mattgadient.com

So… saw a deal on a used front-load washer (in need of repair – suspected bad bearings), figured I’ve replaced a zillion bearings on cars before, so thought I’d buy the washer and see if I can fix it.

Now technically, you’ll find that all the major Whirlpool parts outlets include these as part of a $400-500 rear tub. Yes, Whirlpool wants you to buy the big honking tub because 1 or 2 $10-20 bearings stopped working. Presumably you’re then supposed to throw your old tub away. If I ever start an “I hate the environment” club, Whirlpool’s the first company I’m asking to join.

So bearings are a bit of a pain to find. Well, maybe not that bad. These are the bearing numbers:
6205
6206

(I pulled the numbers from http://www.hometask.com/washerrepair.aspx where you can find bearing numbers for a number of Kenmore & Whirlpool Duet machines). It’s worth noting that you can buy seals or seals+bearings directly through their site as well.

Otherwise, you can find bearings online for anywhere from $3.50 up (depending on the quality of bearing you’re looking for – I doubt I’d opt for anything less than something made in Japan which is a good bit more, or a stainless steel bearing which starts at around $20), or find them at your local bearing shop. Now finding a new seal is a pain, though the site mentioned above carries them.

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Installation:

I was going to write up a big massive guide with pictures, but as it turns out, others have already put together impressive YouTube videos. The one I’d recommend using as a guide is embedded below.

Again, to give credit where it’s due, this excellent video was created by Jerrod from http://www.hometask.com/washerrepair.aspx – and again, they sell the seals and bearings for the Whirlpool Duet WFW9200SQ02 as well as other models.

They also have a short version available on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd5NKbpVSRM

If you’re interested in getting a general idea as to the process, I’d suggest the short YouTube video. When you’re actually ready to buckle down and start disassembling, watch the long one.

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In case you wanted some continue reading…

In looking for a couple oil-filled radiator space heaters, I came across a couple models:

• Garmin 1500W Oil-Filled Heater – 043-5963 (Canadian Tire)
• Bionaire 1500W Oil Filler Radiator – BOF2001-CN (Wal-Mart)

Both have a thermostat that can be set, a digital display, and claim to have a frost protection feature.

Here are a couple pictures of them, side-by-side. Bionaire (black) is on the left. Garrison (white) on the right:

Both are powered on – it’s a bit dim in the room, so in the 1st image, the camera’s flash is off. In the 2nd image, the camera’s flash is on.

As you can see, the Bionaire has a blue backlit display, with some pretty large numbers. You’ll have no problem reading it in the dark. On the other hand, the Garrison has a small display, and it’s not backlit – it’s very difficult to see in the dark. A couple more images closer up:

It’s really tough to read some of the indicators on the Garrison model (right-side). Particularly the stuff on the top and bottom. If your room’s not very well-lit, it’s an exercise in frustration. Try reading/making-out as much as you can in the image above. See what you can pick out.

Now here’s another image with the flash on:

Really, the Garrison’s not meant for a dark room, assuming you plan to read the display. If you’re planning to set-and-forget, it might be just fine though.

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With that out of the way, let’s get this comparison / review moving…. continue reading…

A really oddball situation recently arose in Plex. Namely, all of season 3 was picked up in Plex Media Manager except for the 6th episode (“Chuck Versus the Nacho Sampler”). Basically, it jumped from 5-7. I tried a pile of tricks to no avail – moving the folder out and back in, renaming the file to use periods instead of spaces (Chuck.S03E06.Chuck.Versus.the.Nacho.Sampler.mkv), having it as the only episode in the folder (in case for some reason I had a duplicate), etc.

