admin
Recently relocated. Prior tenants did not clear out the lint trap.
B
If that’s the lint trap, I’d be concerned about other maintenance dangers that the owner hasn’t taken care of. Might want to start by check the fire detectors.
[
That is my number 1 advice to anyone moving into a new place. Check the smoke detectors. If they use batteries just go ahead and replace them. Regardless of how they are powered, see if someone put the install date on them like they’re supposed to because when they hit 10 years they are no longer effective and some models start to chirp – and they NEVER start chirping when Home Depot is open. Followed by, “Before you lay your head down in that place make sure you know how to shut off the water at the meter AND at the main valve inside. Do the same for electricity (find the panel(s) and gas (find the valve on the meter), if you have it. You don’t want to have to figure those things out when you need to shut them off.”
Z
Im going through this right now. My water main is old and im not convinced its fully shutting off. I’ve been looking for the meter valve in my yard for a while lol
D
My valve is in the front yard on street side of sidewalk. Had to shut off at the meter when I went out of town because I went to shut off at house and the stem broke, luckily it broke in the open position so I was able to have water while waiting for plumber to fix it.
[
call miss utility they are required to mark it
F
Mine was buried and when the county came out they couldn’t shut it off and ended up putting in a whole new shutoff.
S
Mine is inside because it’s Minnesota and would freeze otherwise
F
Water main for the entire house, but also the valves behind the toilets in case things are backing up – you can prevent some nasty overflow quickly! Be sure they turn well also, they can get stuck.
B
Oh god they never turn well if its a gate valve. If you have any plumbing skill (or ever get a plumber over for other reasons) I highly recommend upgrading any shutoff valves to ball valves. Ball valves tend to still work after 10 years of being ignored. Gate valves almost never do. (Ball valves are the one you twist 90 degrees to turn on/off, gate valves are the ones you need to twist multiple whole rotations to turn on/off)
F
Aka Quarter Turn valves 👍
N
Thanks dad
W
It’s such a good idea that it’s a legal requirement for selling a property in my country. You can bill the seller thousands of dollars if they later find non-compliance.
B
Someone is a long way off from home ownership lol
N
lol, about to buy my second in London, hopefully! Should find out this week.
B
Well, make sure to check the smoke detectors
N
Touché!
P
Does it matter what kind for the 10 year lifespan? Not sure how the newer photoelectric ones work exactly but the old ones use unstable Am-241 which has a half life of like ~425 years or so, and it decays into neptunium, Np-237, with a half life of like 2 million years. NP-238 decays into plutonium after a couple days I think, but good luck getting your hands on that, as the Pu238 it decays into is still illegal to possess.
[
No, it does not matter what kind.
B
I assume the photodetector ones get dirty over time and prob hard to get into the module to clean them.
[
They do get dirty, and the sensors also age and become less effective. Doesn’t matter if they are ionization or photoelectric, manufacturers recommend replacing them after 10 years. It’s a small price to pay every 10 years to stay alive. Most people haven’t a clue for how quickly a place goes from “I smell smoke” to “You aren’t getting out.” It can be as low as 2 minutes and I’ve lived through an apartment building fire. It’s *nightmare* level shit walking down a flight of stairs so full of smoke that you can’t see even halfway across the hallway. You can’t even see your feet. And that particular fire didn’t even last 2 minutes before it was put out. Go lie down in bed dressed as you would when sleeping and set a timer for 2 minutes. Pretend the alarm goes off. Your ass isn’t waking up and getting vertical and moving in under 10 seconds and that’s almost 10% of that 2 minute mark. Now you have to wake the wife and kids and make sure they’re getting dressed (shoes on, anyhow) and out the door while you get shoes on and out the door.
M
And carbon monoxide detectors. Those things have a life of like 7 years and not enough people know this.
B
And fire extinguishers. I’m not really a big safety nut, but it felt satisfying putting a new fire extinguisher on all the levels of my house.
[
Truth! I have one in every room of my house excepting bathrooms. Back in my apartment daze the neighbor below me left a pan full of oil on a lit stove and went to bed. Smoke alarm woke her up and of course she put it in the sink and turned the water on. FOOM. It literally, no shit, lit her cabinets on fire. She ran across the hall to another neighbor’s and banged on the door, “MARIA! I HAVE FIRE!” Thankfully Maria wasn’t a moron and grabbed the extinguisher in the hall and POOOOFFFFFF put it out. I opened my door about 10 seconds after hearing “I have fire” to see what was going on and the smoke was so thick i couldn’t see across the hall. I couldn’t even see my feet. Grabbed my cats and ran down the stairs to find all my neighbors outside (‘we not think you home’) and that the fire was out – but you wouldn’t have known that by looking, there was sooo much smoke.
