 |
image: Nadin Nandin on Unsplash |
The Problem
We've hit that time of the gardening season where the plants and lawn need more water than what the skies provide, so I dragged out the heavy garden hose and our oscillating sprinkler a week ago. I had the sprinkler all placed for full coverage of my area and turned the water on. Imagine my frustration when the 3 left-hand sprinkler nozzles didn't spray a drop. Not one single drop of water came out of those nozzles. I shook my head and shifted the sprinkler enough to get better, but not optimal coverage.
The Temptation vs. The Frugal Mindset
You know, we place an online order just about every week. It's just so easy. You think of a thing you need, then add it to your order. Even if I'm not placing the order, I often put items in my "cart" to add to a later order. I had a thought to put a new sprinkler into my Home Depot shopping cart that afternoon. But my gut instinct told me I should first see if I could fix the problem.
The Simple Fix
You will not believe this, but all it took was a safety pin and 60 seconds. Evidently there was rust or grit blocking those three little holes. I poked the point of the safety pin into the first two holes, and I could feel the pin penetrating the blockage I wiggled the pin to widen the openings and improve water flow. The final hole took a bit of pressure combined with the wiggling, but, ultimately, it cleared as well. Like I said, this took less than a minute. As I cleared each hole, it was so incredibly satisfying to see that I was "repairing" my sprinkler.
Victory
Turning the faucet back on, I watched to see if the water was spurting freely from all of the holes. What I saw was a full, beautiful, perfect curtain of water rain down on my plants.
Care about the small things. When we repair even the smaller everyday items we own, we gain self-reliance, we keep stuff out of the landfill, and we conserve raw materials and energy used in a replacement item's production. It isn't just about saving 20 bucks. It's a refusal to participate in the throwaway culture of our time.
It took me less than five minutes and cost absolutely nothing, but seeing that sprinkler work perfectly felt like a major victory. Your Turn: What is the last tiny thing you repaired, maintained, or un-clogged around your home or garden instead of replacing? Let’s celebrate our small maintenance wins in the comments!
I have had the same sprinkler for 20? years. I have had holes clog and can get them open with a vinegar soak (like I do for my shower a couple times a year.) Unfortunately mine has stopped oscillating and I am looking into that.
ReplyDeleteHi Amy,
DeleteGreat job! I've read that a vinegar soak works well, too.
We have a non-oscillating, oscillating sprinkler here, too. (It used to oscillate.)You know what we use that one for? Watering a long hedge in mid-summer. It's great for focused watering in a line. If I ever figure out how to fix the non-oscillating aspect, I'll let you know. Have you tried something like WD-40 sprayed on the pivot points?
That's a great win! Was the buildup due to minerals in your water? I sometimes (not as often as I should) do the vinegar-and-water-in-a-bag trick, attaching it to my showerhead, to break up the yuck. We get a lot of mineral build-up in our water.
ReplyDeleteI think that trying to repair/refurbish is second nature to a lot of us frugalistas. My brain defaults to "can I fix this" vs buying new most of the time. I've done minor repairs on my dishwasher and washing machine many a time over the years. When we got to the point where we needed to buy new appliances, I tried to do my homework on the best options. I'd rather pay more up-front and have things last. That being said, it can be really hard to make good purchases. The reviews are often all over the place, as are the professional ratings websites.
Hi Kris,
DeleteWe have soft water here. So I think it was rust in the metal tubes. It could be that it was stored on one end or slanted so water inside pooled to that one end. The vinegar trick works for areas with hard water.
I'm impressed you've tackled dishwasher and washing machine repairs. I leave those to my husband. But I have unclogged the dishwasher air gap a number of times.
We shop for quality, too. Our washer/dryer set is 31 years old this summer. We bought Maytags. At that time, Maytag was the brand known to last and last. I've been searching for replacements for that pair for the last couple of years. They are showing their age. At the pricey end are Speed Queen Commercial. That's what I want. We'll see if we can afford it. They're tested up to 15,000 cycles, which at 8 loads per week would last 36 years. We're talking passing on to one of our kids, potentially.
Didn't you recently replace a washer/dryer set? Or was that a different appliance? What brands did you look at?
I've heard Speed Queen is the best. My son bought Speed Queen when his old machine couldn't be fixed and he loves it.
DeleteI should have asked this community for recommendations when I was shopping for a washing machine. I ended up with an LG washer, which has mixed reviews. However, I went to a specialty appliance store, and they were much more knowledgeable and helpful than going to a big box store. I was trying to find the sweet spot between not breaking the budget but not getting something that would require repairs or replacement. The store where I purchased my washer also does repair work, and the salesman said that they have the fewest requests for repairs with the LG style that I purchased. I think I bought that about 2 years before we got our dryer (which finally died, after a valiant run of 21 years, and that was a cheap model) so I purchased the matching dryer. So far, so good. My old washer was a Maytag, BTW, and was well over 30 years old when it finally kicked the bucket.
DeleteI have a Bosch dishwasher and I love it. We went for a cheap model when we first had to replace a dishwasher and I had endless problems with it (hence the constant repairs). The Bosch has been a dream, and my dishes are soooo much cleaner with it!
Alice, that's good to hear about Speed Queen. I hope your son's machines last him a long time. One of the things I like about that brand is they don't have all the bells and whistles and focus on the mechanics of just washing and drying. That's what I want. I think fewer extras means more effort went in to engineering their main function.
