How to replace a dishwasher

Description

Need to replace a dishwasher? In this episode of House of Hacks, Harley shows how to install a Bosch 500 series dishwasher after first removing the existing dishwasher. Knowing how to remove and replace a dishwasher is useful information for a home owner. It’s not intimidating once you see how easy they are to install under a counter top.

Bosch 500 series dishwashers on Amazon (Associates link)

Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may subscribe on YouTube.

Here’s the most recent video.

For a written transcript, go to How to replace a dishwasher

All music by Kevin MacLeod at http://incompetech.com and under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0.
Intro/Exit: Hot Swing
Incidental: Beach Bum, Guiton Sketch, Happy Alley and Pump Sting

Transcript

Need to replace an old dishwasher with a new one?

Today at the House of Hacks, we're going to do exactly that!

[Intro]

For the last six months or so, every once in a while we'd come home and the dishwasher would have leaked. It was a random occurrence. It only happened on rare occasions.

It was pretty frustrating to find. I spent quite a bit of time trying to track it down. I actually went so far as to pull the dishwasher out from the cabinet and put it up on 2 x 4s for a week and we ran it that way to try to isolate where it was leaking. And of course, in that time it never leaked and my wife finally got frustrated with having it out in the middle of the kitchen and asked me to put it back.

Last weekend we came home from running errands and found it had leaked again. It had finished shortly before we got home and I thought maybe it was still wet where it had been leaking and so I immediately pulled it out from the cupboard. I couldn't find any leaks. I was able though to trace the water back from where it was wet on the floor and where it wasn't wet on the floor to kind of get the general region and did some more investigation. I pulled a flashlight out and I did find the tell tale signs of leaking water where you have that white, dried, crustiness from dried water that had been leaking and had since dried. And in tracking it down I found a seam in the tub that had some discoloration in it and that was right where the water was coming out on the other side. And so obviously there's rust through in that seam and there's really no repairing that kind of thing from a practical standpoint. I could kind of hack it with some epoxy or silicone gel, but that's just sort of a stop gap measure and eventually I'm going to have to replace the dishwasher. So I decided to go ahead and do that.

To do this project, I think it's going to require three tools. I may be wrong, but thinking through the project, I think there's three things we're going to need. There's a screwdriver that we'll need to disconnect it from the counter top and also, if there's electrical connections that have screws, they're probably going to be Philips. I think that's the only thing we need Philips for.

The water inlet is probably a compression fitting which will use a 5/8ths inch open end wrench. If it's not a compression fitting, it's probably a hose clamp which again will use the screwdriver.

And finally, I believe the drain has a spring clamp that we'll remove with pliers.

I think that's all we need. Three tools.

If any more are required, when I get into it, I'll talk about that in the process of needing them.

The way this model dishwasher is held in is there's two screws on the top that hold it to the counter top and there's a dust panel on the bottom by the floor that needs to come off so we can move it around.

A total of four screws to pull out and then it should just be able to slide right out.

Let's get to it.

[Turn off the water]

[Turn off the power]

[Loosen dust cover]

[Remove screws]

[Double check there's no power]

[Disconnect drain]

[but put down a towel first]

[Disconnect water supply]

[Access electrical]

[Disconnect wires]

[Remove old machine]

So you saw with the old dishwasher, it had a built in junction box in the bottom front corner that the electrical ran into.

The new one has a separate junction box that is supposed to be mounted away from the dishwasher and then it has this cord that has an end that plugs into the dishwasher.

From a mechanical standpoint, this is a lot easier because I can... I'll have to cut off the old knarly ends and get some new wire here, but there are some screw terminals in there that I'll just screw right into. It'll be quick and easy. But I don't have a good place to mount this. The way the cupboards are designed, the closest place to mount this where it's going to be accessible is further away than the length of this cord. And so, it's just going to float around in the back there.

Let's get this hooked up.

[Trim off old wire]

[Strip insulation]

[Affix strain relief]

[Attach wire to terminals]

[Tighten screws]

[Put on cover]

The water hook up has been a little bit more challenging than I expected.

The dishwasher has a 3/4" MPT fitting on the back of it and my plumbing has a 3/8" flex pipe. So it didn't work directly in there obviously. So I had to go buy a fitting specially for this project that is a 3/4" MPT fitting to a 3/8" compression fitting.

I'm going to put this on and first of all I need to cut off the old compression fitting on the piping because it can't be used again.

