement part and installed it.
>> Total cost: under $10. No plumber required! Most of the thanks goes to
>> YouTube which has an astonishing number of videos on just about any
>> aspect of home repair.
>
>
> Good job.
>
> I once had to replace the taillight on my Toyota truck. The garage
> wanted more than $200 for the part, plus two hours of labor at $24 per
> hour. The part cost about $60 direct from Toyota and the job took me
> less than twenty minutes. (Thanks for the demo and all the good
> advice, YouTube.)
>
I'm sure we all have stories about when a mechanic told us we needed
something done and it would cost such-and-such - usually a lot - but we
ultimately found out the problem was either non-existent or could be
easily fixed for a small amount of money, often by us.

I knew a guy at school who had a van that was making an annoying noise.
He took it to the nearby mechanic who quoted him $1300 for the
replacement and repair of various things. But my friend was an
engineering student and decided to look into it himself and discovered
that all that was wrong was a bent fan blade that was hitting something
and causing the weird noise. He fixed it himself in a few minutes and
saved $1300.

I'm not saying all mechanics are crooks but some of them definitely are.

> One discovery I made was that the replacement part, which was from
> Toyota, was tinted just a little bit pink. You couldn't tell from more
> than a few inches away.

--
Rhino

On 2022-08-13 8:10 PM, Ed Stasiak wrote:
>> Your Name
>>
>> - everything up to the house / meter box (including the
>> meter box*) is the responsibility of the utility company.
>>
>> - everything after that connection point is the house
>> owner's responsibility.
>
> Back in 2014 during the Great Flood hereabouts, I had a huge tree
> limb break on the huge maple tree in the backand and it was hanging
> off the tree onto the electric line from the utility pole to my house
> (I still had electrical power, as the line hadn’t broken).
>
> https://i.postimg.cc/CL448dWQ/Great-Flood-of-2014-01.jpg
> https://i.postimg.cc/135rrsS5/Great-Flood-of-2014-02.jpg
> https://i.postimg.cc/SRfccttM/Great-Flood-of-2014-Mound-I696.jpg
>
> I called the electric company and told them about the problem and
> the next day, there was a note on my door from them saying someone
> had come out and checked and indeed deemed it a hazard and they’d
> be sending out a crew to take down the tree limb.
>
> After a couple of days with nothing happening, I called again and
> they said a crew would be out but still nobody showed up to take
> care of it so I kept calling, until they finally kicked me up the ladder
> to some chick who told me the electric line from the pole to the
> house was MY PROBLEM and I had to cut it down myself!
>
> I told her this was preposterous as this was a _live electric line_ and
> there was no way for me to disconnect it, even if there was some way
> for me to get a mile up into the tree to cut the limb and if the electric
> line broke and fell on the steel chainlink fence, it would electrocute
> the entire neighborhood.
>
> She hung up on me.
>
> So I emailed our mayor Jim Fouts and he called me from his home and
> said he’d look into it and the _next day_ the electric company was at
> my house taking down the tree limb, after driving a douce-and-a-half
> aerial bucket truck into the park behind my house to get at the tree.
>
Three cheers for your mayor who apparently had the common sense to
realize what the bureaucrat at the power company didn't get. The
bureaucrat's attitude should have got her fired at the very least or
sued for big money if anyone had gotten hurt.

>> * Many of the electricity companies here now have this scheme where
>> they give you free hours or a monthly free day ... what they never ever tell
>> you is that to actually receive that you need to have a "smart meter box",
>
> DO NOT EVER SIGN UP for “interruptible” electrical service!
>
> When I bought my house, the electric company kept sending notices
> for me to sign up with the program, saying I’d save a bazillion dollars
> per year on my electrical bill and being a newbie home owner, I signed
> up.
>
> In the middle of July when it was 95+ degrees (and 95% humidity) they’d
> shut off my air conditioning _all fucking day long_ and the house would
> be sweltering hot and the AC wouldn’t turn on until 10:00 or so at night,
> whereupon it would run all night long trying to cool down the house.
>
> I called and said I wanted off the program and the electrical company
> said tuff shit, I was on the hook for the rest of the year.
>
> But luckily my neighbor worked for the gas company and had the special
> key that opened the interruptible service control box and he disconnected
> the system and I was good from there on out.

Three cheers for your neighbour!

