[M_Six]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

Oh don’t worry. It’ll shut itself down again.

Right in the middle of a huge load, no doubt.

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by M_Six

Right in the middle of a huge load, no doubt.

That's what she said!

Our Bosch dishwasher started locking up last month at 0:01 (end of drain cycle), and running the drain pump for hours. The solution was to just run it in another mode instead of normal wash, and shuts off at the end like it should. There is no mechanical timer in it, so it makes no sense why only one mode is getting hung up.

We will wind up replacing it at some point, but I intend to run it into the ground if I can. The clear liquid that comes out of our well eats anything that it touches alive, so I'd like to get as much life out of this one before the water kills it.....

[PYE46M3]

Home appliances these days: give us 3 thousand dollars for this made in china cool new fridge with a big ass screen in it, a built in wifi and a blowjob feature but please don't call us on day #366 of ownership when you need help because you are out of warranty now.

I just buy my appliances fromCostco nowadays solely because of the 4 year square trade warranty. At least I know if shit goes bad, I am not out 3 grand one year into it. Plus most of them come with free installation/delivery and come out to be significantly cheaper than lowes/homedepot/sears etc.

[upstatedoc]

What a coincidence, I was thinking about starting a thread about when your new appliances shit the bed after buying your house. My first appliance to go was the dishwasher, last about 10 years. Then the microwave went. So far, knock on wood, washing machine, dryer, refrigerator and stove are still going strong.

[zx10guy]

I've had nothing but bad luck with GE refrigerators. The side by side that came in the appliance package for my primary home from the builder had nothing but problems. Mostly the problems centered around the ice maker.

Same issue with my vacation home. Same builder and another GE side by side. That refrigerator was responsible for multiple trips out which never fixed the problem. Again problem with the ice maker more specifically the flap to dispense ice. When replacing the flap didn't fix the problem, a whole new freezer door was installed which resulted in the door being crooked. At that point, I complained to the builder and they agreed I'd gone through enough hell. A whole new refrigerator was ordered. Now the replacement one is again starting to have problems with the ice maker but at least the refrigerator is now about 8 years old.

Bought a GE double door/bottom freezer to replace the builder supplied side by side at my primary home a while ago. The refrigerator developed a knocking noise that of course would never happen when the repairman showed up. Eventually it went away. But now I have an issue with condensation collecting at the bottom of the refrigerator portion. Did some searching online and found out this is a common problem for this refrigerator and is a design defect. There's a part that can be ordered which is supposed to keep the drain tube at the back of the refrigerator under the evaporator coil from clogging up causing the condensation to collect in the interior of the refrigerator. The funny thing is this GE refrigerator is really a Samsung.

[MurrayB]

I hope that everybody has the garage door springs safety wired. Once a year spray some Lithium Grease onto the tracks, first remove the car, I use CRC.

[2000cs]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

So much focus on needless shitty features and nowhere near enough on good solid parts. So much absolute shite out there honestly. 99% of the features are USELESS but that's what sells.

Agree. When I worked in a custom cabinet maker (high end stuff) we used to say a builder wouldn’t put a front door on the house, to save a few dollars, if they didn’t have to. I have a strong preference for custom building and using quality craftsmen/women to do work on my house.

[2000cs]

10 days left in August, so plenty of potential failures ahead for the OP.

Seriously, most appliances failures are either (a) easy to self-repair and parts are available from on-line sellers and tutorials on YouTube, or (b) disposable/replaceable. The only time I won’t break into one is when it is so old it should be replaced or under warranty.

[BMWGUYinCO]

OP - sorry to hear of your run of bad luck....sometimes shite happens like that (in a bunch)

You know, I never used to buy extended warranties on appliances....about 5 years ago, we did an extensive kitchen remodel. My wife chose all Jenn Air appliance suite, including an induction stove top, built in fridge, etc. For some reason, I got the extended warranties on everything.

While the appliances have been fairly dependable, I have had repairs to the double oven and induction cooktop, both of which more than paid for those warranties.

