Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

jmonroe1

driver100 said:

jmonroe1 said:

stickguy said:

another question for all the experts (and anyone that wants to play one on the internet). If you have a gas fireplace, do you turn it off in the summer or just leave it on (with the pilot going, so a small flame and some amount of heat)? And if you turn it off, how does it work normally, a shutoff behind the lower grill where the hose comes in? I am not quite sure if you do turn the gas off, how it relights. I also haven't tried to pull the grill off (it seems to be on pretty tight) without a plan of attack!

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Long story short, leave the pilot on. Consider it like a water heater pilot light. Just a negligible amount of gas used continuously.

jmonroe

The way I see it, if they can keep these babies burning I don't care about leaving my fireplace pilot flame going all year long.

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Those ain’t your ordinary pilot lights. What they burn in an hour you could heat your home forever. Maybe even your neighbor and his neighbor too.

No wonder why we have global warming. I doubt you’d find a tree hugger at that place.

jmonroe

stickguy

thanks all. I will just leave it on. if the buyers question it, I will tell them that a bunch of very wise men on the internet told me to do it. I did not get a manual or instructions on the fireplace when we bought the house so I can honestly tell them the only thing I know about it is what switch turns it on. beyond that they are on their own.

JM, I don't know what shutoffs are at the box (I assume there is one) but I have a labelled shutoff for that line in the basement where all the gas lines disperse. All the lines have them, and conveniently, someone wrote in sharpie on the ceiling joists what each one controlled.

tjc78

I have a gas fireplace. I have zero idea where the [non-permissible content removed] off is or if it has a pilot or not. Until today I never even knew you had to service them.

ab348

@tjc78 , I believe the word is spelled S-H-U-T.

28firefighter

Fun fact @explorerx4 - my wife and I looked at the arcade for our wedding. We ended up getting married around the corner at The Renaissance attached to Tower City.

driver100

stickguy said:

driver100 said:

The successful car companies are listening to my suggestions. 2025 Forester, Boxy with big windows, that's how a car should be designed;

it looks exactly like the boxy with big windows 2024 Forester.

Then my design ideas are working!!!!

fintail

stickguy said:

another question for all the experts (and anyone that wants to play one on the internet). If you have a gas fireplace, do you turn it off in the summer or just leave it on (with the pilot going, so a small flame and some amount of heat)? And if you turn it off, how does it work normally, a shutoff behind the lower grill where the hose comes in? I am not quite sure if you do turn the gas off, how it relights. I also haven't tried to pull the grill off (it seems to be on pretty tight) without a plan of attack!

Someone - either my HVAC guy or the contractor I had do some work before I moved into the house, recommended to leave my gas fireplace pilot on all year, as they could need more work if dormant for an extended period. Only issue is that over time it puts a haze on the glass, and it's a PITA to clean.

Mine has a shut off near the floor a few feet from the fireplace.

explorerx4

@28firefighter,
After I took that picture, a wedding party showed up to take pictures.
I guess a lot of them get pictures taken a day early.
There's probably a lot of tables and chairs on that floor today.

kyfdx

@stickguy My gas fireplace has a button to push to re-light the pilot. Sort of like your propane grill.

But, every time we shut it down, it seems to need a new thermocouple, the next fall... So, now, we just leave it lit all year.

snakeweasel

laurasdada said:

stickguy said:

not sure if I mentioned this oddity, but for the last month, 3 of the houses we have owned were all on the market at the same time. This one obviously. and while we have been under contract, the house we sold to move here got listed (mid-may) and went under contract quickly. then a few weeks ago, the condo that we bought as our first house went on the market. I just found it freaky that 3 of the 4 places we owned over our almost 40 were all on the market together.

Should have stayed in Jersey. It went for an obscene price. 2 years later, $150k more. I have regerts.

Similar to my little condo I sold in '21, semi-shocked at recent sales prices; I'm pretty sure I left $ on the table (shouldn't have listened to the realtor so much, instead priced at what I thought fair. An expected bidding war, but at a lower asking price than I had wanted). But, of course, it's a housing rising tide...