--
Rhino

In article <td9i8d$2uud0$1@dont-email.me>, Rhino
<no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

> Newer toilets use a design without a float rod and I don't know how to
> keep those from moving but if you ask on a plumbing forum like I did,
> you may be able to get some suggestions on what you can do. I just
> googled for "plumbing forum", registered, and posted my question. I was
> pleasantly surprised to find that I got an answer back very quickly,
> probably less than an hour, and the guy implied he was a professional
> plumber, not a novice like me.

The downstairs toilet has one of those stalk-filler things instead of a
float. The fix was to buy a new stalk (inexpensive, as I recall) and
just install it. I also wrapped the screw-in part with Teflon tape.
Everybody should do that. It stops leaks dead.

> Rhino
> > Ed Stasiak
> >
> > So I emailed our mayor Jim Fouts and he called me from his home and
> > said he’d look into it and the _next day_ the electric company was at
> > my house taking down the tree limb, after driving a douce-and-a-half
> > aerial bucket truck into the park behind my house to get at the tree.
> >
> Three cheers for your mayor who apparently had the common sense to
> realize what the bureaucrat at the power company didn't get. The
> bureaucrat's attitude should have got her fired at the very least or
> sued for big money if anyone had gotten hurt.

Yeah, he was a great mayor, so great the city council term limited him
so one of them could get a chance at being elected mayor, (and they’ll
never be as good) as we’d have kept reelecting him forever...

One of my buddies tried calling the city road dept. about a street light
at a high traffic intersection where all kinda kids in the neighborhood
(including their own) had to cross every day to get to/from school,
which was set to blink yellow allowing cars to make turns, endangering
the kids trying to cross.

The city road dept. pawned them off on the county road commission
who told them to get with the city road dept. about it, so they emailed
Mayor Fouts and that week the street light’s timing was changed during
school hours to take into account the kids needing to cross.

In article <td9i8d$2uud0$1@dont-email.me>,
Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

> Newer toilets use a design without a float rod

A plumber installed the newer design in my toilet one time (thinking it
would help my aforementioned mystery water leak problem) and every 12
hours or so you could hear the water filling back up until it stopped. I
put the older float rod style back in myself (thankfully those are still
available) and the toilet leak stopped.

Maybe it was a fluke the newer one caused a problem but I'm sticking
with the older type.

In article <td998q$13gt$1@gioia.aioe.org>,
Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:

> On 2022-08-13 20:16:42 +0000, super70s said:
> >
> > A few years ago the water meter guy knocked on my door and informed me I
> > was using water like crazy. I had an unknown leak somewhere in my pipes,
> > a plumber thought it was in the water main from the street and tore up a
> > large patch of my yard with a bobcat looking for it before he finally
> > discovered it was a bad valve in the outside faucet that I have a garden
> > hose hooked up to (I had it replaced a few years before that when I
> > jerked on the hose and the whole faucet came out of wall).
> >
> > I've seen commercials hawking insurance just for water main leaks.
>
> Here in New Zealand there are two parts for the responsibility of
> utility supply (phone, in-coming water, waste water, electricity, gas,
> etc.):
>
> - everything up to the house / meter box (including the
> meter box*) is the responsibility of the utility company.
>
> - everything after that connection point is the house
> owner's responsibility.

That sounds like a good law as far as the consumer goes but it puts the
utility company in a worse position. Also a lot of people probably do
crazy things to their lawn like installing fence posts or digging up
dirt for new trees or plants without considering the yard pipe that can
cause a leak to happen.

