[Other] General Home Maintenance

Gared

Gared

I'm just gonna start a big catch-all thread for all of my home maintenance questions - and anyone else' questions as well.

Right now, the thorn in my side is an in-freezer ice-maker that's full of ice that has melted and refrozen enough times to become a solid 3" chunk lining the bottom of the ice bin, and completely subsuming the auger mechanism used to push ice out the front and/or break it into small pieces. Every online article I can find about ice-maker maintenance starts the same way; "remove the ice from the ice bin." So, I have the following tools at my disposal - which ones should I use to "remove the ice from the ice bin?"
  • Small Butane torch - ostensibly for my wife to make jewelry, but all we've used it for so far is dabbing.
  • Unlimited supply of hot water.
  • Hammer and chisel set.
  • Stainless steel screwdriver.
  • Enough salt to change the salinity of the Salton Sea.
The only option for defrosting the thing is to unplug the entire unit, including the fridge, and I'd like to keep that as my option of last resort. Oh, and because it's been so long, and because the ice is piling up against one side, water drips down the side of the freezer and coats the entire inside in ice AND you can't just "lift here and pull out to remove ice bin."
 
strawman

strawman

This is a sign that your freezer may need to be defrosted. The coils are not longer able to cool the air effectively.

That said, the ice bin should be removable from the freezer. Can you give me the model and manufacturer of the fridge? It seems strange that you'd have to defrost the entire fridge just to defrost the ice bin.

I strongly suggest you avoid the torch. It'll scorch the plastic faster than you can react.

I'd avoid the mechanical options just to avoid scratches and other damage, but they might be your best option if you really can't defrost it using room air. If the bin is removable then use gentle mechanical tools to remove the ice preventing removal.

If you can't remove the bin for washing, you'll probably want to avoid salt, it'll be hard to completely get rid of, and it'll mess with your ice until it's all gone.

Quickest known safe way I've found for freezer defrosting is unplugging it, opening the doors, and using a fan to blow room air into the unit.

In your situation, I'd suggest a full defrost is your best option. Buy a few bags of ice from the store use a cooler for the food you can't cook and eat, and defrost your fridge for a day or two.
 
Shakey

Shakey

I second that. Bite the bullet and defrost. Otherwise you might make it worse by breaking something else. It's a good excuse to clean the fridge too.

While you're at it, try blowing air over the coils to clean them out. Your freezer isn't getting cold enough to freeze your ice, so they could be dirty.
 
Gared

Gared

It's an old GE, either a model TFX20JR or TFT20JR (the actual model number is behind the damn thing and I haven't pulled it forward yet). You're supposed to be able to remove the ice-bin without having to defrost the entire thing, but due to the ice build-up, that's out until I can get some of the ice chipped out from under the ice making apparatus itself. It sounds like a full defrost really is the best bet for this thing, sadly.

Here are some pics of the issue:

Frozen Coil.png

Interior shot of ice-machine auger, showing how little is visible above the ice-block.

icebin.png

Inside view from the front. Barely visible to the left is the ice buildup under the apparatus, which seems to be preventing me from "lifting and pulling here" to remove the ice bin.

Front View.png

Front view of the ice-maker inside the freezer. The top portion flips up to show the inside. The bottom portion reads "lift and pull here to remove ice storage container." Right now it neither lifts, nor pulls out.

Full Frontal.png

Front view of the entire unit - I really just wanted to upload a photo called 'Full Frontal.png' to get Gas' hopes up.
 
DarkAudit

DarkAudit

Once you can finally get the bin out of the freezer, it's smooth sailing from there to just let that ice melt in the sink.
 
Shakey

Shakey

That looks the same as mine, it's definitely the ice buildup preventing you from pulling it out.
If you want to speed up the process, and not defrost the fridge, you can unplug the fridge and make sure not to open the door for the fridge. Then just take a hair dryer to the ice.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Defrosting would of course be ideal, but failing that, you don't want to use any impact-based method lest you accidentally knock any of the auger works out of line.
My recommendation would be a hose connected to a hairdryer on low or the exhaust side of a vacuum cleaner.