Reading this stuff I went onto Zillow and checked the last home I had that we bought in 1997 at $187K is now guesstimate by Zillow to be $464K. We sold in in 2002 for just under $250K. The house we currently live in (that's 1/3rd larger and is a lake lot) has a Zillow guesstimate of $416K. Something ain't right.

snakeweasel

kyfdx said:

@stickguy My gas fireplace has a button to push to re-light the pilot. Sort of like your propane grill.

But, every time we shut it down, it seems to need a new thermocouple, the next fall... So, now, we just leave it lit all year.

I just burn wood. Yeah it's harder to light and have to clean out the ashes after every use but I don't have to deal with a pilot light.

explorerx4

Walked around a small part of Cuyahoga National Park(110 miles long) and saw some good stuff.

mjfloyd1

@fintail said:
Someone - either my HVAC guy or the contractor I had do some work before I moved into the house, recommended to leave my gas fireplace pilot on all year, as they could need more work if dormant for an extended period. Only issue is that over time it puts a haze on the glass, and it's a PITA to clean.

Mine has a shut off near the floor a few feet from the fireplace.

That’s a big part of why my wife wants them serviced. They clean the glass inside and out and clean the inside of the fireplace as well.

oldfarmer50

snakeweasel said:

laurasdada said:

stickguy said:

not sure if I mentioned this oddity, but for the last month, 3 of the houses we have owned were all on the market at the same time. This one obviously. and while we have been under contract, the house we sold to move here got listed (mid-may) and went under contract quickly. then a few weeks ago, the condo that we bought as our first house went on the market. I just found it freaky that 3 of the 4 places we owned over our almost 40 were all on the market together.

Should have stayed in Jersey. It went for an obscene price. 2 years later, $150k more. I have regerts.

Similar to my little condo I sold in '21, semi-shocked at recent sales prices; I'm pretty sure I left $ on the table (shouldn't have listened to the realtor so much, instead priced at what I thought fair. An expected bidding war, but at a lower asking price than I had wanted). But, of course, it's a housing rising tide...

Reading this stuff I went onto Zillow and checked the last home I had that we bought in 1997 at $187K is now guesstimate by Zillow to be $464K. We sold in in 2002 for just under $250K. The house we currently live in (that's 1/3rd larger and is a lake lot) has a Zillow guesstimate of $416K. Something ain't right.

Zillow values for my house don’t seem to consider land value. Based on land value comps my place is worth at least $100k more than they say. BoA gives a higher value but still doesn’t fully value my land. The developers who have made offers are the opposite, they consider the house as worthless so they give me only value based on the land minus what it will cost to tear down the house.

Sandman6472

I think when we do put the current house on the market, we'll just ask a fair price as it needs a total gut inside. Not worth it to us to spend a big chunk of change right now as we really have no idea how long we'll be here. Need my health issues to stop a bit and then, we shall see. I know the house down the street is still on the market as his asking price is outrageous for this neighborhood. Think we could probably get about $580K right now, a very fair price. A 4/2 on a kid friendly cul-de-sac with A-rated schools very close. Perfect starter home for a small family with a few kids. Original owners with many happy memories but for the right price, we'd pack up and go!

tjc78

ab348 said:

@tjc78 , I believe the word is spelled S-H-U-T.

Oops

tjc78

explorerx4 said:

@28firefighter,
After I took that picture, a wedding party showed up to take pictures.
I guess a lot of them get pictures taken a day early.
There's probably a lot of tables and chairs on that floor today.

Great pictures!

As for wedding pics …. If I knew now how much of our wedding we would have missed, 100% we would have done pics before.

We missed 90% of our cocktail hour. At the end we finally told the guy “we have enough pictures”

jmonroe1

tjc78 said:

explorerx4 said:

@28firefighter,
After I took that picture, a wedding party showed up to take pictures.
I guess a lot of them get pictures taken a day early.
There's probably a lot of tables and chairs on that floor today.

Great pictures!