DeleteKris, good to hear about your experience with a Bosch dishwasher. We still need to replace ours. It's been low on our priority list. As we say, you can always wash dishes by hand but you can't refrigerate food manually or drive to the store or work, manually. So we replace the things that seem more necessary. The skin on my hands might say differently, though.
DeleteA water spigot on an outbuilding. Was terrifying at the thought of doing it but hubby and youtube along with advice from the hardware store and it was done in less than an hour. Now we need to replace the kitchen faucet with a single handle (right for cold, left for hot all controlled by one handle). Sounds daunting to me but needs to be replaced before we have a bigger problem.
ReplyDeleteHi Alice,
DeleteGreat job on the water spigot! And good luck with the kitchen faucet. My husband has replaced ours in the past, and it seemed fairly straightforward.
Good save! We had a clogged rain barrel recently that we were able to go up through the faucet and unclog it. I was dreading the thought of emptying the whole thing to figure out what was going on.
ReplyDeleteHi Live and Learn,
DeleteGood work! I would've thought that would require emptying, too. I'm glad you were able to unclog it and save the water.
Goodness, what haven’t I fixed lately? Tail lights, brake lights, license plate light all went out on my husband’s car. Crawled in the trunk, took a panel off, mice had chewed the wiring. Used wire connectors from my tool chest to reattach. My SUV was throwing out warning lights. A groundhog had made itself a home under the hood. Had to poke the groundhog out with a 4’ piece of rebar and replace a fuse. Power car window wasn’t rolling up and down correctly, looked on YouTube and found the combination to reset. Bathroom sink dripping, contacted Moen (lifetime guarantee on their products), they sent a new cartridge for the handle, quick replacement. Electric fence around pasture not working, walked the fence line, small branch had fallen on line causing it to short out. Cleared the line, good to go. Hose from pool to pump sprang a leak. Used self sealing silicone tape to repair. Garbage disposal quit working. Crawled under sink and hit the reset button. Double ovens kept shutting off while in use. Internet told me master board was bad. Instead, I used my Klein tool from my workshop to test the circuit breaker. Yep, it was faulty and tripping. $17 for a new CB and 10 minutes of my time as opposed to almost $3,000 to have bought new ovens and have them installed. These are all things my husband immediately said “call someone” and I said let me look at it first. Whew, I just realized where all my time goes…Band Aid work.
ReplyDeleteWe’re both in our 70s. He hates working on anything, I hate giving away money. He admits to having two tools, an ink pen and a checkbook. I have all the tools and YouTube. 😀 Nothing like the pride and Joy of saying you fixed it yourself. Annie
Whoa, Annie, that's some incredible repair work you've accomplished!!!! Please, come over to my house and teach me! I think you win the award for most impressive DIY repair skills. Congrats!
DeleteHave you ever come across something you tried but couldn't repair, and then had to call someone?
Lili, this will run long. say this not to toot my own horn, but to encourage others to try to have a more hands own approach in their home and life overall. Your love of old cookbooks has shown us how self reliant we used to be food wise. We were the same with home and car repairs and many other things in our lives once upon a magical time. How many people today know how to change a tire? Change their oil or even do basic maintenance on a car? How many know that flushing your water heater once a year will prolong the life of the appliance considerably? When a plumber wants $300 to replace a toilet (not including the price of the new toilet) and I know that I can do it for free, yep, replacing that toilet. Also replacing any rotted subfloor underneath if needed. I’ve built barns, decks, can do every type of flooring, roofing, fencing, plumbing, electrical, drywall, painting. Service call to change the oil and spark plug in our Generac whole house generator was quoted at $350. I did it for the cost of the oil and spark plug. The biggest hurdle is wanting to. I enjoy doing these things; a lot of people (my husband) do not. Sometimes you need to be fearless. I’m always trying to learn. I make soap, lip balms and body creams. I have simple recipes for laundry detergent (about .17 per load), hand soap, cleaning products, etc. I enjoy foraging for mushrooms, medicinal herbs and food (anyone tried wild lettuce and dandelion greens in a salad?). I sew, knit, crochet. Everything I do is because I have a desire to learn and enjoy the sense of accomplishment. Plus I don’t like giving my money away 😀. I’m retired now but when working full time I was a weekend warrior, midnight gardener, early morning baker. I’m not anything special so I truly feel if I can do it, anyone can if they have the desire. Start small and do the research. Remember, shut off water, flip off circuit breakers, and always keep in mind the closing times at Lowes and Home Depot. Annie
ReplyDeleteHi Annie,
DeleteWow! If you would ever be interested in writing a guest post, your pick for topic, email me.
You're right about people being more self-reliant in times past. I think the message we receive today is "you need a professional to do that." I totally agree on the garage door thing with the springs. I've read that in many places. My husband is the one who does major repairs for us. I do small things like furniture refurbishing and repair, or something that just needs a good cleaning. My husband grew up in a family that taught self-reliance. When we were just dating, my car needed a new hose of some sort. He went out and bought the right hose and replaced it for me that afternoon, even though he'd never done that before. He's replaced several of our faucets, light fixtures, decking, patched a hole in the roof -- all while being physically disabled and never having been trained to do any of these things. There are some things we know neither he nor I can do, and we hire someone for those.
Thank you for responding and encouraging others to try some of their own repairs, Annie.
I realized I didn’t really answer your question…garage doors. I would call a professional because the tension in the springs and wires can maim or kill you. Definitely would not mess with garage doors. Annie
ReplyDelete