Turns out, the problem is having “sample” in the filename (I suppose there’s a filter for those.. *ahem*… torrents which include samples). To be clear, I’d named the file as so:

Chuck – S03E06 – Chuck Versus the Nacho Sampler.mkv

The fix was dumping “Sampler” from the file name. I changed the name to the following and it worked:

Chuck – S03E06 – Chuck Versus the Nacho.mkv

An ALT-refresh (the files aren’t stored on the local machine, hence the required “alt” to actually rescan the network folder) allowed it to be picked up by Plex.

I’d assume dropping the title completely (and having Chuck – S03E06) would work too, though I like having the episode name in the filename when I’m playing videos on another machine through VLC (Plex clients shouldn’t care – it should show you the properly scraped name including the “Sampler” part). If you’re really irked/OCD about losing part of the episode name in the file name, you could always be creative and try using S4mpler or fudging the name enough that it doesn’t look like it’s a “sample”.

TLDR version (added because I rambled more than usual):

-It’s paired with a Winegard HD 8200U
-There’s an improvement over the radio-shack 10db antenna
-The 3 towers less than 20 miles away didn’t cause overload (though it’s not aimed directly at them and we’re running through 100 feet of coax)
-Between the 2, we’re getting a digital station ~60 miles away perfectly, with a closer digital station (which it’s not aimed at) still artifacting every once in a while (which I’m sure will be cured when Mr Saw meets a family of trees causing multipath). Most of the analog stations are coming in perfectly with a couple having you-have-to-look-for-it-to-see-it ghosting. One analog station is a bit snowy at the moment, which will likely be cured when the antenna’s re-aimed (it’s in the antenna’s ‘blind spot’ right now).

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Okay then.

In the last write-up, I’d grabbed and installed the Winegard HD 8200U antenna. Due largely to a 100-ft cable run, it was using a cheap 10db in-line amplifier – something that probably cost around $10-15 about a decade ago. If you want to read up on the remaining issues it left, you can check out the Winegard HD 8200U review (scroll to the bottom).

Moving on, with some tweaking the issues continue reading…

Bit of a preface: I’m located in Manitoba, east of Winnipeg. We’re fairly limited in OTA channels, but historically those near Winnipeg have had the following over-the-air options:

6 – CBC
7 – CTV (CKY)
9 – Global (CKND)
12 – FOX (from Pembina, ND – very tough to get)
13 – CityTV (CHMI, previously A-Channel, previously MTN)
35 – JoyTV

There’s also a french channel on 3. Channel 35′s relatively new. Aside from FOX (12), you’ve generally been able to get the others without much difficulty in rural areas around Winnipeg.

Canada’s in the midst of the Digital Over-The-Air transition, and while Aug 2011 is the deadline, only Global has transitioned thus far (over 40.1 & 40.2 though the HD stream’s currently remapped to channel 9.1). If you live near Winnipeg, you might want to check it out – it’s pretty sweet. If you can grab FOX’s digital (channel 12.1), it’s worth a shot too.

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Now I don’t watch much TV, but the goal was to pull in FOX. It’s a challenge, but challenges are usually pretty fun. For reference, we’re about 60 miles (90-100km) away from that transmitter.

Turns out, it can be a bit tough. I started out with an RCA CANT711 (from Walmart), which mounted outdoors about 25 feet in the air, using the built-in 10db amplifier, shockingly managed to pull in FOX’s digital station… sometimes. It’s one of those tiny antennas in a plastic tube, and surprisingly it beat out the massive standalone YAGI antennas I tried (a 14-foot and an 8-foot).

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Of course, nothing’s more frustrating than a signal that only comes in some of the time. After a pile of research, I decided to give the Winegard HD8200U a try. It’s supposed to be similar to the 8200P, except that it’s in sections so that it can be shipped by standard delivery services (UPS/Purolator/FedEx/etc) rather than having to be shipped by truck.

I ordered it through xtek.ca, who shipped it via Purolator.

Here’s the box:

I left the sandals there (large mens) to give you an idea as to how big this box is. It managed to obtain a small hole during shipping, but didn’t sustain any damage inside.

Opening the box, you can continue reading…