As for wedding pics …. If I knew now how much of our wedding we would have missed, 100% we would have done pics before.

We missed 90% of our cocktail hour. At the end we finally told the guy “we have enough pictures”

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To miss 90% of your cocktail hour tells me you were not feeling any pain. That’s the way to enjoy a wedding. I should have thought of that. I think I only missed 50%.

jmonroe

sda

I received this for Father's day.

tjc78

@sda said:
I received this for Father's day.

Enjoy! Ive had it and liked it very much.

roadburner

Make it two in a row for Ferrari at Le Mans. The BMW hypercars weren’t a factor, but BMW Motorsport nabbed second place in LMGT3. If BMW or Mercedes-AMG can’t take the checker I’m happy with a Ferrari or Porsche win.

explorerx4

Never had an irrigation system before, so I know next to nothing about how they work.
Last fall, I called to have the water flushed out of system.
This spring I got a card about scheduling to have everything turned on again.
I figured it couldn't be too hard and I could do it myself.
It went ok, although there were a couple of small leaks from some threaded plastic plugs.
There are 2 ball valves to control the water flow and just past them are the plastic plugs.
When I turned on the water at the ball valves, I had to thread in the plugs to stop the water draining out there. Still had a small drip from each one.
My next door neighbor has a system too and he said his was leaking but he found out how to stop the leaks.
He said there is a screw you turn and the plugs are basically dust covers.
Today, I took off the plugs and water started draining out and I didn't see any screw to turn.
Looked on the back side and guess what? There is a place to use a screwdriver to shut what turns out to be a drain flap. As soon as I did that, water stopped draining out.
Just screwed the plugs back in and now no leaks.
While I was doing this I heard a hissing noise and looked over at my neighbors house.
One of the drain valves had water spraying out a good 6 feet.
Rang thier doorbell but no answer, so I went over to where the leak was.
His drain valves have the screw slot on the front, so i gave the leaking one a quarter turn and the leak stopped.
I will have to check mine periodically to make sure there are no leaks.

jmonroe1

explorerx4 said:

Never had an irrigation system before, so I know next to nothing about how they work.
Last fall, I called to have the water flushed out of system.
This spring I got a card about scheduling to have everything turned on again.
I figured it couldn't be too hard and I could do it myself.
It went ok, although there were a couple of small leaks from some threaded plastic plugs.
There are 2 ball valves to control the water flow and just past them are the plastic plugs.
When I turned on the water at the ball valves, I had to thread in the plugs to stop the water draining out there. Still had a small drip from each one.
My next door neighbor has a system too and he said his was leaking but he found out how to stop the leaks.
He said there is a screw you turn and the plugs are basically dust covers.
Today, I took off the plugs and water started draining out and I didn't see any screw to turn.
Looked on the back side and guess what? There is a place to use a screwdriver to shut what turns out to be a drain flap. As soon as I did that, water stopped draining out.
Just screwed the plugs back in and now no leaks.
While I was doing this I heard a hissing noise and looked over at my neighbors house.
One of the drain valves had water spraying out a good 6 feet.
Rang thier doorbell but no answer, so I went over to where the leak was.
His drain valves have the screw slot on the front, so i gave the leaking one a quarter turn and the leak stopped.
I will have to check mine periodically to make sure there are no leaks.

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You should charge him a nominal service fee since you didn’t have to travel very far.

FWIW, I had an irrigation system when I lived in SC in the mid 90’s but I didn’t have the gizmos you described.

jmonroe

kyfdx

There is a whole lot going on with shutdown and startup to your system. The backflow preventer is the biggest piece of that.

Also, in your area, you'll definitely want a professional shutdown, where they used compressed air to remove the water from the system.

stickguy

I always had mine shut down by. Pro with a big compressor. But most of the time I turn it on myself. Just crank the shut off lever and fire it up. And make sure all the heads come up and seem to be working. If something looks busted then I would call for maintenance. Usually not needed.

tjc78

I do exactly the same as Stickguy.