[Install fitting]

[Connect water supply line]

OK, now we're going to connect the drain.

This comes from the dishwasher and it has a section for either 1/2" or 3/4" drain pipe.

This pipe is 3/4" so we're going to put the hose clamp on the 3/4" section and push this in there until it's good and seated.

And that's I think as far as it's going to go.

It seems like it should go a little bit further... but maybe not.

Now we put the hose clamp on.

And tighten it down.

I must say I really like the old hose clamp where it was a spring clamp.

It was so much more convenient.

[Install the mounting clips]

[Push the dishwasher under the counter]

OK, now we get the joy of leveling it.

It seems to be in there OK.

All the water and drain stuff, electrical seems good.

It's pretty well centered.

Now it just needs to get leveled and needs to get lifted up actually.

I've got probably almost an inch gap here at the top.

But that's what the leveler feet are for.

OK, to turn this, turn the feet on the right and left to level it side to side.

And to level it front to back, there's a screw right here in the middle you turn to get the front and back level.

[Screw in mounting screws]

[Attach dust panel]

OK. Well, I finally got it done and in.

That was a lot more work than I expected.

The last dishwasher that I'd taken out was one I had also installed 10 years ago or so probably. Maybe 12 years ago.

It was really pretty simple. It was just straight forward: take out the old, put in the new and it was done.

This one there was "some assembly required" as they say.

I had to pick up that part from Home Depot.

I had to wire in things, it was just a little bit more involved.

It was just more work.

It took a lot longer than I expected.

And it took more tools than I expected.

So the final tools:

Scissors to open packaging.

Level to level it.

Tube cutter to cut off the old compression fitting that I didn't need.

A couple adjustable wrenches to level it.

A Philips and a straight screwdriver.

Wire cutters to trim up the wiring.

And a box knife to trim the insulation.

And a 5/8ths inch wrench to tighten up the water connection.

And pliers to put in those little clips. The clips on this particular dishwasher you can put either on the top or on the sides so you had to install those. Use pliers to do that.

That was it. All in all, not a tough job. It just took about 4 hours to do, and that included having to film and setup.

So that slowed it down a little bit. Probably a good 3 hours to do this even if I hadn't been filming.

So that's it for this project.

Thanks for joining me on our creative journey.

Until next time, go make something.

Perfection's not required.

Fun is!

How to replace a water shut off valve

Description

Do you need to replace a water shut off valve? In this episode of House of Hacks, Harley shows how to fix a shut off valve under a sink.

Other plumbing tips.

Subscribe for more DIY videos.

Watch my most recent video.

For a written transcript, go to How to make a rustic table top

Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0.
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing" by Kevin MacLeod at http://incompetech.com

Transcript

Do you have a crusty, frozen, broken shut-off valve that needs to be replaced?

Today at the House of Hacks, we're going to do just that.

[Intro]

Hi Makers, Builders and Do-it-yourselfers.

Harley here.

Today we're going to remove this old shut-off valve that doesn't work anymore and replace it a bright, shiny new one.

To do this should required just a few minimal tools.

First off, I've turned off the water and drained all the taps so there should be minimal water in the system.

However, there will still be a little residual water that will drain out when we cut into the pipe.

So, I have got a pile of towels to soak up any water that does come out.

We have a couple wrenches we will need.

This is a 15/16th inch open end wrench and this is a 5/8th inch open end wrench.

And we have a tubing cutter that we will use to remove the old one.

And we have our new valve.

Now these valves have compression fittings on them so they just slide on and then you tighten down the nut.

However, once a pipe has had a compression fitting on it, you don't want to put a compression fitting back on the pipe in that same location.

So on the old pipe, we are going to just cut it off since even if we did try to remove it and take off the compression fitting...

First of all it is going to be really difficult and second of all, even it we got it off, we would not be able to use that section of pipe.

So we are just going to cut it off.

It does have plastic lines going into it, so we will remove those plastic lines because those can be reused.

If you have plastic or braided lines going into the output side of the shut off valves, then those can be taken off and reused.

But if you have got hard, solid lines going in there, then again, those need to be cut off as well.

For this particular project, I will be removing the two plastic lines and then cutting off the valve from the main input line.

Put down a towel before opening up the lines to catch any water that might still be in them.

Then a 5/8" wrench loosens the connections until they can be removed by hand.

A small tubing cutter makes quick work of removing the old valve assembly.

