The leading cause of water damage in most residences is failure of the flexible rubber hoses that connect the washing machine to the hot and cold water. These hoses become brittle over time and only have a useful life of about seven years.
Unless you turn off the water after every use, you are holding full line pressure in these rubber hoses 100% of the time. Over the years, the rubber deteriorates until one day the hoses fail and flood your laundry room at the rate of 600 gallons per hour. Let’s hope you are home or the flood will be devastating.
There is a hose available that will eliminate this problem. It is called FloodChek. If the hose should fail or even be cut it has a built-in valve that closes and stops the water flow. The hose is guaranteed for twenty years. For more information on this hose plus a video go to:
www.creativelaundry.com/products/floodcheck-hose/
We have written in the past about the metal braided hoses available in big box and hardware stores. These are considerably better than the rubber hoses that come with a washing machine but are not quite as good as the FloodCheck hoses. In any case, you should not trust the rubber hoses to hold the relatively high Huntley water pressure. Every house in Sun City should have FloodChek hoses on the washing machine.
Garage Access to Your House
Did you ever want to give temporary access to your house to a visitor or a service person? If you have a keyless entry keypad on the outside of your garage chances are it can be programmed to activate a four digit PIN for a programmed number of hours or number of accesses after which it will expire and the PIN will no longer open the door.
To set a temporary PIN:
1. Press the four buttons for your personal entry PIN and then press and hold the * button. The opener light will blink three times. Release the button.
2. Press the temporary four-digit PIN you have chosen, then press Enter. The opener light will blink four times.
3. To set the number of hours this temporary PIN will work, press the number of hours (up to 255 hours), then press the * button.
OR
To set the number of times this temporary PIN will work, press the number of times (up to 255 times), then press the # button.
The opener light will blink once when the temporary PIN has been learned.
Test by pressing the four buttons for the temporary PIN, then press Enter. The door should open. If you have set the temporary PIN for a certain number of openings, this test will use up one opening. To clear the temporary PIN, repeat steps 1-3, setting the number of hours or times to 0 in step 3.
If you have suggestions for future tips or have questions about maintenance around your home submit them to ask.the.woodchucks@gmail.com
