Recent content by Kiko

I called Grohe, and the tech support guy said he had never heard of any wall union/mount that had a set screw. So, I figured I was on my own here. I raided my bicycle tool box for a 3 mm allen wrench. Removing the set screw, which was pretty well frozen, was the key to the whole thing. Once I...

Thanks, Jim. What I'd really like to know is how this armless mount attaches to the shower riser pipe. Does it simply unscrew or is there some kind of quick disconnect, like it has for the hose? Not having a model number, I don't think Grohe could help me even if they were still in business.

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...

Great info, thanks again!

Okay, thanks. One last question: Is it okay to put lithium and alkaline AA batteries together in series? I'm thinking of using three alkalines and one lithium (or two and two) to actuate the solenoid using the least amount of voltage, so as not to fry the electronics in the receiver box.

Before I soldered in the 9 volt, I swapped out the four AA's with four AAA's and four 1.5 volt (disc) watch batteries, all in series. The output voltage registered 12 volts on my volt meter, but it didn't have enough power to open the solenoid. How can that be the case, if voltage = power.

Thanks. The manufacturer actually recommends using a 9 volt to try to unstick a sticky solenoid. But in this case it didn't work; hence the need to modify the receiver box to accept a permanent 9 volt. I'm a bit confused about mAh. The 3.6 volt AA lithium cells range from 1200 - 5000 mAh. The...

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...

Thanks RWB, I hadn't thought about getting longer bells. These bulbs stick out even further because I had to put in E17 to E27 socket adapters for the LED's. As for the flickering, sometimes it seems like they are flickering really fast at every point in the dimmable range. But if they fail...

Thanks for all the replies. I tried adjusting down the dimmable range with the Leviton CL dimmer, but it didn't dim any less than it had prior to the adjustment. I swapped it out for a Lutron Skylark CL dimmer, which has a dial built into it for adjusting the dimmable range. This worked...

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...

I was looking at some youtube videos, and the boiler expert said that whenever you replace the coupler you should replace the motor mount. I know the maint guy did not replace the motor mount. Could a bad motor mount be causing this noise (by causing the motor shaft and bearing assembly shaft to...

Thanks Mage, Giving it a good cleaning is sound advice. I'm still waiting for some of our resident boiler experts to chime in with their ideas. Could it be the motor is overheating, a bad impeller or bad bearings?

Update: The apartment manager thinks this noise is "normal" and won't fix it. At night, you can hear the noise throughout the entire apartment, and this pump is noisier than all the others. If someone can diagnose the problem from the audio clip (in the above post), at least I'll have a chance...

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...