Home Economics Tips and Questions

Annually drain and flush your water heater. I didn't know about this, but a neighbor brought a hose over (it's a condo building so not many hoses around) and we took advantage of it to clean the balcony. It wasn't exceptionally filthy, but we noticed a marked improvement in the efficiency of the heater as well as much less sediment in our showers/sinks.

Also, when they get back in stock, get a leak frog for yourself and everyone you love. I forget exactly but it was about 10-15$ and it works incredibly well as an early warning for water problems.

Is it bad to use multi-purpose cleaner to wash my hands?

Toploading washing machines are quaint artifacts of a bygone era, that Americans for some reason cling to - it's like their refusal to switch to the metric system.

Also, make sure to Scandinavian-proof your internet forums. These are trifling creatures fond of framing matters like washing machine technology in terms of culture war. Consider planting bait around the perimeter (eg: a gun thread) where their expertise as cynical, world-weary observers can be most effectively diverted away from otherwise productive conversations.

Many laundry rooms, especially in older houses, won't fit front loaders.

What if I did, say, pay too little attention to how my shirt was draped while I was on the toilet and I shit on my shirt? Does this plan still work, or should I just cut the offending rear flap off? You know, hypothetically.

I really should have anticipated the shitshirt thing. Didn't even cross my mind.

You could also try upgrading your forum persona to newer firmware. I hear it comes with a sense of humour.

This is interesting, because except from big city apartments I always get the impression that your houses are huge compared to our tiny little coffins.

Bookmarked the water heater drain and detector, thanks!

Do you catch-and-release?

Dear lord, no. The best thing is to just put them out of their/your misery.

Big, but impractical. No one "wastes" space on areas that aren't on display.

Our washer/dryer are in the garage, plenty of room for anything, but they are ancient. Another thing on the list to replace.

I can't find the god damn thing. My most recent effort led me to discover a grid-like thing with a filter-like thing on top of it, so I think I'm making progress, but I can't find any way to remove the grid-like thing or any other access point to the filter-like thing. (To reach the grid-like thing I have to lay on my back and reach into a hole, so I haven't actually had visual contact with these objects.)

TimElhajj would cary you gently to another forum and politely ask you not to return.

Do you have a manual for your model? If not, can you find it on the internet?

It's a BPD (Bryant Day-Night, Payne) a subsidiary of Carrier. Their website has recent manuals but none as old as ours (1979 per the serial number). But poking around looking at the recent ones just now gave me an idea of somewhere else to look; maybe I'll find it when I get home tonight.

Holy cow, your furnace is 1979 and still functioning? I'd be very worried about carbon monoxide production if it's that old.

They also sometimes put circles on their letter A. What the fuck is that, some kind of metric system alphabet?

ÅÅÅ makes no sense. How do you say it, ay-oh-ay-oh-ay-oh? "I have ten ay-oh-ay-oh decilitres of socialist petrol in my car's boot, let's take a day trip to Smurgenverbenflurgentown!" Pff. whatever.

I've got a top loading washing machine. Front loaders suck and break down all the time. I'm Australian!

hmmm ---> goes and investigates water heater to see if it has drain valve

Suck how?
And my 6-7-8 year old (can't remember) machine disagrees.

Fascinating stuff. According to Wikipedia you guys, along with the Americans are the only people in the world clinging to top loaders.

Also top loaders are more mechanical complex, so I would guess more stuff can break, although you don't have to worry about a front door seal.

Aha, front loaders use less water and soap and can be packed more, which is probably why they've gained popularity in environmentally conscious Europe (we probably pay more for water and soap too, which would be another reason to prefer the design... Just like really expensive gas makes us favour smaller better running cars).

Å is pronounced a bit like O. Only better. Ä is a slightly more superior E. As far as you know, anyway.

Most everyone I know (myself included) has a front loader, so I don't think they're unpopular in the US.

Well it does say that toploaders are more common (but not how much more) and that the higher end machines all tends to be frontloaders. And since you strike me as someone who would go for quality, perhaps there's a bit of self selection at work here.