EDIT: Wow a lotta replies came in while I was stuck talking to people.

--Patrick
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Gared said:
Excellent, hair dryer it is, once we buy one this weekend.
Click to expand...
At some distance from the ice block and ON LOW.
You're just trying to melt the ice, not deform any surrounding plastic. If it's too hot for your hand, then move further back. Yes, you will have to wait longer, but you won't have to replace any proprietary melted plastic parts.

--Patrick
 
Gared

Gared

PatrThom said:
At some distance from the ice block and ON LOW.
You're just trying to melt the ice, not deform any surrounding plastic. If it's too hot for your hand, then move further back. Yes, you will have to wait longer, but you won't have to replace any proprietary melted plastic parts.

--Patrick
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm not looking to melt anything other than ice - the butane torch bit was a joke/angry exaggeration.
 
Gared

Gared

Okay, new year, new questions. Right now we're concentrating on the outdoors - landscaping is a lot easier and cheaper than moving walls, after all. So, to that end, I have a couple of questions, in picture form.

First - What the heck is buried in my yard? It's made of metal, apparently iron or mild steel. It continues further under the ground in the direction of my toes in the second pic.

What is This Thing.png

Maybe some form of chain from a logging or mining operation (there was plenty of mining in the area and there's still plenty of logging)?
Size 11 For Scale.png

My size 11 for scale. Whatever this is, it continues in the direction of my toes. It appears to be about an inch thick. We've been digging around it with sticks and an old arrow shaft we also found buried in our yard.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
So our furnace doesn't like to stay working for very long. I've googled but found nothing. I'd really like to figure out how to do this without calling someone. And I apologize for lack of pictures as I'm not at home so I don't have any.

First, it's a gas furnace, not an oil one - that's important because it severely affected my googling.

There's a reset/shutoff switch on the igniter until that keeps tripping. The furnace fails to heat. We click the button and it immediately fires up and starts to regulate the temperatures, but then shuts off again. We can't figure out what is constantly making it trip, but there's got to be a reason.

When I googled it, all I get is about oil furnaces having a reset button trip, but it's not the same thing.

Any ideas or possible links to solutions?
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Dave said:
Any ideas or possible links to solutions?
Click to expand...
Time to have your thermocouple replaced?
The thermocouple sticks out into the flame and generates electricity to tell the furnace that there is an active fire present. If it is not generating enough electricity, this will make the furnace "think" that gas is flowing but there is no flame, which will cause it to shut off the gas as a safety precaution. At least, this is what was happening to my water heater, it might apply to you.

--Patrick
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
I paid $5 to a site that had HVAC people answering questions. Their response (after charging me a hidden additional fee of $23) was:

"This is known as a flame rollout switch. It can be just a bad switch if the flame is not floating or rolling out of the chamber or it can be a more serious problem such as a dirty of cracked heat exchanger if the flame is actually getting out of the chamber and touching the switch."

So I'm googling that right now and will look more at it when I get home.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
I asked if this was something I could look at or if I needed a pro. His response:

"If you do not see any fluctuation in the characteristic of the flame, I would start by re[lacing the rollout. They are about 10 bucks at supply house.If after replacing it still trips I would call a pro in to check for root cause and examine heat exchanger."[DOUBLEPOST=1514910696,1514910628][/DOUBLEPOST]
Shakey said:
Does it fire up and get warm but never blows?
Click to expand...
I'd love to answer that, but it's in the basement and I've never seen what it does. My daughter's boyfriend has always just pushed the reset button so it's been difficult to troubleshoot.
 