On 8/13/2022 8:10 PM, Ed Stasiak wrote:
>> Your Name
>>
>> - everything up to the house / meter box (including the
>> meter box*) is the responsibility of the utility company.
>>
>> - everything after that connection point is the house
>> owner's responsibility.
>
> Back in 2014 during the Great Flood hereabouts, I had a huge tree
> limb break on the huge maple tree in the backand and it was hanging
> off the tree onto the electric line from the utility pole to my house
> (I still had electrical power, as the line hadn’t broken).
>
> https://i.postimg.cc/CL448dWQ/Great-Flood-of-2014-01.jpg
> https://i.postimg.cc/135rrsS5/Great-Flood-of-2014-02.jpg
> https://i.postimg.cc/SRfccttM/Great-Flood-of-2014-Mound-I696.jpg
>
> I called the electric company and told them about the problem and
> the next day, there was a note on my door from them saying someone
> had come out and checked and indeed deemed it a hazard and they’d
> be sending out a crew to take down the tree limb.
>
> After a couple of days with nothing happening, I called again and
> they said a crew would be out but still nobody showed up to take
> care of it so I kept calling, until they finally kicked me up the ladder
> to some chick who told me the electric line from the pole to the
> house was MY PROBLEM and I had to cut it down myself!
>
> I told her this was preposterous as this was a _live electric line_ and
> there was no way for me to disconnect it, even if there was some way
> for me to get a mile up into the tree to cut the limb and if the electric
> line broke and fell on the steel chainlink fence, it would electrocute
> the entire neighborhood.
>
> She hung up on me.
>
> So I emailed our mayor Jim Fouts and he called me from his home and
> said he’d look into it and the _next day_ the electric company was at
> my house taking down the tree limb, after driving a douce-and-a-half
> aerial bucket truck into the park behind my house to get at the tree.
>
>> * Many of the electricity companies here now have this scheme where
>> they give you free hours or a monthly free day ... what they never ever tell
>> you is that to actually receive that you need to have a "smart meter box",
>
> DO NOT EVER SIGN UP for “interruptible” electrical service!
>
> When I bought my house, the electric company kept sending notices
> for me to sign up with the program, saying I’d save a bazillion dollars
> per year on my electrical bill and being a newbie home owner, I signed
> up.
>
> In the middle of July when it was 95+ degrees (and 95% humidity) they’d
> shut off my air conditioning _all fucking day long_ and the house would
> be sweltering hot and the AC wouldn’t turn on until 10:00 or so at night,
> whereupon it would run all night long trying to cool down the house.
>
> I called and said I wanted off the program and the electrical company
> said tuff shit, I was on the hook for the rest of the year.
>
> But luckily my neighbor worked for the gas company and had the special
> key that opened the interruptible service control box and he disconnected
> the system and I was good from there on out.

So, interruptible interruptible service...

(I trust you still received the lower monthly rate.)

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
> On 2022-08-12 9:28 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>> On 2022-08-12 7:35 PM, super70s wrote:
>>>> In article <td65uk$2ik0u$1@dont-email.me>,
>>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On 2022-08-12 12:21 PM, Ed Stasiak wrote:
>>>>>>> RichA
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62476690
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'll agree that my 20 year old nephew probably couldn't fix anything but
>>>>>> this sounds like a good idea;
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> What should start to make repairs easier are the new "right to repair
>>>>>>> regulations" that came into force for England, Scotland and Wales last
>>>>>>> summer.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Mirroring similar European Union legislation that applies to Northern
>>>>>>> Ireland, they legally require manufacturers of electrical goods to start
>>>>>>> making spare parts available to buy. There are however, exemptions, for
>>>>>>> smartphones and laptops.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> To help give people more confidence to try to repair things, a growing
>>>>>>> number of individuals and organisations are taking matters into their own
>>>>>>> hands, and organising 'repair cafes' - both in the UK and overseas.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> More often held in a communal space, such as community hall, library or
>>>>>>> church building, the idea is that people can take along broken electronic
>>>>>>> items, and volunteers will help fix them, or offer advice.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> There are now an estimated 2,400 such repair cafes worldwide, and more
>>>>>>> than 250 in the UK.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Earlier this year, Restart Project also launched two permanent sites or
>>>>>>> "Fixing Factories" in London. In Camden and Brent volunteers repair
>>>>>>> people's broken electronics on a pay-what-you-like basis.
>>>>>
>>>>> It would be great if there were some simple way to FIND these groups.
>>>>> I've got a few things I'd like to fix but don't know how to do it and
>>>>> don't want to pay big money to the manufacturer's repair depot for
>>>>> repairs that have only a minimal warranty.
>>>>
>>>> I replaced a burnt out lower heating element in my oven a few years ago.
>>>> Got the part on eBay for $17. A repair man would've charged me $60 just
>>>> to walk through the door.
>>>>
>>>> Then I got really confident and also replaced the top left stove element
>>>> even though I rarely used it, it was working but had these weird white
>>>> spots on it for some reason.
>>>
>>> I figured out why the basement toilet was leaking, figured out how to
>>> remove the failing part, found the replacement part and installed it.
>>> Total cost: under $10. No plumber required! Most of the thanks goes to
>>> YouTube which has an astonishing number of videos on just about any
>>> aspect of home repair.
>>>
>>
>> I can’t stop my guestroom toilet from running. First I cleaned the flap and
>> checked all the seals and such but that didn’t do it then I found that
>> actually raising and lowering the mechanism didn’t stop the water either so
>> it was clearly broken. To replace it I of course need to turn off the water
>> But the handle at the base of the John turns all the way in and the water
>> doesn’t slow a bit. I am afraid to force it because if I break it I’ll have
>> to turn off the water to the house. But then it turns out that the lever
>> that turns off the water to the house died and fell off from old age. At
>> that point I am needing to call a plumber.
>>
> You're probably right about that but not necessarily. The shutoff beside
> the basement toilet was seized because it probably hadn't been turned
> since the toilet was installed several decades back. However, I managed
> to do the repair without turning off the shutoff to the toilet OR the
> house. (The shutoff for the house almost certainly DOES work; I turned
> it a year or two back just to see.)