Let the towel wick up enough water from the pipe that it won't make a mess when putting the new valve assembly on.

A cleaning brush makes sure we have a good connection to help prevent any leaks at the joint.

Put on the compression nut and then the compression ring.

Fit the valve assembly and make sure it's oriented the way that works best for your environment.

Thread the compression nut onto the valve and tighten it down.

It should be good and tight but you don't need to strong arm it.

Make sure the valves are closed and turn on the main water.

OK. That was a bit exciting.

I made sure before I turned the water on to have the valves all turned off because I have not hooked up the inputs on this yet. Or the outputs.

And I turned on the water because I wanted to make sure that this main input here was tight and did not have any leaks on it.

What I failed to do was turn off the faucet up above and it was turned on in the middle position.

So when I turned the water on, the cold water side got pressurized, went through the faucet, out the hot water side and came out through the unconnected connection.

So, lesson learned: remember, before you turn the water on, to turn off the faucet here if everything is not tightened up and buttoned up down below.

But the good news is we do not have any leaks down here.

And a good way to test that is to use a piece of tissue paper.

Tissue paper soaks up water really easily and just the tiniest drop will cause it to swell up and also change color.

So it is real obvious if there is a tiny leak, even if you can not see it or feel it, it shows up on the tissue paper real well.

And if I run this around here and get it up in the crack of that seal and run it around the top, it's completely, perfectly dry.

There is no change in it whatsoever.

So that tells me that this first connection has a good seal on it.

So let us continue with the last two connections.

OK. A lot of times plastic line on the end here has triangular shaped end on it that is designed to kind of go inside the pipe and provide a good seal on it.

This one does not though.

This one is just straight pipe and then has a compression fitting on it.

You should not really reuse compression fittings once they've been used once.

So I am going to cut this off and then use the new fitting that came with this to connect this up.

And in this case, for the other end, we have braided line, and that has a rubber seal on it, so it can just thread right back on.

And on this rubber stuff, you do not need to really torque it down.

You just need to get it snug.

And again the tissue paper test.

And everything is nice and dry.

And now we have everything connected down below and the valves turned on and we can see we have water on the cold side and water on the hot side, so everything seems to be good.

I didn't see any leaks with the tissue paper.

I like to leave it sit for a couple hours and then test again with the tissue paper because sometimes you have a little bit of seepage that you want to double check a couple hours later just to make sure that there is no leakage.

But I do not think there is going to be a problem with this.

It is rare that I have problems with this side of the plumbing.

Usually when I have leakage problems it is on drain sides, with p-traps, not on pressure sides, interestingly enough.

I am not sure why that is, but that has been my experience.

I believe everyone has a God-given creative spark and this involves making things with a mechanical or technical bent, and sometimes repairing them.

If this sounds interesting to you, I encourage you to check out the rest of the channel and see if this is something you are interested in, and if it is, go ahead and subscribe.

Click the bell notification icon and YouTube will let you know next time I have a video uploaded.

Until then, go make something.

Perfection's not required.

Fun is!

How to replace an Apple MacBook Air's dead battery

Description

Replacing the battery on Apple Macbook Air is really simple and only requires a couple minutes work. In this episode, Harley shows the couple steps needed to change the battery in an mid-2011 MacBook Air and restore it to its original capacity.

Rechargeable batteries have a finite lifetime, wear out as they’re used and need to be replaced. Unlike PC laptops, MacBook’s give a warning when the battery approaches end-of-life and needs to be replaced. Applications like CoconutBattery give additional information.

Purchase battery kit on Amazon (Associates link).

More about the pentalobe screw.

CoconutBattery website

For a written transcript, go to How to replace an Apple MacBook Air's dead battery

Videography by Rich Legg

Music and special effects under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing" by Kevin MacLeod at http://incompetech.com
Incidental: “Mining by Moonlight” by Kevin MacLeod at http://incompetech.com
livingroom_light_switch by AlienXXX at http://freesound.com

Transcript

Rechargeable batteries wear out over time. MacBooks will give a warning when their battery is approaching their end of life and won’t hold a charge. Today at the House of Hacks we’re going to see how easy it is to replace one of these aging batteries.

[Music]

Hi Makers, Builders and Do-it-yourselfers. Harley here.

If you like to make things out of items such as wood, metal and electronics, subscribe to the House of Hacks channel to get notified of future videos.

