DIY

Furnace ignitor working properly — You wake up in the morning, or come home from work, and you can instantly tell something is wrong. The house is cold. You can hear the furnace running, and you can even feel air coming out of the registers. But it’s not hot air coming out, it’s cold! Well, it’s not COLD cold, […]

Fix Your Furnace If It’s Not Blowing Warm Air

This entry was posted in DIY and tagged Byant Currier DIY furnace blowing cold air furnace broken furnace ignitor furnace not blowing hot air gas furnace hot surface ignitor how to fix a furnace igniter Lennox Trane on November 4, 2014 by Steve Jenkins (updated 3688 days ago)

You probably haven’t stopped and really thought about exactly how many devices you have in your home that plug into a power outlet. So do it now. Go ahead. I’ll wait…. Now, think about how many of those devices have some sort of electronic or digital component. It’s probably way […]

What’s the “Best” Whole-House Surge Protection?

This entry was posted in DIY Home Theater & Automation Product Reviews Technology and tagged 51120-1 CHSPT2ULTRA compare comparison Cutler Hammer Eaton Leviton lightning product review review Schneider Electric SDSB1175C Square D surge suppressor SurgeBreaker Plus SYC-120/240-T2 Syscom whole-house surge protector on October 16, 2014 by Steve Jenkins (updated 3713 days ago)

Proper ecobee3 wiring for PEK users — So you got your hands on an ecobee3 smart thermostat, and instead of reading through the installation manual (which is actually pretty good), you came to the Internet to figure out how to install your ecobee3. OK, fine… I’ll help you. 🙂 This how-to guide for installing your ecobee3 covers a […]

How to Install an ecobee3 Smart Thermostat

This entry was posted in DIY Home Theater & Automation Technology and tagged ecobee ecobee 3 ecobee3 guide help how to how to install ecobee3 howto Install on September 24, 2014 by Steve Jenkins (updated 3678 days ago)

The new ecobee3 — I’m still tinkering with the new ecobee3 smart thermostat, and will have a full review posted soon. In the meantime, you can check out my initial reaction in this unboxing video (in TWO parts): Part 1: Part 2: Stay tuned for the full review soon!

ecobee3 First Look and Unboxing Video

This entry was posted in DIY Home Theater & Automation Technology Videos and tagged ecobee ecobee 3 ecobee3 unboxing video on September 17, 2014 by Steve Jenkins (updated 3747 days ago)

New ecobee3 thinks it’s time to leave the Nest

This entry was posted in DIY Home Theater & Automation Product Reviews Technology and tagged ecobee ecobee3 Nest on September 16, 2014 by Steve Jenkins (updated 3748 days ago)

Stomping the mole hills doesn't work — Like a lot of guys, I take great pride in my lawn. I like it green, flat, fertilized, and weed-free. Because I have an irrigation well, I’m able to water my lawn all summer long and keep the soil moist. But wherever you have moist soil, you have earthworms. And wherever you […]

Getting Rid of Moles: What Works, and What Doesn’t

This entry was posted in DIY Product Reviews and tagged how to get rid of moles how to kill moles mole bait mole worms prevent moles talpirid Talpirid review tomcat Tomcat Mole Killer review on September 1, 2014 by Steve Jenkins (updated 3762 days ago)

If you do a Google search on “Escalade warped rotors,” you’ll quickly find lots of stories from Cadillac Escalade owners complaining about their front brake wear. It’s easy to understand why. These behemoths are heavy. The standard 2008 Escalade’s gross weight is 7,100 lbs. But if you opt for the longer […]

Product Review: Brake Performance Front Rotors for 2008 Cadillac Escalade ...

This entry was posted in Cars DIY Product Reviews and tagged brake Cadillac Escalade how to pads rotors vibration warped on August 28, 2014 by Steve Jenkins (updated 3766 days ago)

Covered grill ready for next time — If you own a Traeger smoker grill, chances are you put it together yourself — using the hardware kit provided by Traeger. To save money, the majority of the nuts, bolts, screws, and washers in a Traeger hardware kit are made of zinc. However, Traeger grills are designed for outdoor […]

Traeger Zinc to Stainless Steel Hardware Cross Reference

This entry was posted in BBQ DIY Reference and tagged cross reference hardware stainless steel Traeger zinc on August 5, 2014 by Steve Jenkins

Gas Water Heater Timer with included timer — I own a whopping eight water heaters between five houses: two at the main house, two at the Utah house, two at the cabin, and one at each of two rental houses. The cabin and one of the rental houses use electric water heaters, so the majority of my water heaters (5 out of 8) run on […]

Product Review: Save Money with a Gas Water Heater Timer

This entry was posted in DIY Home Theater & Automation Product Reviews and tagged American Pacific gas control valve gas water heater timer home automation remote control smartphone water heater WeMo on June 30, 2014 by Steve Jenkins (updated 3650 days ago)

Control options for the ZigBee control module — One of my favorite features of my Ecobee WiFi thermostats is the ability to heat or cool a location so that it’s nice and comfortable by the time we walk in the door. For example, our furnace and heat pump at our cabin both use electricity, so I save money on my electric bill by allowing a […]

Product Review: Remotely Controlling an Electric Water Heater with a ...

