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Found 47 results for the keyword ‘Mystery’

  • Which Paint Is It - Latex or Oil?

    Determining, definitively, whether a given paint was oil or latex has always been a bit of a problem, but an important one as you can paint oil over latex, but not latex over oil unless you use a special 'super adherent primer' first. I used to recommend taking a bit of paint thinner on a clean ...
  • Investigation Techniques

    THE ALMOND MYSTERY Updated-- 20 almonds soaked in water overnight are good for my wife’s and my health.  But when there are only 14 almonds in the bowl in the morning I was getting accused of old age distraction.  Next day 20 in the bowl, next day 20 in the bowl – I guess it was my distractive ...
  • Degenerating water heater dip tube

    Steven from Pierrefonds, Quebec isn't getting much hot water out of his tank these days, and has little white plastic beads collecting in the strainer of his faucets. He has heard about a problem with water heater dip tubes, so he did his homework and writes: "I understand this is a common proble...
  • Smoke alarms: aging, testing and the law

      HOW DO THEY WORK? Most smoke alarms operate by allowing the smoke to get between a light source and a light sensitive target. When the light gets dim, the alarm goes off. If a spider passes in front of the light, or spins his web in front of the light, he may just set off the alarm. Vacuum ou...
  • Why do plumbing washers have letters and numbers on them?

    I don't really have an answer to the question, but I can help you to understand what they mean. We could find no plumber, nor plumbing manufacturer who could actually tell us the origin of the plumbing code for rubber washers. My guess is that it probably had something to do with the inside diam...
  • Strange white stuff around the patch on my concrete wall.

    Ed from Quesnel, B.C. had patched a leak in his concrete wall. It worked -- no more water. But now a strange white stuff has developed all around the patch. What is happening? Obviously he has succeeded in stopping the water from entering his basement, but he has not eliminated the presence of w...
  • Should I put an air deflector over my baseboard heaters? No!

    Jean Charles from Shawinigan, Quebec noticed that the heat from his baseboard heaters was flowing up and being "wasted" by hitting the cold window glass. So he decided to put a piece of plywood over the heater to deflect the heat out into the room. He even sent me sketches of before and after. Y...