First, thanks for all the effort you went to here.

There is a shut off in the water meter box at the curb. I’ve turned the
water to the house off there before. It requires a special tool. But a few
years ago they swapped out the water meters and the boxes and the new ones
require a different special tool, and that special tool I don’t have.

I had the shut off valve on the front of the house installed myself a long
time ago. It’s apparently corroded away and the handle is gone completely.
Replacing it is going to involve cutting out the section of copper pipe
it’s in, installing a new section and valve, and welding it back together.
Welding I don’t do. :-)

The shut off valve at the base of the toilet isn’t seized. It spins all the
way in although it’s a tough turn. But the water doesn’t slow down any. So
the end of the valve in there is probably just corroded away as well.

The vertical mechanism inside the toilet tank has a device on the outside
of it that you can manually push up-and-down to make the water start or
stop. But nothing you can do with that affects the water. So whatever is
inside there isn’t working either. Which means that whole piece needs to
come out and be replaced which you can’t do without shutting off the water
somewhere upstream.

>
> All I did to work around the jammed shutoff valve was to keep the long
> rod on the float from dropping so that it would try to refill the tank.
> (I had bailed the tank out already with a measuring cup.) I simply put a
> longish screwdriver whose shaft was the width of the tank across the
> width of the tank underneath the rod. When I was done replacing the
> leaky bolts that held the tank to the toilet, I simply pulled the
> screwdriver out of that position, and let it refill the tank.

Great minds. That was my first inclination, but lifting the long rod all
the way to the top doesn’t stop the water from coming in.

>
> The whole repair took several hours because I had to research how to
> proceed so the rod to the float may have gotten slightly bent; after I'd
> withdrawn the screwdriver, I found that the tank was overfilling. But I
> found another video that showed me how to adjust the fill height and
> followed that to get the tank filling to the correct height and then
> everything was good again. Assuming your toilet has a rod connecting the
> float to the rest of the mechanism, you could imitate what I did.
>
> Newer toilets use a design without a float rod and I don't know how to
> keep those from moving but if you ask on a plumbing forum like I did,
> you may be able to get some suggestions on what you can do. I just
> googled for "plumbing forum", registered, and posted my question. I was
> pleasantly surprised to find that I got an answer back very quickly,
> probably less than an hour, and the guy implied he was a professional
> plumber, not a novice like me.
>
> You could try using a forum to see if there's any way to shut off the
> water to the house if your house shutoff is broken. There may be another
> shutoff somewhere between the street and your house. I have to believe
> there's SOMETHING you can do. After all, if you stop paying your bill
> the city will have some way to shut off your water for non-payment that
> probably doesn't require them to enter your house. A plumbing forum may
> be able to tell you how to deal with that. You can't be the first guy in
> history who's ever had a house shutoff fail.
>

Thanks!

