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I live in a rural location and have always had sketchy internet, as it comes to my house via 7 wifi links, with trees and other obstacles to limit the signal strength. I don't sleep too well and often listen to BBC radio, streamed live to my phone. For the last week or so this has not worked...

I have had several woodburning stoves over the years but none of them have been new and none came with operating instructions. Some of them have a device that can partially restrict the flow of smoke from the stove to the flue. I've always assumed that was meant to be used in conjunction with an...

I have a double radiator that is getting hot at the front but staying cold at the back. Is it just a case of removing it and flushing? The system has always been run using antifreeze type inhibitor and is about 8 years old.

In 40 years of DIY I have accumulated various spare fittings of various ages. Yesterday I was doing a modification to cure a leak and managed to create a bigger leak! I used an old 15mm solder ring union / coupling. My uncle ( a former gas fitter) used to recommend you add a bit of extra solder...

I am wanting to add a Horstmann HRT2 thermostat to an existing central heating system. With it not wired I can hear it clicking when I turn it to above or below room temperature. This would suggest I could connect it using 2 core cable (live and switched live). The instructions say terminal 4...

I'm currently installing a solid fuel central heating boiler i.e. the plumbing is not for potable water. This is in Croatia where the only fittings for copper are end feed. I've been using up an old reel of leaded solder but have come to the end of that. I do have Fluxite flux (after trying...

I have an old Clarke generator that uses this engine. I actually stripped it a few years ago to investigate it not starting but then other priorities prevented me from putting it back together. I had hoped there would be workshop manuals available online but suppose, being an American product...

Around 2018 I moved to Croatia but I had owned the house for a while as a renovation project. I designed and installed a solid fuel central heating system. It used pumped central heating with gravity hot water. That design was chosen so the hot water cylinder could act as a heat sink in the...

I have an MTD electric chainsaw which I've had for about 10 years but has been slightly faulty for most of that time. It was just the plastic hose to the chain oil tank that was split but not an easy repair, as the whole machine has to be stripped to access the oil pump end of the pipe. I used...

I have had my 2008 Chevrolet Spark for 11 years and it has been super reliable but on Wednesday it overheated on a hot day in a motorway traffic jam. I removed the thermostat, put in some water and I did complete my journey. I didn't think it was the thermostat but it was an easy thing to try...

I have a pine desk which I have had for 20 years or so. It was flat pack but I assumed it had some kind of matt varnish as it was not shiny. Over the years I realised it must have been bare wood as parts would get grubby looking. I finally got round to dismantling it, sanding off stains etc and...

I am thinking of changing from a woodburning cooking range with boiler to a pellet stove which will be in the utility room adjacent to the kitchen. House is a 3 bedroom bungalow. I can't afford a new pellet stove but have seen one secondhand, a Ferroli GN1 N05, maximum output: 58.1 kW. I...

I'm in Croatia and have done my bathroom floor with Sinteros vinyl flooring which I think is made in Poland. I also want to cover the plywood bath panels with the same vinyl. I initially did the end panel with double sided tape but it started falling off after a couple of days. It stuck to the...

Often when I try to search for something on Google the results I need are swamped by irrelevant stuff. This is partly because I'm from UK and the internet is largely USA populated. Is there a way to exclude certain results using keywords? For example, today I was trying to look up a song...

Not sure if anyone here has dealings with continental water heaters but here goes. I'm from UK but living in Croatia. I have no gas here but plenty of forests so I put in a woodburning central heating system. I used a UK type indirect cylinder for the hot water and the system was pumped CH...

My PC was full of building dust so I dismantled it and blew the parts clean with an airline. I thought everything on the motherboard was labelled and it mostly is but the single socket for the 4 plugs to HDD led, Power Led, Power button and reset button is confusing. It is right at the bottom of...

I posted recently about problems with a shower pump. One of the replies suggested that the hot water might be too hot for the pump. The water has been getting very hot lately so I tried turning down the immersion heater thermostat. The thermostat has never worked since then. The water gets...

My hot water is a gravity system and the shower has always been a pathetic trickle. Some time ago a friend gave me a couple of secondhand shower pumps, the sort with a central motor and pumps each end for hot and cold. He also gave me some hoses for connecting to the supply and shower mixer...

Years ago it was dead easy to fit a universal roof rack to your Moggy Minor but these days it seems to be a pain in the proverbial! Even if your car comes with roof rails you still need to then get roof bars before you can use the wretched things. I have got a pair of bars I bought in Lidl a...

I have been doing pointing work on weak Eastern European bricks using a 6:1:1 mix of sand, OPC and hydrated lime. I would like if possible to go to a proper lime mortar and avoid using the OPC. I have watched various YouTube videos on lime mortar but am just getting more confused! In one video...