Sad that you need them. I won't buy for things like a TV, but for appliances I probably will. Some resellers will even negotiate - while they can't discount the extended warranty directly, they reduce the selling price of the actual unit if bundled together at time of purchase.

[M_Six]

Well the washing machine issue mysteriously went away. For now. The dryer was a cheap fix. I can do the dishwasher repair, and the garage door spring replacement (they did both sides) took about 30 minutes today. So all is well again for now. And I don't expect any shocking bills. Unlike the bill I got for the a/c compressor last month. Although to be fair, I did pick the quietest, most efficient model, so most of that is on me.

Speaking of a/c compressors and home builders, why on earth do they always put the a/c compressor directly outside the master bedroom wall?

[Darth One]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

Solar tiles? Do they exist for residential roofs yet? I heard about them a while back but haven’t kept up. I wonder what they cost.

I’m just now starting to research it, so i hesitate to make any definite statements. But yes, they’re available and expensive. My best guess is that it will cost me $40k. Which is a lot, but i have this fantasy that i can go off the grid with this stuff if i want to

[BMWGUYinCO]

Originally Posted by Darth One

I’m just now starting to research it, so i hesitate to make any definite statements. But yes, they’re available and expensive. My best guess is that it will cost me $40k. Which is a lot, but i have this fantasy that i can go off the grid with this stuff if i want to

I'm not endorsing this, but Tesla makes solar roof tiles and damn it looks amazing: https://www.tesla.com/solarroof

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by Darth One

I’m just now starting to research it, so i hesitate to make any definite statements. But yes, they’re available and expensive. My best guess is that it will cost me $40k. Which is a lot, but i have this fantasy that i can go off the grid with this stuff if i want to

Well a regular tile roof can be $30K - $50K so that would be a no-brainer if really $40K. I got an estimate of $46K before deciding to wait as long as possible.

One thing to bear in mind when pricing is roof sq. ft. is a lot more than house sq. ft. Our house is around 2,650 under air and 3,500 total but roof is 5,000.

We got lucky with repair this time around. No ceiling damage and $300 roof repair.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by MurrayB

I hope that everybody has the garage door springs safety wired. Once a year spray some Lithium Grease onto the tracks, first remove the car, I use CRC.

The safety wire I think only applies to springs that run along the garage door track. I'm not aware of any safety wire options for torsion springs.

My garage door had a failed torsion spring a couple of years ago. Couldn't figure out why the garage door opener would only raise the door a few inches. And of course I didn't have my house keys with me so couldn't get in from the front door to see what was going on. I think I eventually got the door up far enough to crawl underneath.

Got the spring replaced along with the other torsion spring as I was told when one lets go, the other is soon to follow.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by M_Six

Well the washing machine issue mysteriously went away. For now. The dryer was a cheap fix. I can do the dishwasher repair, and the garage door spring replacement (they did both sides) took about 30 minutes today. So all is well again for now. And I don't expect any shocking bills. Unlike the bill I got for the a/c compressor last month. Although to be fair, I did pick the quietest, most efficient model, so most of that is on me.

Speaking of a/c compressors and home builders, why on earth do they always put the a/c compressor directly outside the master bedroom wall?

I guess it's your area. Both of my homes have the compressor on the other side of the house away from the Master.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

The safety wire I think only applies to springs that run along the garage door track. I'm not aware of any safety wire options for torsion springs.

My garage door had a failed torsion spring a couple of years ago. Couldn't figure out why the garage door opener would only raise the door a few inches. And of course I didn't have my house keys with me so couldn't get in from the front door to see what was going on. I think I eventually got the door up far enough to crawl underneath.

Got the spring replaced along with the other torsion spring as I was told when one lets go, the other is soon to follow.

Yep, they replaced both of them on my door today.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

I guess it's your area. Both of my homes have the compressor on the other side of the house away from the Master.

That makes sense. Ours is about 6' from the head of our bed. Hence my willingness to dole out big bucks for a quiet one.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by BMWGUYinCO

I'm not endorsing this, but Tesla makes solar roof tiles and damn it looks amazing: https://www.tesla.com/solarroof

Sweet looking roof. Just don't use the "hands-free living" option.