T
2:30am is the most common “chirp” start time. Every 3 minutes.
[
Back in my apartment daze I had a neighbor smart enough to unmount a chirping detector but not smart enough to remove the battery. She put it out on her balcony under a towel. all chirp night chirp long chirp
T
And I always recommend to replace them with those with a permanant battery. ANY DETECTOR OLDER THAN 10 YEARS MUST BE REPLACED! Those with a permanant battery have a 10 years battery, good for the whole life of the detector. No more issue with the alarm going off at night because the battery is gone, or someone take the battery for the tv remote control. Install and forget for 10 years (ok, not quite, you still need to do the tests that nobody do monthly).
[
Fire detectors? I’d be more worried about the dryer vent. One of my best friends lost his house, his dog, and almost 50 years of mardi gras memorabilia (a full set of doubloons from every parade during that timeframe) because the vent was never cleaned out and the lint caught fire before going up like kindling.
F
If you haven’t already, you might want to have the exhaust hose cleaned or replaced. It can fill up with lint as well. And I think most dishwashers have a trap to catch good particles that don’t dissolve and can also get gunked up with greasy globs.
L
Furnace filter and drains also come to mind
T
The filters for *everything* Check home ventilation, dryers, FURNACE, everything
S
Or the rest of the venting system under the house. That shiny flex tube that goes into the wall connects to the outside vent. Your dryer may not dry clothes well or at all, and you may not see very much airflow out of the exterior vent if it is clogged. Another sign is that removing the exterior vent cover will show lint on it. It’s best to get a contractor out to clean the vent or even just inspect it as this could lead to an unexpected house fire.
S
And CO2 detectors
Y
Won’t be surprised if some are missing batteries or have ones leaking in the sensor. And the sensor itself expired. Great call. Another thing is the electrical panel (if op is comfortable with taking the panel off) for any shoddy stuff
T
That’s uh…..a huge fire hazard.
D
Honestly I’m surprised the dryer a) even worked worth a shit anymore and b) didn’t just burst into flames.
S
When I was about 21 years old and living away from my mom for the first time, it was in a basement suite of a house owned by a friend of my dad’s. The friend in question was in his 50s or 60s. He had a daughter who was in her 30s. Two other guys in the basement, aged about 30 and 40. Our laundry always came out of the machine damp and soggy. Nobody knew why. In my defense, I had never been taught that the lint trap needed to be cleared out after every load. I was young. I never needed to do my laundry before. What excuse EVERYONE ELSE IN THAT HOUSE had for never acquiring that knowledge, I will never know.
D
Doesn’t every lint trap have in giant letters “Empty trap after every load” on it? All the driers I’ve used had it, facing me and obvious when i opened the drier door
T
Mine does the opposite. Not only does it not label the lint trap at all, the panel is smooth with the surface and you’d have to know it’s there and/or look from below to see the small little two-finger recessed handle. It’s a dryer made by an arsonist IMO.
S
Well, certainly *the good ones* do.
N
You’ll need to buy a new drier after your house burns down you know. *capitalism baby!*
G
On mine, you open the lint trap by opening the dryer door, hard to miss.
S
Mine does and it was the cheapest one we could find.
T
A lot of driers have the limp trap something you pull out from the top, even if they’re front loading. Since the top of the dryer is also a nice flat space I’ve seen the lint traps completely inaccessible from people using the dryer as a table. I much prefer the lint trap in door designs personally.
Q
Never thought I’d say this at the time but in retrospect I’m glad that my parents made me do my own laundry as a kid.
W
yea i’m always surprised when people never touched the laundry machine at home, like at 21 you never did a load of laundry at home? this and washing dishes
M
When the ‘Saved by the Bell’ crew went to college, they made a joke out of how the guys didn’t know how to do their own laundry. I immediately went to my mom and told her it was time for me to start doing my own so that I wouldn’t be a joke when I got older.
S
Surprisingly smart and sophisticated response there.
A
poverty, and lack of familiarity with what at the time became modern dryers
R
Ignorance has no bounds!
T
At least you have shoes
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