handy hints, not too many for the kitchen or laundry!

To Tommy Paine;

Is there a difference in the vibration between a top and front load washer during the spin cycle?

My top loader has to be very carefully leveled or it will "walk" or make quite a noise.

[ 28 January 2007: Message edited by: oreobw ]

I think the delivery dudes leveled mine, so I don't have that problem.

I also have a .125" (1/8) steel plate under my washer dryer (It's a stacking unit) and I think that helps to dampen resonance. My ex picked it up from the scap yard years ago. Even paying for the cut it wasn't expensive. Of course, you don't need something like that if yours is in the basement, on concrete.

Our washer used to vibrate, but my dad lifted it a bit and I stuck folded papers under the offending leg.

If the salt in your salt shaker sticks together, put a grain or two of rice in it to absorb the humidity.

For wasp stings, my aunt would take apple vinegar and put it on the sting.

And to remember all those units for senior physics.

Getting measurements korrect means understanding numbers properly (GMKMUNP)
109 gigametre Gm
106 megametre Mm
103 kilometre km
10−3 millimetre mm
10−6 micrometre µm
10−9 nanometre nm
10−12 picometre pm

NB Babble won't accept superscripts. In the first row 109 is realy 10 to the power of 9.

You can empty your vacuum cleaner into your compost bin, and as an added advantage you will recover all those loose coins and bits of lego from the humus when you are spreading it in your garden.

quote:Originally posted by Jacob Two-Two:
So many uses for vinegar. It also cures dandruff.

Does it work for oily hair? I have two teens in the house who wash their hair each morning and by noon...flat and oily. Tried half a dozen "clarifying" shampoos, tried dish soap. The shampoos didn't work and the dish soap dries the scalp. Any ideas?

quote:Originally posted by Polly Brandybuck:

Does it work for oily hair? I have two teens in the house who wash their hair each morning and by noon...flat and oily. Tried half a dozen "clarifying" shampoos, tried dish soap. The shampoos didn't work and the dish soap dries the scalp. Any ideas?

Possible extra washing of their hair is making it worse. If possible (on the weekend?) leave it for a couple of days, then wash very gently using warm water and mild shampoo, and maybe in the bath is better than the heavy pounding of a shower. They need to try and avoid stimulating the oil glands.
let me know how it goes.

Thanks SL I will run that past them. I don't imagine I will have too much trouble talking them into NOT washing it over the weekends...I usually have to chase them into the shower.

Michelle, I used to get those terrible toni perms when I was a teen. And you are right, no oils can survive that treatment. The guys won't want to do anything like that though - they are both very much into wash it shake it leave it when it comes to hair.

Where I work, there is a kettle that has had really nasty scum buildup on it for months. I hardly ever use it so I've never bothered to do anything about it, but the other day when I wanted to make some instant oatmeal, I just couldn't bear to use it, because it was so bad that every time you boiled water in it and poured the water, you'd get these little tiny black flecks near the bottom of the kettle.

So I finally got off my butt today and cleaned the thing. The best way? Pour enough vinegar in it to cover the element (in this case, it was a couple of inches of vinegar). Fill it the rest of the way with water. Bring it to boiling and leave it boiling for (apparently) about 10 minutes. Works like a charm.

The one here turns off automatically after boiling for a couple of minutes, so I let it sit for about half an hour, went to check on it, and the element and build up on the sides was almost completely gone, but there was still a little bit of caked-on black spots on the element (although, no black flecks in the water after rinsing). So just to be safe, I did it again, except this time I just put in about an inch or two of vinegar and another inch or two of water. I'm waiting for it to be done now, so we'll see how it works out. As it was, the first time made about a zillion percent improvement anyway.

Yes, I've used hot vinegar to remove lime build up on a heating element from a vaporizer. Works very well, particularly if you add a little elbow grease with a small wire brush.

I guess it depends on your water source. Mine is Lake Huron, which tends to be a tad on the mineral laden side, so I think our kettles and such lime up quicker. It's fairly simple chemistry. Acid dissolves limestone quite readily. And heat speeds up the reaction.

I don't recommend the practice for those keenest on the environment though. Those bubbles you see are carbon dioxide. Maybe we should leave it locked up in rock form?

[img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]

Well, it does give off Carbon dioxide, but in such small amounts that it isn't worth considering.

[img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img]

Next time you come west in Ontario, and cross the escarpment, realize that this was the result of natural processes that took carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and locked it up on the sedimentary limestone. All those creatures that make shells use dissolved carbon dioxide.

We might expect that more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would encourage things like coral reefs to go into overdrive and help us out of our current fix. But we do what we can to poison their tricky environment, and rising sea levels will play havoc with existing reef systems. Corals and the like have rather specific water depth requirements.

And besides, they are a bit slow, in human time terms, in doing their carbon dioxide clean up bit.