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

A Friend <nope@noway.com> wrote:
> In article <td9i8d$2uud0$1@dont-email.me>, Rhino
> <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>
>> Newer toilets use a design without a float rod and I don't know how to
>> keep those from moving but if you ask on a plumbing forum like I did,
>> you may be able to get some suggestions on what you can do. I just
>> googled for "plumbing forum", registered, and posted my question. I was
>> pleasantly surprised to find that I got an answer back very quickly,
>> probably less than an hour, and the guy implied he was a professional
>> plumber, not a novice like me.
>
>
> The downstairs toilet has one of those stalk-filler things instead of a
> float. The fix was to buy a new stalk (inexpensive, as I recall) and
> just install it. I also wrapped the screw-in part with Teflon tape.
> Everybody should do that. It stops leaks dead.
>

“Stalk-filler” - I like that. That’s exactly what I have. But I have no way
to shut off the water to swap it out.

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

On 2022-08-14 02:41:58 +0000, super70s said:

> In article <td998q$13gt$1@gioia.aioe.org>,
> Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:
>
>> On 2022-08-13 20:16:42 +0000, super70s said:
>>>
>>> A few years ago the water meter guy knocked on my door and informed me I
>>> was using water like crazy. I had an unknown leak somewhere in my pipes,
>>> a plumber thought it was in the water main from the street and tore up a
>>> large patch of my yard with a bobcat looking for it before he finally
>>> discovered it was a bad valve in the outside faucet that I have a garden
>>> hose hooked up to (I had it replaced a few years before that when I
>>> jerked on the hose and the whole faucet came out of wall).
>>>
>>> I've seen commercials hawking insurance just for water main leaks.
>>
>> Here in New Zealand there are two parts for the responsibility of
>> utility supply (phone, in-coming water, waste water, electricity, gas,
>> etc.):
>>
>> - everything up to the house / meter box (including the
>> meter box*) is the responsibility of the utility company.
>>
>> - everything after that connection point is the house
>> owner's responsibility.
>
> That sounds like a good law as far as the consumer goes but it puts the
> utility company in a worse position. Also a lot of people probably do
> crazy things to their lawn like installing fence posts or digging up
> dirt for new trees or plants without considering the yard pipe that can
> cause a leak to happen.

As per the bit you snipped, there is an exception for when the damage
to the external pipes/wiring/etc. has been done by the home owner
(including when the home owner pays someone else to put up the
fence/etc.).

The utility company pays when it a normal fault such as worn out
wiring, earthquake damage, etc.

One place where I worked some years ago kept having issues with their
dial-up intenet connection (before broadband existed). It was caused by
the sea air corroding the connector in the telephone box outside, so
the telecoms company had to come out and replace them a few times, at
the telecoms' company expense.

If the corrosion had been found to be in the building's internal wiring
or it was found they had been constantly watering some plants (perhaps
a trickle system) around the outside box, then the organisation owning
the building would have had to pay for the call-out fee and repair.

On 2022-08-13 10:21 PM, Ed Stasiak wrote:
>> Rhino
>>> Ed Stasiak
>>>
>>> So I emailed our mayor Jim Fouts and he called me from his home and
>>> said he’d look into it and the _next day_ the electric company was at
>>> my house taking down the tree limb, after driving a douce-and-a-half
>>> aerial bucket truck into the park behind my house to get at the tree.
>>>
>> Three cheers for your mayor who apparently had the common sense to
>> realize what the bureaucrat at the power company didn't get. The
>> bureaucrat's attitude should have got her fired at the very least or
>> sued for big money if anyone had gotten hurt.
>
> Yeah, he was a great mayor, so great the city council term limited him
> so one of them could get a chance at being elected mayor, (and they’ll
> never be as good) as we’d have kept reelecting him forever...
>
The city council created term limits on their own initiative without
putting that to a referendum? Is that legal? Or was there a referendum
and the mayor lost despite his excellent work for his voters?

> One of my buddies tried calling the city road dept. about a street light
> at a high traffic intersection where all kinda kids in the neighborhood
> (including their own) had to cross every day to get to/from school,
> which was set to blink yellow allowing cars to make turns, endangering
> the kids trying to cross.
>
> The city road dept. pawned them off on the county road commission
> who told them to get with the city road dept. about it, so they emailed
> Mayor Fouts and that week the street light’s timing was changed during
> school hours to take into account the kids needing to cross.

A mayor like that should be made mayor-for-life, not be term-limited
(subject to recall if he starts letting the power go to his head.) He
should also train his potential successors if some way could be found to
do that.