And it would interesting to see how well a Tesla car would charge with power supplied from a Tesla roof. Could you really get away with driving with the sun being your only source of power?

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by M_Six

And it would interesting to see how well a Tesla car would charge with power supplied from a Tesla roof. Could you really get away with driving with the sun being your only source of power?

It would work for my daily pre-COVID commute. The gotcha is that most people have their cars at work when the sun is out, so you need to factor in $10K+ for a Tesla Powerwall (battery) and the power loss in multiple conversions.

On a side note, my daily commute in the i3 was costing me $0.52/day to the power company before COVID-geddon. Unless you are an environmentalist trying to save the planet, looking at the ROI from a financial perspective would make me think twice about the practicality of doing it.

Back in the 1990's, I did some consulting work with a solar-powered car racing team. One of the big events at the time had a qualifier where a car needed to run 50 miles @ 25 MPH minimum speed, on just solar power and on-board batteries. Think purpose-built cars, with the equivalent of 8 home solar panels...where the battery pack weighed more than the rest of the car due to liberal use of composites. When I started, the car was capable of doing 8 miles in qualifying trim. I had them shorten every wire as much as possible, upgrade the wire gauge insanely to lower resistance, and spent days at the test circuit teaching their drivers to be smooth in corners and speed-conservation wherever possible. After I was done, the car did 26-27 miles repeatably, well short of qualifying. Long story short, even with 25 years of solar/battery advances, the dream of a street-driven car powered by solar cells on the luggage rack is still a long way off.....

[Darth One]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

Well a regular tile roof can be $30K - $50K so that would be a no-brainer if really $40K. I got an estimate of $46K before deciding to wait as long as possible.

One thing to bear in mind when pricing is roof sq. ft. is a lot more than house sq. ft. Our house is around 2,650 under air and 3,500 total but roof is 5,000.

We got lucky with repair this time around. No ceiling damage and $300 roof repair.

Geez I hope mine isn't $46k. Your house has a bit more footage than mine, but mine's a two story. So my roof will be smaller if yours is a single story.

I was looking at that tesla roof. I agree with the guys above that you almost have to get an electric car with that setup. Would just kinda hate supporting elondouche.

[Daftasabrush]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

Our home / roof is 22 years old. Trying to wait as long as possible to avoid doing it again or having an old roof when we sell down the road as we plan to remain here long-term. But I’ve seen quite a few new roofs going on over the past few years in the neighborhood so I know it’s within the next 5 years. (Houses here were not all built at the same time but not decades apart either.) i assume you also have a tile roof, and these things are very expensive. My neighbor told me he is working with an independent adjuster who told him he could get a free roof due to previous storm damage but sounds like a scam to me.

Wtf really? Our house is 35 years old and on its original roof which shows no sign of issues. Our previous house had a roof that was also original and therefore about 70 years old with just the odd slipped tile that needed re-fixing.

What are your roofs made of that necessitates such frequent replacement?

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by Daftasabrush

Wtf really? Our house is 35 years old and on its original roof which shows no sign of issues. Our previous house had a roof that was also original and therefore about 70 years old with just the odd slipped tile that needed re-fixing.

What are your roofs made of that necessitates such frequent replacement?

Concrete barrel tile on top of plywood with underlay material in between. Unless they are cracked by impact (such as debris during hurricanes) the tiles should last over 50 years. But rain, humidity, and debris getting under the tiles take a toll on the underlay materials and if moisture penetrates to the wood, it will eventually cause a leak and require replacement of the wood and underlay material to repair. Additionally, these roofs need cleaning, which involves either pressure washing, chemicals or both. This further hastens deterioration, as does anyone walking on the roof, especially as the roof gets older.

Once you start spending money on repairs to the roof and repainting ceilings inside the house frequently, it makes sense to replace the roof. Usually 25-30 years. But some can last longer and lack of maintenance can require earlier replacement.

There are some houses with asphalt shingles here but not many because the heat kills them.