My buddy Rich’s 5 year old MacBook Air, of mid-2011 vintage, started acting a bit strange. Instead of going to sleep when he closed the lid it started hibernating. And then, because it was hibernated, rather than coming on instantly when he opened the lid, it took a number of seconds to wake back up. And then he finally got this "service battery" warning.

After calling the local repair depot and finding it was going to be a week or so to get it replaced, and with an upcoming photoshoot in a couple days where he really needed it, he asked me to fix it for him. He got a new battery off of Amazon and brought it to the shop to get it replaced.

This particular MacBook’s battery is model number A1496 and it is available from a number of different vendors. Mac batteries are a bit more complex to replace than most Windows-based laptops, but they’re still not to too bad. Let’s take a look at the simple process.

First, for many models, Apple used security screws rather than the run of the mill straight or Phillips screws, so screwdrivers for Pentalobe screws, as well as the more common Torx, are needed for this battery replacement.

Fortunately, Rich purchased a kit that included all the screwdrivers needed to replace the battery. If you don’t get a kit with the screwdrivers, make sure you have the ones you need already on hand. These screwdrivers are not high-quality things you’ll use forever, but they are sufficient to get the one time job done.

After opening the kit, I used the Pentalobe screwdriver to open the bottom of the laptop. There are two long screws next to the screen’s hinge and short screws around the rest of the perimeter.

Once the screws are out, the bottom just lifts off, exposing the battery.

Now, there are 5 Torx screws that hold the battery in. They are at the four corners and one in the center. Again, the two next to the hinge are longer and the other three are shorter.

When the screws are all out, gently lift the battery up and disconnect it. The connector has a plastic tab to pull on. Gently tug on this straight back towards the front edge of the laptop. Do not lift up away from the laptop’s motherboard.

Putting the new battery in is just the reverse of this process.

Attach the connector and make sure it’s seated. Then place the battery back in place so the screw holes line up and replace the screws. Remember, the longer screws go next to the hinge. Be careful not to cross thread or over tighten the screws. They just need to be snug, not super tight.

And now might be a good time to blow some canned air around the fan and vents to make sure there isn’t any dust bunnies hiding around.

Finally put the bottom back on and replace the screws. Again, the long screws go next to the hinge and take care not to cross thread or over tighten them.

Turn the laptop over, and turn it on and admire your work.

If you use an application like coconutBattery, you can see details of the battery's status. This utility can take a snapshot of the status for comparison. Here we see the before and the after. The old battery was to the point where it only charged to 70% of what it was designed for. And we can see the new one goes to 100%.

The instructions that came with the battery indicated it should be discharged to 5% and then recharged to 100% several times in a row. I’m not quite sure why this is recommended. My understanding of the Lithium based battery chemistry is this isn’t needed. It may be a left-over remnant of a recommendation from the Nickel and Lead based battery chemistries or perhaps it’s to calibrate the battery’s charge controller. In any case, understand this is the recommended procedure.

And now this laptop is ready for another 5 years of service.

Join me in the comments below to let me know if you found this helpful.

If this is your first time here at House of Hacks: Welcome, I’m glad you’re here and would love to have you subscribe. I believe everyone has a God-given creative spark. Sometimes this manifests itself through making things with a mechanical and technical bent. Through this channel I hope to inspire, educate and encourage these types of makers in their creative endeavors. Usually this involves various physical media like wood, metal, electronics, photography and other similar materials. If this sounds interesting to you, go ahead and subscribe and I’ll see you again in the next video.

Thanks for joining me on our creative journey. Now, go make something. Perfection’s not required. Fun is!

How to replace intermittent connectors

Description

Sometimes plugs fail. Today at the House of Hacks we tear down a Better Life Devices BLD T250 transdermal stimulator to change the plugs from unreliable barrel connectors to more reliable 1/8" audio connectors. The general process can be used for any type of small device.

Referenced video: How to desolder electronics

For a written transcript, go to How to replace intermittent connectors.

Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0.
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing" by Kevin MacLeod at http://incompetech.com
Incidental: "Dispersion Relation" by Kevin MacLeod at http://incompetech.com

Transcript

This medical device is going to get an upgrade today at the House of Hacks.

My wife has chronic back issues and the other week had a big flair up. The chiropractor showed us a home electronic stimulation unit that he was willing to sell us at a very steep discount because he wasn't terribly impressed with their reliability. He said they worked fine as long as they worked but reported they had a tendency to develop intermittent faults and then fail altogether.

