Be prepared for emergencies.
With winter just around the corner, now is the time to get your car ready for the possible dangers of running a car in the cold of winter. If your car shuts off and you find yourself stuck in the snow for a certain period of time, you'll need to make sure your basic needs are taken care of. You can do this by building a winter car kit. Here's how.
Have a way to contact the outside world. Always carry your cell phone with you into a car when you go driving, as you're never sure what might happen, and have some phone numbers of local authorities and AAA help programmed into your contacts list. You'll also want some way of contacting the outside world for help, which can include emergency lights - be sure you have emergency lights packed and that you'll be able to power them (this might include having the right batteries handy). Always have a flashlight with batteries handy, as well.
Keep a cooler full of food freshly stocked. Every month or so during the winter, include a "winter car kit" section on your groceries list - foods like nuts, granola, and dried fruit are calorically dense and don't take up a lot of space. After a month, buy the replacements for this food, and move the old food into your house so that you can eat them like any other food.
Keep plenty of water stocked. Water is also key - you can live a lot longer without food than you can with water, so be sure you have clean water ready to drink, and plenty of it stored somewhere in your car. You can keep it in a large cooler.
Have warm blankets and insulating materials handy. Sleeping bags are made for insulation, so include at least one in your car at all times during the winter. It won't hurt to have a couple of extra blankets - blankets that are designed to trap in serious heat, not blankets that are comfortable only around the home.
That should get you started for a winter car emergency. Remember that this article is about fixing an emergency before it happens - this is also know as prevention. In order to prevent your car from breaking down, keep it full of fuel, fresh oil when needed, and well-maintained. This will help your car function well in the winter.
Photo Credits: Joaaso
Originally posted 2009-11-17 03:17:02.
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Posted by Fix Handyman on January 15, 2012 in
Car, How to Fix, Mechanic
We can help fix that beloved wicker chair.
Wicker furniture can be great for use around the home or even outdoors - there's nothing that really lends that "at home" feeling than a wicker chair. After all, you don't exactly see a lot of wicker chairs around the office. If your wicker chair is broken, however, you don't want to lose what might be one in a set. That's why it will be important to understand how to fix a wicker chair when the need arises.
First, be aware of what can cause wicker chair damage in the first place. Having your wicker chairs outside is fine, but remember that rain and wind damage might not always be very generous to the chair. Some amount of humidity is actually good for wicker, helping prevent the wicker from drying out. But if there's a storm, you might want to take your wicker indoors. Don't be too concerned about leaving wicker furniture out when there's a high-pressure system moving through.
As with many things, the first stage to understanding wicker chair maintenance isn't repair, it's prevention. It will be good to occasionally dust your wicker chair, and even wiping it down with a damp cloth from time to time can help. Just make sure not to sit in your wicker chair when it's wet, such as after a rain: the moisture and the weight can cause the wicker to dry out in a new mold. Needless to say, that's not exactly what you want.
Being able to repair your wicker chair will probably depend on the amount (and type) of damage that's been done to it. For example, if it is too moist because of a rain and someone sat on it, leaving it looking warped, you might actually want to see if you can re-moisten the wicker and re-set it, allowing it to dry in a condition close to its original setting. The problems that can come as a result of wet wicker give you an extra reason to avoid letting it sit out in the rain, so try to keep your wicker furniture set where water can't get to it. Remember: moderate amounts of humidity should be fine, but spraying water on your wicker isn't a good idea.
If your wicker chair is still warped after your attempts in fixing it, you might simply have to replace it. If you have a lot of wicker furniture in your set, you can either live with the loss or try to find the manufacturer and see if you can order its replacement.
Photo Credits: Lucius Beebe Memorial Library
Originally posted 2009-08-28 03:50:11.
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Posted by Fix Handyman on November 16, 2011 in
Chair, Furniture, Handyman, How to Fix
Fixing the water heater.
When you fix something before it breaks, what's that called? Simple: Prevention! If you don't want to wrestle with a broken water heater and deal with endless amounts of cold showers in the morning, you'll want to make sure that your water heater is well taken care of. In order to do that, you've got to start fixing it - before it breaks. In this article, we'll break that down so you know exactly how to maintain a water heater starting today.
Keep the demands low. Go take a look at your water heater and see what temperature it's set to heat the water to. If it's over 120 degrees Fahrenheit, you might be working it too hard. Keep it between 115 and 120 degrees Fahrenheit so that there's less demand on your heater over time. You'll also notice that you use less energy when you keep your temperatures low. Do you need your water scalding? At least give this lower setting a try in order to see if you really notice the difference.
Regularly check your T & P valve. Don't know what the T & P valve is? It's actually a very important device on your water heater and you'll want to make sure you can identify it. The T & P valve is vital for maintaining a strong water heater. To regularly check it, simply lift the lever on the side of the T & P valve - make sure you don't lift it the full way, just partly. Release the lever. You should hear a bubbling/gurgling sound that sounds like water moving from one point to another. You want to hear that sound. If not, you'll probably want to get your T & P valve replaced. Note: Make sure you can identify the valve and lever before you do this. It's not a complicated instrument, so just take a gander at a picture online.
Use the drain valve to perform a flush. Every so often, you'll want to use the drain valve toward the bottom of your water heater in order to perform a "flush," in which you empty some of the water into a bucket so that sediment and rust don't build up over time. Check out details on how to run a "mini-flush" here.
Photo Credits: Mr.Thomas
Originally posted 2009-10-08 03:49:06.
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Posted by Fix Handyman on October 19, 2011 in
home repair, Water Heater
There's the chip.
If you've been driving behind a truck carrying stones, looking for a way to drive through traffic and get out of harm's way, you're definitely irritated when one of the rocks slips out and comes down on your windshield, chipping it slightly. Even if you know a lot about cars, this inconvenience seems like a waste of time and money to get fixed, especially since it feels like it never should have happened. But thinking about the problem won't fix the chip. Here's how a chip in your windshield can be fixed.
First, remember that fixing chips in your windshield is usually best left to professionals. Unless you've fixed chips before, this article will only serve as a demonstration of how chips are fixed by technicians who know how to work with glass. Even though glass is all around us in our daily lives, it is still a highly fragile and brittle material that can easily form into sharp edges that can do a lot of damage to someone who's not being cautious.
Glass professionals will be able to drill into your glass windshield and apply some sort of vacuum pressure to prepare the area. The professional will then inject resin into the windshield, which will work to fill the affected area as if the glass was always there. Once this has been injected, it is cured by ultraviolet light and then scraped smooth.
This is ideally what happens, but not always how it goes down. A chip present in a windshield means that there's a strong possibility the glass can crack, causing further damage to the windshield and making a total replacement necessary. That's why your chip repair costs can be higher than you expected - not because anyone is ripping you off, but because of the fragile nature of glass. If you could work with glass, you would probably understand the complications that often arise in glass repair. It's often best to simply replace glass instead of repairing it.
Now that you know a little more about the chip in your windshield, you should try to strive for better prevention. Stay clear of debris-stirring or carrying trucks that might drop a stone on your windshield. If you're careful about how you drive, you should be able to avoid a chip in your windshield.
Once you do notice a chip in your windshield, be sure to have it taken care of as quickly as you can. Be sure to ask professionals for advice about what to do before you take the car in for treatment.
Photo Credits: Lee Bennett
Originally posted 2009-08-03 03:51:22.
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Posted by Fix Handyman on September 4, 2011 in
Car, How to Fix, Mechanic
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