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My naturally aspirated boiler venting into a draft hood will sometimes have an issue creating a draft when the flue is cold (I.e. first thing in the morning) which leads to a bit of a back drafting until the flue warms up. I have been trying to get my HVAC guy out to offer ideas but in the...

I'm trying to use an old treadmill motor to drive a apple crusher but I'm cheap! It would be nice if I had the controller from the treadmill machine but I do not and replacements look like they will be $100 and up. So being cheap I tried to use a $25 AC to DC speed control off Amazon but it was...

Short story: The current incarnation of my radon mitigation system seems to be causing enough of a back draft that my naturally aspirated boiler exhaust backs up and sets the CO alarms off always during the wee hours of the morning. I hate being woken by an alarm at 2:00 am but it is better...

Over the last few months I have had a number of toggle light switches fail. The failures were indicated by complete failure to turn on, humming, and less than positive responses to the switch being flipped. I had the house built in 1996 so I know the entire story of the building process through...

Short question: Can I replace the manual pump on my manual jack with fittings to allow me to connect an air/hydraulic pump to it so that I can convert the whole thing to an air/hydraulic jack? Background: The jack is on my Harbor Freight motorcycle lift and is essentially a specialized single...

I have a boiler controlled by a 4 zone Taco zone valve controller feeding 2 hydronic floor runs (thermostat on each), an air exchanger (another thermostat), and and indirect water heater (its own internal thermostat). All I want to do is know when each zone and boiler turn on and off. I'm...

No, not the organizations, those dang things that current MN plumbing code now requires on EVERYTHING!!! Installing my new indirect water heater and as I go to rough in I do one last check of current codes. It has been awhile but things changed here in 2015/2016. Now all connections to the...

I'm looking for a bit of a sanity check adding a priority Domestic Hot Water (DHW) zone to my heating system. The current system consists of: Weil-Mclain boiler that has a taco 007 primary circulator pump on it 1 zone is a hot water air exchanger with no additional circulator pumps 2 floor...

Brief question: What experience do folks have with indirect water heaters running off a boiler? Is it worth replacing my old gas water heater with one in hopes of getting significantly more supply? Longer explanation: My Rheem 50 gallon gas water heater is now 23 years old and I'm thinking I...

My HVAC consists of a boiler connected to in floor heat as well as a fan coil unit that also has an A/C coil in it. A few years ago I had a "pro" service the system and the following summer I noticed that the boiler was running when the A/C was on. Strange... I don't remember it doing that. I...

Living in the Twin Cities area of MN I wonder if there is collusion or some other tacit agreement between the various HVAC service companies to **** their customers. I'm on the edge of the cites so I can either have services from companies that serve the Twin Cities or go less then 20 miles to...

I kept hearing friends tell me that using a poly coating would be a one step process. However, after looking into this it really seems that you still need to do at least 2 or more coatings to get a thickness that will stand up (>4 mil) so clearly not a one step process. Additionally, it seems...

As I grabbed my favorite craftsman 9/16 cross force ratcheting wrench on my way to collect my trailer I said to myself, "don't bring your favorite wrench, you will lose it". ARGH... true to form, it must be sitting on some road someplace. Craftsman doesn't make those wrenches anymore and so far...

I was sweating my buns off drilling and filling three 4' footings for a deck on Friday and found out this afternoon (when sweating more) that the last footing is 4" out of line with the other two :eek: The deck is really a walkway that connects an existing deck to a new concrete area outside my...

I'm wondering what folks use for jacks on their 4-post lifts. I was using a bottle jack the other day followed by of course a jack stand to really support the vehicle after I took the wheel off. All of this was on a safe jack tray but it left something to be desired. The bottle jack is light...

When I roughed in I ran 10/3 + ground from the panel to where I plan to install a 60 amp disconnect. The breaker is a double 30 amp breaker that I plan to use the black and red wires for the hot, the copper will go to ground, but I'm not sure what to do with the white. I've been reading that I...

I'm building a couple of new benches for the garage addition and keep thinking about wrapping a solid wood core with stainless steel and wondered what folks thought about that and if anybody has any suggestions. I like the idea of a metal top for both durability as well as being able to clean up...

I have been going through delay after delay with the GC I'm trying to use to build my garage addition and I am now wondering whether it is even feasible to get it shelled before the snow flies. Keeping it simple, think of the garage as a 25x28 by 11' high addition to an existing garage. It is...

I'm hoping to build about a 800 sqft addition to my garage here in the Minneapolis area of MN. The addition will be joined to the existing garage but I'm going to keep the wall between them so I can zone them separately. In the current garage I was focused on heat first (like I said, I live in...

After reading reviews about the mohawk lift and realizing it may solve some of the issues I have with my garage I tried to pursue pricing estimates. The ultimate result was a HUGE turn off. 1) They don't tell you the price on the web site - DING DING DING - HUGE RED FLAG. 2) Fill out the...