--
Rhino

On 2022-08-13 9:51 PM, A Friend wrote:
> In article <td9i8d$2uud0$1@dont-email.me>, Rhino
> <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>
>> Newer toilets use a design without a float rod and I don't know how to
>> keep those from moving but if you ask on a plumbing forum like I did,
>> you may be able to get some suggestions on what you can do. I just
>> googled for "plumbing forum", registered, and posted my question. I was
>> pleasantly surprised to find that I got an answer back very quickly,
>> probably less than an hour, and the guy implied he was a professional
>> plumber, not a novice like me.
>
>
> The downstairs toilet has one of those stalk-filler things instead of a
> float. The fix was to buy a new stalk (inexpensive, as I recall) and
> just install it. I also wrapped the screw-in part with Teflon tape.
> Everybody should do that. It stops leaks dead.

Well done! I'm glad you figured something out.

--
Rhino

On 2022-08-13 9:51 PM, A Friend wrote:
> In article <td9i8d$2uud0$1@dont-email.me>, Rhino
> <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>
>> Newer toilets use a design without a float rod and I don't know how to
>> keep those from moving but if you ask on a plumbing forum like I did,
>> you may be able to get some suggestions on what you can do. I just
>> googled for "plumbing forum", registered, and posted my question. I was
>> pleasantly surprised to find that I got an answer back very quickly,
>> probably less than an hour, and the guy implied he was a professional
>> plumber, not a novice like me.
>
>
> The downstairs toilet has one of those stalk-filler things instead of a
> float. The fix was to buy a new stalk (inexpensive, as I recall) and
> just install it. I also wrapped the screw-in part with Teflon tape.
> Everybody should do that. It stops leaks dead.

Oh, I forgot to mention a slight improvement on handling the older style
toilets with the float lever. Instead of using something like a
screwdriver to keep the float rod from dropping, I realize now that I
could probably just have unscrewed the float from the rod and put the
float aside. Then the lever wouldn't have floated so that the tank
filled again.

I haven't actually tried this but it seems like it should work, with the
added benefit that it should eliminate any chance of bending the rod and
then having to adjust it due to the bend.

--
Rhino

On 2022-08-13 11:13 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>> On 2022-08-12 9:28 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>> On 2022-08-12 7:35 PM, super70s wrote:
>>>>> In article <td65uk$2ik0u$1@dont-email.me>,
>>>>> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> On 2022-08-12 12:21 PM, Ed Stasiak wrote:
>>>>>>>> RichA
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62476690
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I'll agree that my 20 year old nephew probably couldn't fix anything but
>>>>>>> this sounds like a good idea;
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> What should start to make repairs easier are the new "right to repair
>>>>>>>> regulations" that came into force for England, Scotland and Wales last
>>>>>>>> summer.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Mirroring similar European Union legislation that applies to Northern
>>>>>>>> Ireland, they legally require manufacturers of electrical goods to start
>>>>>>>> making spare parts available to buy. There are however, exemptions, for
>>>>>>>> smartphones and laptops.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> To help give people more confidence to try to repair things, a growing
>>>>>>>> number of individuals and organisations are taking matters into their own
>>>>>>>> hands, and organising 'repair cafes' - both in the UK and overseas.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> More often held in a communal space, such as community hall, library or
>>>>>>>> church building, the idea is that people can take along broken electronic
>>>>>>>> items, and volunteers will help fix them, or offer advice.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> There are now an estimated 2,400 such repair cafes worldwide, and more
>>>>>>>> than 250 in the UK.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Earlier this year, Restart Project also launched two permanent sites or
>>>>>>>> "Fixing Factories" in London. In Camden and Brent volunteers repair
>>>>>>>> people's broken electronics on a pay-what-you-like basis.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> It would be great if there were some simple way to FIND these groups.
>>>>>> I've got a few things I'd like to fix but don't know how to do it and
>>>>>> don't want to pay big money to the manufacturer's repair depot for
>>>>>> repairs that have only a minimal warranty.
>>>>>
>>>>> I replaced a burnt out lower heating element in my oven a few years ago.
>>>>> Got the part on eBay for $17. A repair man would've charged me $60 just
>>>>> to walk through the door.
>>>>>
>>>>> Then I got really confident and also replaced the top left stove element
>>>>> even though I rarely used it, it was working but had these weird white
>>>>> spots on it for some reason.
>>>>
>>>> I figured out why the basement toilet was leaking, figured out how to
>>>> remove the failing part, found the replacement part and installed it.
>>>> Total cost: under $10. No plumber required! Most of the thanks goes to
>>>> YouTube which has an astonishing number of videos on just about any
>>>> aspect of home repair.
>>>>
>>>
>>> I can’t stop my guestroom toilet from running. First I cleaned the flap and
>>> checked all the seals and such but that didn’t do it then I found that
>>> actually raising and lowering the mechanism didn’t stop the water either so
>>> it was clearly broken. To replace it I of course need to turn off the water
>>> But the handle at the base of the John turns all the way in and the water
>>> doesn’t slow a bit. I am afraid to force it because if I break it I’ll have
>>> to turn off the water to the house. But then it turns out that the lever
>>> that turns off the water to the house died and fell off from old age. At
>>> that point I am needing to call a plumber.
>>>
>> You're probably right about that but not necessarily. The shutoff beside
>> the basement toilet was seized because it probably hadn't been turned
>> since the toilet was installed several decades back. However, I managed
>> to do the repair without turning off the shutoff to the toilet OR the
>> house. (The shutoff for the house almost certainly DOES work; I turned
>> it a year or two back just to see.)
>
> First, thanks for all the effort you went to here.
>
No problem! It was fresh in my mind so I thought you might find it
helpful to hear what I did.