Shakey

Shakey

Dave said:
I asked if this was something I could look at or if I needed a pro. His response:

"If you do not see any fluctuation in the characteristic of the flame, I would start by re[lacing the rollout. They are about 10 bucks at supply house.If after replacing it still trips I would call a pro in to check for root cause and examine heat exchanger."[DOUBLEPOST=1514910696,1514910628][/DOUBLEPOST]

I'd love to answer that, but it's in the basement and I've never seen what it does. My daughter's boyfriend has always just pushed the reset button so it's been difficult to troubleshoot.
Click to expand...
Rereading, it sounds like it does run for a while, so it probably isn't what I was thinking.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Go go gadget home warranty! Sounds like it could be something called a heat exchanger, which means it would run anywhere from $600 to $1200. A new furnace would be upwards of $4000. So...welcome to your new house, bitch!
 
jwhouk

jwhouk

Heat exchangers, I've heard of.

I'm just hoping I'm not in the same boat as you soon, @Dave. The AC unit on our new trailer looks ancient, though it's had the condenser replaced recently (which is kinda important here in AZ, yanno).
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

A while back - before I replaced the entire unit - I had similar issues with a gas boiler in my apartment. They thought the same - and even replaced the heat exchanger.
Turned out the problem was the fan responsible for evacuation of the exhaust fumes wasn't properly sending a signal that it was turning, so, similar to @PatrThom's case, the thing shut off as a safety measure. Fix was...10 minutes of work to properly reconnect the fan electrics.
Anyway, it's unlikely to be the exact same thing, but...check yourself or have someone check over a bunch of electronic systems that could trip safety measures before doing expensive replacement work.
 
strawman

strawman

Almost all furnace controllers have a light that blinks error codes, and the error codes are on a label on the furnace cover. It’s a little work to get to it and read it, but they give you fairly accurate information about which part of the furnace is suffering.

You don’t need this now, but it’s worth knowing for the future.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
And it's a cracked heating exchange. We get to replace our furnace less than a month after moving in.
 
Gared

Gared

New question category - plumbing. With all of my knowledge about water, waste water, water treatment, etc. - I have no idea how that applies to the pipes inside my house. The issue we've been having is a toilet that frequently seems to top itself off throughout the day, quite loudly. It was an issue, briefly, when we moved in in September. It wasn't an issue all rainy season. Now it's become an issue again, just as summer starts. Does this have to do with seasonal water-table timing, or has my toilet tank seal merely started to wear out with incredibly uneven timing?
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

A leaking flapper will do what you describe, where the toilet fills a little, then stops. Then later it fills a little more, then stops again, etc. Also it will make your water bill inexplicably higher.

--Patrick
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

evilmike said:
Could this problem also be a result of the level being set to high on the float valve?
Click to expand...
Yes. If the valve is going bad, it could also be this.
But it's hard to tell sometimes whether the float is just set too high (and extra keeps draining down the tube), or the flapper keeps letting some escape unless you take the top off and watch.

--Patrick
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

PatrThom said:
Yes. If the valve is going bad, it could also be this.
But it's hard to tell sometimes whether the float is just set too high (and extra keeps draining down the tube), or the flapper keeps letting some escape unless you take the top off and watch.

--Patrick
Click to expand...
An entire float and flapper kit is like $10-15 at Walmart. Whenever I have this problem, I just replace the entire works inside the tank. It's easy and inexpensive (far less than the extra dollars on the water bill this problem causes). They make models specific to the brand of toilet, but lately I've been using the "universal" ones without problems.
 
Gared

Gared

Tinwhistler said:
An entire float and flapper kit is like $10-15 at Walmart. Whenever I have this problem, I just replace the entire works inside the tank. It's easy and inexpensive (far less than the extra dollars on the water bill this problem causes). They make models specific to the brand of toilet, but lately I've been using the "universal" ones without problems.
Click to expand...
I will swing by a hardware store and get this dealt with, then.
 
Gared

Gared

Woohoo! The world's loudest toilet is now fixed! Hopefully my Korky universal replacement kit lasts longer than the one I just pulled out of the tank, which looks like it might be a year or two old. There were significant mineral deposits built up on the rubber flapper though so I may need to up my water softener game.
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

Gared said:
There were significant mineral deposits built up on the rubber flapper
Click to expand...
I'd bet money that this was the root cause of your problem. Probably kept the flapper from making a good seal, which let water slowly leak out, necessitating a periodic refill.
 
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