This entry was posted in DIY Home Theater & Automation and tagged 240V 30 amp ecobee Leviton product review remote control schedule smart thermostat water heater wireless control module ZigBee on June 29, 2014 by Steve Jenkins (updated 3642 days ago)

Caliber 4R hygrometer in a salt test — “It’s not the heat… it’s the humidity that gets you.” Not only is that true for personal comfort, but even more so for important items that need to be kept at a specific humidity (like cigars at 70%) or metal parts on guns (which want to be stored in a […]

How to Calibrate a Hygrometer (Humidity Sensor) using the Salt ...

This entry was posted in DIY Reference and tagged 75% calibrate cigar how to humidity humidor hygrometer relative humidity salt test on June 25, 2014 by Steve Jenkins

Honeywell EconoSWITCH Review — When my primary residence was built in 1998, the builder installed a Lutron HomeWorks whole-house lighting system. Basically, it’s a set of three panels (one on each floor) that can control all the lighting loads in the house. It also allows any keypad in the house to control any light […]

Adding Astronomical Clock Functionality to an Original Lutron HomeWorks System

This entry was posted in DIY Home Theater & Automation Technology and tagged astronomical clock HomeWorks HWV-IP5 Lutron on June 25, 2014 by Steve Jenkins

New fittings installed in minutes — If you’ve read any of my previous plumbing DIY posts, you know I’m a fan of SharkBite slip-fittings. Yes, they’re more expensive than standard copper or CPVC fittings, but their primary benefit is how easy they are to install… and remove for re-use or reconfiguration. Normally, you don’t have to remove plumbing fittings […]

DIY: SharkBite Fittings Make Adding a Check Valve Easy

This entry was posted in DIY and tagged check valve hot water tank plumbing SharkBite water heater on June 2, 2014 by Steve Jenkins (updated 3854 days ago)

Color temperature can change the "feel" of a room. — One of the reasons I enjoy doing DIY projects is because I love saving money. But not all DIY projects are created equal — and the least equal is replacing light bulbs. I hate replacing light bulbs. I feel very little satisfaction after doing it, and I often put if […]

Choosing the Right LED Bulbs

This entry was posted in DIY and tagged 2700K 3000K CFL color temperature compact florescent CREE DIY EcoSmart LED LED bulb LED bulbs LED fixtures light bulb lumens on March 21, 2014 by Steve Jenkins (updated 2894 days ago)

I’d been planning to write a post about carbon monoxide (CO) detectors for some time now, ever since I installed one not long ago while replacing my first water heater here at the house. I wasn’t in any rush. I’d get around to it eventually. But a pair of recent and […]

Install, Check, Replace Your Carbon Monoxide (CO) Detectors… Right Now!

This entry was posted in DIY and tagged carbon monoxide CO CO detector CO sensor detector First Alert install CO detector Macurco sensor smoke detector test CO detector test smoke detector on March 16, 2014 by Steve Jenkins (updated 3931 days ago)

New capacitor in place — UPDATE: Whirlpool has finally publicly admitted (kind of) that they’ve left their customers “high and dry” with this control board issue. They published this Class Code 91 Letter (though they never actually explain what “class code 91” means and Google wasn’t any help) with a list of all the model numbers that […]

How to Fix a Whirlpool & KitchenAid W10219463 / 2307028 ...

This entry was posted in DIY Reference and tagged 2307028 capacitor control board CoreCentric DIY fix FixYourBoard fridge JennAir Kenmore KitchenAid Maytag refrigerator relay Repair replace W10219463 Whirlpool on March 6, 2014 by Steve Jenkins (updated 3101 days ago)

Fair is fair. When a company gets it wrong, I blog about it. When a company gets it right, I also blog about it. This week, a couple of companies got it right. The first company is Grohe, makers of high-end kitchen and bath products. They have the rare distinction […]

Rave: Grohe & Insinkerator Customer Service

This entry was posted in DIY Rants and Raves and tagged customer service faucet Grohe InSinkErator insta-hot instant hot water kitchen rave replace warranty on February 17, 2014 by Steve Jenkins (updated 3959 days ago)

During a visit with family over 2012 Christmas holiday, my nephew Jake introduced me to the world of “Plasti-Dipping” car parts. Jake drives a white VW Jetta, and used a product called Performix Plasti Dip to “blacked out” a few key elements of his car (grille, emblems, wheels, tail lights, […]