> There is a shut off in the water meter box at the curb. I’ve turned the
> water to the house off there before. It requires a special tool. But a few
> years ago they swapped out the water meters and the boxes and the new ones
> require a different special tool, and that special tool I don’t have.
>
Clearly, you need to acquire the new special tool. I have no idea how
difficult that is. If it's expensive or access to it is controlled -
maybe ordinary homeowners can't buy it to keep them from shutting off
other people's water? - then maybe your water supplier can be persuaded
to come out and do it for you. They may charge a fee for that.

> I had the shut off valve on the front of the house installed myself a long
> time ago. It’s apparently corroded away and the handle is gone completely.
> Replacing it is going to involve cutting out the section of copper pipe
> it’s in, installing a new section and valve, and welding it back together.
> Welding I don’t do. :-)
>
Welding?? Really? I'm far from an expert but everything I've seen in the
videos I've watched suggests that even soldering is almost never
necessary any more. You should be able to use a pipe cutter to remove
the piece of pipe around the shutoff, then replace it with a new
shutoff. Look into Sharkbite which is a brand of replacement parts used
widely by plumbers; they very probably have exactly what you need. Home
Depot and other companies sell Sharkbite items. My friend was helping me
replace a section of rotted out copper pipe with ABS last December and
he inadvertently cut into the wrong pipe at one point. We went to Home
Depot to get a Sharkbite with the appropriate pipe diameters and put it
in easily, no welding (or soldering) involved.

> The shut off valve at the base of the toilet isn’t seized. It spins all the
> way in although it’s a tough turn. But the water doesn’t slow down any. So
> the end of the valve in there is probably just corroded away as well.
>
From what I've seen in videos, those older multi-turn shutoffs are
fairly notorious for seizing or corroding internally. Apparently, a new
style of shutoff, which only needs to be turned a quarter-turn, are much
better because they last many years longer. I think perhaps you should
get one of those once you've got the main water turned off. There are
videos showing how to replace them with various different styles of
shutoffs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBaH6_dDRNk

By the way, the tool he mentions around 2:45 is spelled "ferrule
puller", NOT "feral puller", in case you want to search for it online.
They are also known as "compression valve puller", "compression sleeve
puller" or perhaps "olive puller" (which is the British term for it but
is apparently the only one of those terms I had any luck with on
Canadian plumbing websites.

This video was also useful and covers the same topic.

I never actually had to mess with my shutoff valve but was initially
planning to and these videos gave me the sense that I *could* replace my
shutoff successfully.

> The vertical mechanism inside the toilet tank has a device on the outside
> of it that you can manually push up-and-down to make the water start or
> stop. But nothing you can do with that affects the water. So whatever is
> inside there isn’t working either. Which means that whole piece needs to
> come out and be replaced which you can’t do without shutting off the water
> somewhere upstream.
>
If you ask on a plumbing forum, I'll bet someone there will have a
technique for keeping the vertical mechanism from floating when you
don't want it to.