You gotta hang a sopping wet washcloth on it.

Joanna writes:

Lately when I go to drain the bath water, the flippy, water stopper thing gradually eases its way from the "down" position, to the "up" position. It originally kind of freaked me out, like some supernatural force was playing a game with me. But after mentioning it to a co-worker, he said something along the lines of, "Sounds like you got some hair and gunk cloggin up the pipe, causing some pressure..." But instead of calling my manager, and risking the humiliation of whatever "gunk" might be in there, I have discovered that draping a heavy, wet washcloth over the flipper does the trick. This weighs it down and keeps it from snapping up (and keeps me from discovering nasty, night-old bath water the next morning when I go to shower).

UPDATE: You don't gotta prop a chair against it anymore.

Victory for humanity!

My wife laid the machine low with help from her secret weapon: a "washer door catch."

The Parts Detective is sure to be an invaluable aid in Our Struggle.

You gotta lock it, unlock it, and lock it again.

Just Nancy writes:

When you push the button that locks the car, it beeps, but it doesn’t make the locking sound. So it’s not locking. The way I fix it is I push the unlock button—the car makes the unlocking sound—and then I push the lock button for the second time. It beeps and makes the locking sound. Now the car is locked.

You gotta give it a spin.

Ririsu writes:

I have a small black fan that my mother bought me when I moved out to Seattle. The thing couldn't have cost more than $12 new from Fred Meyer. About ten months ago, the thing started to bind up. There is a very large amount of dust generated in my room and dust webs started to clog the gears and bind the once-speedy motion of my trusty little fan. It got to the point where I would turn it on to the highest setting and the gears would make a groaning sound while the fan blades moved ever so slightly as if they might get going. I would take a paint brush and give one blade a good shove, and this worked to kick start the thing for about four months. Then, I had to remove the safety grill and give the blades repeated spins with my hand. I've tried to dust the thing, but it is amazing how much dust appears while I'm sleeping. I feel like a DJ every time I give my little black fan a good spin to get it going.

You gotta hit it with a spoon.

J-Ma writes:

Ever since I've had my house (going on 8 yrs) my stovetop fan has needed a kick start. I will turn it on and it always just makes this horrible banging sound and every time (even though I know there's not) I think there is a bird or some kind of perhaps even larger animal fighting to get out.

Then I grab my trusty spoon from the utensil spindle and give it about 3 or 4 good whacks and BAM! It starts whirling away not very quietly still but much more steady and less noisy than before.

Instead of being annoyed I have found it very therapeutic, using it to my advantage to release pent-up aggression. I don't know what I'd do if it actually just worked on its own one day.

You gotta make sure both switches are on.

Jen writes:

My house is a two-story structure, the entryway being situated in between the upstairs and downstairs. When I first moved into this house, I knew the upstairs lights worked, but sometimes when I flipped the switch, nothing came on. It was a 25-year-old house, so I worried maybe the wiring was faulty. I had a feeling, though, that I had to figure out the right combination of on & off positions for the light switches. I finally figured it out: For some reason, the living room overhead lights (upstairs), the entry way light, and the downstairs hallway light are all on the same switch. Actually, the same two switches. One switch is in the downstairs hallway and one is at the top of the stairs up to the living room. They both have to be on for the lights to be on. So, if I turn the downstairs light off when leaving the house I have to go back downstairs at night to turn it back on before the upstairs lights will come on when I turn on the upstairs switch. Can't you just feel the frustration?

You gotta leave it on long enough.

BattleCobra90000 writes:

The toilet fan has failed. You turn it on, but it just groans. It wants to go, but can't. You can hear it in the way it strains against itself: if it could only get going, it'd stay going. I try to coax it along by turning on its companion, the combo red heat lamp/shower fan. "Come on, toilet fan!" they cry. "You can do it!" But the toilet fan is too far gone. Or is it?

Sometimes I'll find it running, a steady whirr punctuated with the occasional grinding wheeze. How did it get going? Wifey reveals: "It's because you have to leave it on long enough."

You gotta pry the button out with your thumbnail.

Our doorbell gets stuck every time someone pushes it. And then you gotta pry it out with your thumbnail or else the sound of the doorbell will turn into a grinding buzz in the kitchen (where the speaker is). So when someone comes and rings the bell, we need to stop what we're doing and fix the button. When we come home and hear a tell-tale, hard-to-locate buzz, we know someone has come by and pressed the doorbell.

You gotta turn the cold water on.

If you try to use only the hot water in the bathroom sink, after anywhere from 10 to 30 seconds, a god-awful loud, metallic groan emanates from the pipes. It is very startling. Turning on the cold water at the same time as the hot seems to "take care of" the problem.

You gotta prop a chair against it.

We've had this front-loader washing machine for about nine years. But now you gotta prop something heavy against the door or it won't go. Good thing there just happens to be a big, padded chair down there, in the middle of the room, doing nothing. If you push it against the door and press it in, you can trick the washing machine into thinking the door is actually shut, which it actually is. And was, even before this work-around.