Last year I had to take apart the vacuum breaker and glue on new threaded adapters because one cracked and it was pouring out water. I think when they took off the drain plug they broke it but I’d never be able to prove it

laurasdada

Last night, drove the PHEV to the local inn that has one L2 CCS charger, which surprisingly was available. The two Tesla docks were in use, with two more Teslas waiting. My battery was empty, so I plugged in, jogged the .6 mile to the gym and pretended to work out. Jogged back, unplugged after 75 minutes and was at 7/8 full with 22 mile range. Free.
What a country.

laurasdada

And, in another life when I owned a home with an irragation system, I used The Guy to open/close the system. Although on occasion I did some adjustments/repairs that seemed simple enough.
I'm sure you heard the laughter coming from my neighbors as I attempted these adjustments/repairs as inevitably I ended up soaking wet...

fezo

Thank you all for talking me out of a gas fireplace.

I did have one for four years. When the heat went out due to a faulty boiler on a zero-degree day it did prove utterly useful.

Dropped in to say hello and, yes, 12 years post-transplant I'm still here.

After not buying a car for years, I sold my Miata (fun, but I needed space.

Landed an 07 Solara convertible. Not as much fun but it can be a year-round car. The speakers were blown so I replaced the whole stereo - backup camera and all. I'm liking it.

stickguy

Fezo! Long time brother! Glad you are doing ok.

stickguy

I can see the benefits to a “real” car convertible instead of a toy. I know my wife would appreciate that.

explorerx4

I do remember the city mentioning backflow testing in a newsletter.
Not sure where the backflow would come from.

Hi Fezo! Glad you checked in.

ab348

Had an unusual experience today. Was noodling around YouTube this morning and looked at a local channel that specializes in ‘80s/‘90s local TV and video. One of the offerings is a 1987 Nova Scotia tourism promo video. I worked in the government Tourism agency a few years after that so I decided to take a look and see if there was anyone in it I might recognize.

About 2 minutes into it, I do a double-take. “Hey, that’s ME!” I said to Lucy the cat since there was nobody else here. Sure enough, there I was, along with 2 of my coworkers at the time walking along the sidewalk. I never knew about it and had never seen it. Wild.

https://youtu.be/zXwIxKpiBO4?si=GGVvydV1EASOLsoq

explorerx4

@ab348,
Video makes me want to visit. You are not the center guy? Total guess.

andres3

Darn it... my water heater in the hallway closet decided to start leaking water. About a soaked bath towels worth every 24 hours. That's a much bigger leak than my TTS' thermostat housing, which for all I know, only leaks when I'm driving the car very hard. Last I checked the coolant was still fine. I have reason to believe it leaks slightly over time though. Will check on it again.

RacingLine has some neat stuff for upgrading my TTS, but their local provider and/or the company can't even give a potential customer a quote and lead time!!!!!!!

I'm busy at work so I'd like to combine jobs for my shop to do all at once, even if it doesn't save me on labor because things are in different areas.

ab348

No, I’m the guy in the suit and tie with the glasses on the left next to the two lady co-workers. I look exasperated or disinterested for some reason. The city today is very different now from that place in the video. The old version was better.

explorerx4

@ab348,
I see that now. The ladies man.

jmonroe1

tjc78 said:

I do exactly the same as Stickguy.

Last year I had to take apart the vacuum breaker and glue on new threaded adapters because one cracked and it was pouring out water. I think when they took off the drain plug they broke it but I’d never be able to prove it

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Pros don’t break things do they? That’s why I’ll risk breaking something myself rather than call a pro. So far it’s worked for me.

I told the story about a pro strong arming the shut off valve to the dishwasher while he did a warranty repair. That I noticed almost right away but almost breaking off the dishwasher stub on the disposal wasn’t noticed till a few days later when Mrs. j had to get something from under the sink and saw some water. Luckily I was able to use a small drain stopper like what was used for old time sinks to plug what was left of the disposal stub for the dishwasher drain hose. Then I installed a dishwasher branch tailpiece on the other bowl. Glad we had 2 bowls or I’d have been forced to scrap the disposal and put in a new one.

