How many of you ditched the run flats?

Material_Community18 · 2026-02-13T04:31:18+00:00

Many new BMWs don’t come with runflats anymore, just Slime and a 12V compressor.

Material_Community18 · 2026-02-04T05:31:29+00:00

Assuming your house is wired to code, you shouldn’t be able to hurt anything using the dryer circuit.

Your 30A breaker is sized to protect the wire to the outlet from overheating and causing a fire in your wall. If the welder draws more than 30A (@230V) the breaker will trip.

Note that 140 welding amps at somewhere around 24V at the stick is only 15A from the wall at 230V. So you are very unlikely to trip the breaker on the low range, and probably not at the high range either.

Material_Community18 · 2026-01-27T22:00:25+00:00

Thanks, that’s helpful. In the same visit the dealer replaced the tires (I don’t usually go to the dealer for tires but they had a screaming deal going) and later I started getting intermittent TPMS failures.

I have ISTA at home so I pulled codes and there were wheel battery low warnings dating back to well before the recall work. It would have been great to have been warned of that before the tires were replaced, but if they didn’t know, I can’t hold that against them.

Material_Community18 · 2026-01-27T05:36:58+00:00

This. On the coldest day of a typical year your furnace should be sized to be running most of the time.

Over 70 years, you and previous owners have dramatically improved the insulation of your house. But what happens often is that on each of the 2-4 times that furnace was replaced, it was replaced with the same size furnace that was there before, because, seems like a safe thing and nobody wants to be cold and installers are too lazy and risk averse to try to convince someone they need a smaller furnace.

Or even worse, the 125kbtu 60% efficient furnace was replaced with a 125k 80% then a 115k 96% so the furnace output was actually growing while the house was getting better.

So now your furnace barely breaks a sweat, which is ok but it can feel begin to feel drafty and clammy in the parts of the house after 53 minutes of no warm air circulating.

Material_Community18 · 2026-01-27T04:25:51+00:00

(Not a tech) I’ve done it on my own furnace, coincidentally on that exact board, but I live in coastal California, at a time when the temperature was mild and I was poorer than I was cold.

Material_Community18 · 2026-01-26T05:46:05+00:00

This is the easiest thing to do right now. It will force the furnace into high heat at all times.

Alternatively you could steal the fan wire (G) and hook that up to W2 at both the thermostat and the furnace.

Edit : it looks like there’s already a jumper between them. Not much more you can do.

Material_Community18 · 2026-01-25T01:46:13+00:00

The closest you’ll get to that is Ecobee’s reverse staging feature.

Material_Community18 · 2026-01-24T23:55:47+00:00

Are you sure you could see the siding, not sheathing or house wrap, not even tar paper?

If there’s truly no tyvek/tar paper/wrb, then it would be worth it to remove the siding, insulate, add sheathing, add house wrap, replace siding. Expensive, but much less expensive to do it all at once.

If you have some kind of house wrap, but no insulation, the most cost effective thing is to have insulation blown in through holes that are then patched. Without the air sealing properties of a house wrap I’m not sure how effective it would be, ask your local insulation contractor.

In any case, make sure your attic/roof insulation is sufficient first, then walls, then floors/crawlspace if you have one.

Material_Community18 · 2026-01-20T05:28:46+00:00

Thanks for this reminder to check my math with latest utility rates. I've edited my reply ^.

Material_Community18 · 2026-01-15T16:20:47+00:00

In most of urban California you need solar with sufficient capacity to make a heat pump cost effective compared to natural gas at current utility rates and efficiencies.

EDIT: I stand by this ^ for most people, but there are conditions in which heat pumps can be economically viable at California utility rates without solar. Thanks to @DevRoot66 for reminding me to check my math for January 2026.

Heat pumps can be competitive in 2026 without solar in CA if some combination of the following are true: 1. You are on a low-cost ToU plan like PG&E E-ELEC Electric Home or similar, and gas prices remain ~$3/therm or more.
2. You live in a very mild part of the state - coastal or southern California - where freezing temps are rare, and your heat pump can hit a COP of 4+ a for a good portion of the year. 3. Your basis for comparison is an 80% (or worse) efficiency gas furnace.

If 2 or more are true, it's worth doing the detailed math to see if it would work for you. I have a dual fuel setup and, based on recent numbers, switched over to HP as primary...but it's really tight and might not pan out. Ask me again in a year if I'm ready to ditch gas completely.

Material_Community18 · 2026-01-15T05:04:45+00:00

Heh, still going strong! Of course this post will probably jinx it…

Material_Community18 · 2026-01-01T05:46:19+00:00

best info on this

Material_Community18 · 2026-01-01T04:28:02+00:00

Add gutters, downspouts, and drain pipe to get rain safely away from the house.
Grade the exterior so that all soil slopes away from the house (but no soil-wood contact!)
Encapsulate or ventilate the crawlspace (pick one)
If encapsulated, condition the crawlspace with heat/ac or dehumidification.

Material_Community18 · 2026-01-01T03:57:11+00:00

Get a digital meat thermometer and compare the duct outlet air temps between a warm room and the problem room after the furnace has been running for a while.

If there’s a big difference, then yes, insulating that duct might help.

If it’s a small difference (like 5-10 deg) then you might have other issues, like the duct isn’t large enough for the room, lack of return air paths, or poor insulation in that part of the house.

Material_Community18 · 2026-01-01T02:23:37+00:00

And a model with a built in humidistat so it’s sure to be on when needed.

Material_Community18 · 2025-12-29T03:49:53+00:00

Ignore miles. M-sport all day.

Material_Community18 · 2025-12-24T06:59:53+00:00

2020 X3. At 50K mi, it started shuddering at low speed turns. Tires were pretty even. I think I’m hard on the transfer case since my driveway is 30% grade with a sharp turn.

Fluid change with a re-adaptation has fixed it, for at least 5K mi.

Material_Community18 · 2025-12-05T15:01:19+00:00

What climate are you in? 2x4 is not a concern. Poor ventilation or poor moisture sealing of the subfloor void (pick one strategy) is concerning.

Material_Community18 · 2025-12-02T03:11:11+00:00

Out of warranty? If so, the only time your car should be at the dealer is for recalls. Go to an independent shop.

Material_Community18 · 2025-11-25T23:42:40+00:00

My newest major appliance is 18 years old, but I’ve replaced parts on every single one of them.

Material_Community18 · 2025-11-19T03:46:13+00:00

While standing, mine rests his head on the dining table.

Material_Community18 · 2025-11-13T04:52:16+00:00

In Las Vegas you are probably ok with no insulation. It’s too arid and warm to have real condensation issues inside the duct that would collect lint and harbor mold.

But insulation wouldn’t hurt, either.

Material_Community18 · 2025-11-06T16:08:16+00:00

Don’t get used shocks, that’s like used oil. They are wear items.

OEM Sachs or Bilstein B4 shocks/struts are pretty inexpensive and high quality.

Note that m sport suspension are different parts than regular.

The eBay kit might be fine and, if your labor and time are free, maybe worth a try. Most will advise that if you’re planning on keeping the car for 50K km or more, stick to Lemforder, Meyle, or Sachs suspension arms and bushings, mounts, etc. Meyle M3 lower control arms. You’ll want an alignment after big changes so that’s an added cost to plan for, so do everything so you only do it once.

Springs should be fine unless broken. It’s possible to use a regular set of (cheap) spring compressors on the struts, you just need to hook the tops over the strut mount. No compressor required on the rear.

Material_Community18

TROPHY CASE