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My parents have a 20 yo Grohe hand-held shower that has the mounting bracket attached directly to the tile wall. There is no shower arm, and the plastic mount/wall union has sprung a pin-hole leak. There seems to be a set screw and a phillips screw holding this thing together at the bottom of...

My parents have a Pro Com remote control gas logs fireplace. The latching solenoid that opens up to release the gas is rated for 6 volts, and the receiver box holds four AA batteries. The solenoid is sticking now, and even the freshest alkaline AA's won't actuate it. I soldered in a 9 volt...

I bought three dimmable ECS P15 ceiling fan-size bulbs and an LED-compatible slide dimmer by Leviton. I am happy that the bulbs do not buzz or flicker when dimmed. But I am not happy with the level of dimming. I am used to dimmers that dim to just a small trickle of light. These bulbs are...

My boiler pump is an Armstrong (probably 1/12 HP.) All the other pumps in the pump room are Bell and Gossett. There are 8 apts served by the boiler. This Armstrong pump was jack-hammering, so I asked the maintenance man to replace the coupler, and the jack-hammering stopped. However, it is...

My brother was told by Home Depot that they wouldn't install a wood laminate floor over his ceramic tile in his kitchen unless: (A) they removed the existing tile floor ($1400) or (B) they applied a self-leveling skim coat to fill in the grout lines ($1200). I am under the impression that...

I've got a Kohler K4620 two-piece toilet. When the flapper started leaking, I replaced it with a Korky red "universal" flapper. This flapper didn't seal properly, so I went to the plumbing supply store for the OEM flapper. They could not find my model number on their computer and finally sold...

I'm thinking of replacing my old soldered-on toilet shut-off with a Sharkbite - available at HD. Once I've cut out the old valve with my tubing cutter: How much of a stub-out is needed for the Shark to slip over? How should I prep the stub-out (remove any residual solder, etc.)...

The boiler for my apartment building is located in the laundry room, and occasionally a tenant will try to raise the high temperature limit. Normally the temp. fluctuates from between 140-160, but the last time I glanced at it, it was 190. The pressure is still at 20 psi. I hate to notify...

A family member has a Toto toilet. He says, when it is flushed, there is a delay of more than six seconds before it begins refilling the tank. After the long pause, it refills quickly. He said that it used to refill instantly when it was flushed. Is the fill-valve on the way out or can it be...

I ran my electric space heater this morning and the power went out on that circuit. I checked the breakers and none had tripped. I reset all the breakers, but still no power on that circuit. I have three GFI's, but none of them are tripped, and they are on a different circuit anyway. I've...

My parents' Watts vacuum breaker was seeping, so I bought a repair kit, which contained an o-ring and a float. The galvanized pipe feeding it looked to be about 1" od and 3/4" id, and the repair kit said it was for 3/4" -1". Unfortunately, the disc part of this float measures more than an inch...

My desktop computer was state-of-the-art back in 2005, and it really meets all of my computer needs. I would like to keep it going for as long as I can by buying spare parts and fixing it as stuff goes bad. I located nearly identical used CPU's as mine online, going for $10-$15. I have not...

My parents have a hansgrohe widespread roman-style lavatory faucet in their master bath. They have always had a problem with scalding hot water coming out of the cold side of the faucet. After about 20 seconds, the water would turn cold. Now, however, the problem has become much worse. The...

I have an HP Desktop 530J and am running Windows XP SP3. There are three cooling fans, and the loud one only used to go on for a few seconds or minutes when the room got hot or when I was using excessive CPU. Now the loud one goes on as soon as the computer boots up and NEVER goes off. It is...

My parents have a hansgrohe shower that takes a thermostatic cartridge (part #94282000). The cartridge is not leaking, but when you first turn on the water, it comes out scalding hot for a few seconds. Then the water becomes luke warm and it stays luke warm, regardless of where you position...

My parents have a model #06673820 Hansgrohe Brushed Nickel Interaktiv Monsoon 4"-8" Widespread Lav Faucet. It is leaking from the cold side. After shutting off the supply stops, I tried to pop off the cap on the cold handle, but it would not pry off, no matter how much I tried. It actually...

How is it possible that a 3 ft section of one of my radiators is cold (on the end opposite the inlet). If there was a plug in it, wouldn't that prevent the water from circulating through the rest of the system?

My parents had a ventless gas log system installed in their fireplace 3 yrs ago, purchased from Lowes. The main burners are ignited by a solenoid located in the gas valve. This solenoid is powered by a remote controlled receiver box wired to the solenoid, which takes 4 AA batteries (six volts)...

I am contemplating installing an electric wall heater in my lower bathroom. It shares a wall with my garage, and there happens to be a breaker box on the garage side of the wall, which services the garage and shop lights, etc. The specs for the heating unit is 120 volts and 1000 watts. Thus, it...

I live in a little apt complex, which consists of a row of 8 individual units, with a laundry room in the middle, containing a 70 gallon hot water tank. Every time I take a shower, the cold water seems to fluctuate, causing the water to be scalding hot at times. I'm guessing this is because...