As I looked it over, before buying it, I noted the connectors on the side. A similar design used to be standard for photography flashes and is a well known failure point. I guessed that this was probably the problem but, if it wasn't, figured it would be easy enough to figure out what was.

So we went ahead and bought it, knowing I would probably have to fix it at some point.

Sure enough, after about two weeks of use it started working intermittently. In this episode, I'll show how I upgraded this with a more reliable solution.

At the local electronics store I got a couple 1/8" audio extension cords. The plan was to cut the ends off and put one end in the device coming out as a pigtail and splice the other end onto the wires for the pads.

But first I need to open the unit. I start by sliding this cover off, taking off the two knobs with a gentle pull, they're just press fit on, and removing the battery. It's a good idea to make sure the power is disconnected before doing any sort of repair on electric devices.

Next is to open it up. This took me a little bit to figure out as there are a couple hidden screws. The first one is under this label. Fortunately the label is made out of thick plastic and held down with some sticky but removable adhesive, so it peels off without too much trouble. Once off, a philips head screw is revealed.

There's another screw on the back under this belt clip. One side of this clip has a slot designed to slide a screw driver into. Lift up with a fair mount of pressure to pop off the clip. And there's the second screw.

Finally there are two plastic clips accessed through the battery cover. Pulling the two parts of the case apart at the bottom causes those clips to pop apart and the case finally separates.

The circuit board simply rests in place. To remove it, the LEDs may have to be slid out of the holes in the case before lifting the board out.

And that completes the disassembly.

These are the original cables with their problematic ends. They plug into these connectors on the board.

These will be replaced with the ends from this audio cable. I'll cut the ends off the cable and replace the connectors on the board with the female audio connector and splice on the male audio connector onto the end of the electrode cable. This will result in a much more reliable connection.

To remove the connectors, I'm just going to use a bit of desolder braid to remove the solder. Once the solder's removed, the connectors just drop out of the holes.

This is a cheap brand of audio cable that I've had about 50% failure rate with. So before doing anything to this cable, I'm testing it with a simple continuity check. I make sure I don't have any shorts between the tip and ring and that I do have continuity between the tip on both ends and the ring on both ends.

Now that the cable checks out, I'm just going to cut off the ends. Then using some wire strippers I'll carefully remove the insulation. With audio cables, the outside conductor is wrapped around the inside one. So after taking off the outside insulation, the wires first need to be gathered together and twisted. Then the insulation can be taken off the inside conductor.

And then the other end gets the same treatment.

With the connectors exposed and twisted together, now I'll tin the ends. This makes it much easier to solder when things are put together.

Now the wires just go in the holes the old connectors came out of. For this particular application, it doesn't matter which wire goes in which hole. For other types of devices, the outside ring should match up to the outside ring on the original.

A little solder finishes the connection and then the excess wire can be trimmed off.

That finishes the electrical side. Now a dab of hot glue makes a mechanical connection to act as a strain relief so there's no undue stress on the solder joint.

Now to modify the cables that plug into the device.

Cut off the original ends and split the two wires down the center. Expose the wire with some wire strippers, twist the wire together, add a bit of heat shrink tubing on the wires, add some tinning to the wires and solder the new ends onto the old wires.

Generally, I like to make a mechanical connection before soldering, but this particular wire was too brittle to bend well so I used the solder as both a mechanical and electrical connection.

Finally slide the heat shrink over the connectors and heat it up to shrink it around the connection. In total there were three pieces of heat shrink tubing for each cable: one for each of the wires and a larger one around the whole thing.

And now it's time to reassemble the device. This is just the opposite of taking it apart. Drop the circuit board into one side of the box, sliding the battery connectors into place. The other side goes back on top with the new connectors coming out of the original holes. The screws go back in. The label is replaced and then the knobs slide back onto the controls. Finally, the battery can be placed in. Before the clip goes back on, I'm going to test it. Yeah, nothing like testing it on yourself. As I turn up the intensity I can feel it working. Success!

A side effect of using these connectors is they act as a strain-relief, break-away connection. If the control unit somehow has forced applied to it, like it drops out of a pocket, it simply comes apart at the new connectors rather than putting a lot of force on the wire/connector/PCB system like the original connectors did.

Finally, I'm thinking about making a DIY version of this device. If you'd be interested in seeing a video about this, let me know in the comments.

Thanks for watching and until next time, go make something, it doesn't have to be perfect, just have fun!