Possibly! I got what my mom has, as I knew how much cleaner the clothes were afterwards.

However, all the advertising and such for new washers here are the frontload types, and I definitely think that they're gaining ground over the last few years.. Top Loaders are mostly pushed off to the side in showrooms the times I've been visiting lately (which was pretty recent, as we just bought a new dishwasher.) There will be rows of front load washers on display, with one or two top load washers. Washing machines last a pretty long time, so it takes some time for that shift to happen.

This is the main reason why. I am sure there is no difference now, but the first front loading models to hit the market here were not very mechanically robust, so frequent issues arose and your laundry ended up with water all over the floor. Meanwhile the locally produced models were all slab sided stainless steel top loading behemoths that kept on washing for decades. Or so my I absorbed from my mum anyway - when I left home I got the old top loading Hoover washing machine which had been in service for must have been 10+ years and then I got another 5 out of it - before selling it in working order.

I think now there is a certain amount of inertia at work - for a lot of people here, a "washing machine" is firmly set as something where clothes go in the top, and you have to be convinced otherwise that they should go somewhere silly like in the front.

As Athryn says though, it does seem to be that the front loader is gaining ground, and water efficiency will play a large role in that.

Ugh, my brother in law and I have had to do this about 3 times in the past 3 weeks, and it was due to other problems with the heater (first the gas control valve unit failed, then the drain faucet failed two weeks later since it was a 20 year old plastic piece of crap, then the water output valve on the pipe started leaking so we sealed that with silicone automotive water pump stuff)

But on that first flush there was indeed just a lot of crap sediment built up. I'm not sure if it increased efficiency, I can't tell because the new gas control valve units now have a considerably lower "hottest" setting than old ones. The water used to be scalding at its hottest, and now it's more like a 1st degree burn. I blame liberalism!

I keep my water heater on almost the lowest possible temp because I like saving money on my gas bill. I also have it wrapped in a water heater blanket because I like the idea of giving my appliances clothing or something.

Yeah, it's the next item on the "replace when we have some cash" list. Takes some budgeting though, they are not a casual purchase if you are as opposed to consumer debt as we are.

Your case may be one of the rare scenarios where a new high-efficiency unit purchased with a loan will actually save you money in a relatively short window of time.

It's not *too* bad, we replaced our whole AC/Furnace this last summer when our AC died, and the whole thing cost $5400. Which is a chunk of change, but wasn't as bad as we initially thought.

/heartattack

you're talking to someone who owns two cars made in the 1990s because not having car payments is a core strategy in our finances. lol

rationalization mode kicking in...

Except Norwegian vowels aren't diphthongs, so Å is not pronounced like English O at all, but rather like this.
Swedish Ä is like this.

There are 6 people in this house atm :)

Trust a Norwegian to not get it. The point of the exercise was to force him to look it up. I can assure you I am aware of the proper (i.e Swedish) pronunciations.

Okay, after chemically cleaning an oven, how do I make sure I've gotten every last bit of residue out? It's a crappy old electric stove with no self-cleaning cycle. I scrubbed the hell out of it yesterday or the day before, turned it on just now to make some scones, and was greeted with clouds of chemical-scented smoke. I *think* I got all the remaining bits of Easy-Off out just now, but how do I make absolutely sure I'm not poisoning my family with whatever I make in there?

Trust a Swede to think an American will look anything up without getting a specific link.

Clearly not, if you think the Swedish pronunciations are the proper ones.

The same holds true for clothes washing, actually. It's counter-intuitive, but the powdered detergents actually dissolve better in water, and thus leave less residue, than liquid detergents. They also clean better, and tend to be cheaper. So it's a win/win/win.

The best place on the web for any sort of home economics-type tips, and also tips on doing renovations or buying appliances or what have you, is the "Home" section of the GardenWeb forums.

SCANDINAVIAN SLAP-FIGHT!

That's what they call "Saturday"

No need for smileys. It's impossible to take anything a Norwegian says seriously.