Like you said, you’d never be able to prove anything so you just have to live with the work of pros when they’re called in to fix something. It’s not just limited to having your car fixed by an outside pro.

jmonroe

fintail

ab348 said:

No, I’m the guy in the suit and tie with the glasses on the left next to the two lady co-workers. I look exasperated or disinterested for some reason. The city today is very different now from that place in the video. The old version was better.

You weren't the hacky sack guy in short shorts?

fintail

stickguy said:

I always had mine shut down by. Pro with a big compressor. But most of the time I turn it on myself. Just crank the shut off lever and fire it up. And make sure all the heads come up and seem to be working. If something looks busted then I would call for maintenance. Usually not needed.

I have "the guy" start and stop mine for the season too. This year's startup had some quirks, and as I am on a plan, the labor was free (parts cost very little). I was glad to have someone else deal with it. I do my own adjustments too and seem to break a sprinkler head or two through the summer, those are easy to fix (but I still get wet)

cdnpinhead

ab348 said:

About 2 minutes into it, I do a double-take. “Hey, that’s ME!” I said to Lucy the cat since there was nobody else here.

Interesting video.

My first visit to Nova Scotia was in September of '70, when I took my beloved '65 MGB (44 states, 8 provinces, many of which were scored on this trip from AZ and back) out to Neils Harbour on Cape Breton, simply because it was the farthest it was possible to drive on the North American mainland. Excellent trip, what with Anne Murray's Snowbird on the radio and all.

The visitor centre at the border, coming in from NB, made a lasting impression, with the pipers, plus all the beautifully cared-for lawns (a real improvement from the desert). I came up via the Twin Cities, Sudbury, Montreal and New England and returned to AZ on a southern route via Alabama and Texas.

Good times. Thanks for the memories

oldfarmer50

cdnpinhead said:

ab348 said:

About 2 minutes into it, I do a double-take. “Hey, that’s ME!” I said to Lucy the cat since there was nobody else here.

Interesting video.

My first visit to Nova Scotia was in September of '70, when I took my beloved '65 MGB (44 states, 8 provinces, many of which were scored on this trip from AZ and back) out to Neils Harbour on Cape Breton, simply because it was the farthest it was possible to drive on the North American mainland. Excellent trip, what with Anne Murray's Snowbird on the radio and all.

The visitor centre at the border, coming in from NB, made a lasting impression, with the pipers, plus all the beautifully cared-for lawns (a real improvement from the desert). I came up via the Twin Cities, Sudbury, Montreal and New England and returned to AZ on a southern route via Alabama and Texas.

Good times. Thanks for the memories

Those were the days when you could travel between countries without passports, enhance DLs or strip searches.

qbrozen

I pay for startup and shutdown. The cost is pretty nominal and there are always leaks and broken heads to deal with every spring.

snakeweasel

Mrs Snakeweasel and I went some antiqueing today and when we left one shop this was parked next to us.

stickguy

I like the wheels on it.

cdnpinhead

Yeah -- Cragar mags I think they were called, and they were actually cast from magnesium -- what a concept.

It was a different time, and I was there.

stickguy

those I think are a different brand. Torquethrusts maybe?

roadburner

American Racing wheels- Torq Thrust. Cragar S/S wheels were all chrome.

ab348

I know from experience that the use of original wheels on older cars can be a problem these days. Even finding appropriate tires can be difficult and expensive if you have 13"/14" rims, and most wheels of the era were narrow by today's standards. But I have come to hate the ubiquity of modern hot-rod rims on otherwise mostly restored to original cars. If I see another set of Cragar S/S wheels on a 4-door sedan it will be too soon.

jmonroe1

stickguy said:

I like the wheels on it.

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That car should have the original wheels, hub caps and whitewall tires. I saw at least 8 or 9 at the car cruise I went to this past Sunday and most were like they came off the line.

Those ‘57 Chevy’s sure do attract a crowd. ‘55 and ‘57 Chevy’s are the collector cars. My first car was a used ‘56 Chevy. Yes, I always seem to be one off.

jmonroe