Well, here is my first impression of the new AT&T U-verse I had installed to replace Comcast. Setting up the TV converter boxes has been quite frustrating. All of the old wiring (that I installed 15 years ago when I was young(er) and dumb(er)) does not seem to work very well. That means 2 of the TV's were rather spotty with coverage. I fixed one of them by running a length of CAT5 cable to it. The other simply required rearranging the living room to take advantage of a better connection I had installed a few years back. Now all 5 TV's are working well.
There are occasional hangs or stutters, but my wife assures me it's not more than what we saw with Comcast Digital cable. The DVR works wonderfully. I haven't tried watching on a different box, but I will soon. The 2 recorded shows we watched were of very good recorded quality.
I'm a little bummed that the U200 package does not include any real movie channels. At least Comcast's digital basic included the Encore movie channels. It's also taking some time getting used to the locations of all the channels, but all-in-all, it's looking acceptable.
The internet connection is also pretty stable. I don't think it's quite as fast as it should be, as I still usually max out at around 1Mb downloading on torrents, and i'm paying for the highest speed. I may try dropping that if the future to a lower level and saving a few bucks, as we are only 1700 feet from the drop box and should be getting as good a connection as is possible.
I abhor changing email addresses (I'm seriously considering moving everything to my google mail account so I don't have to do it anymore), so I'm certainly going to make sure we keep this service before changing everything and canceling the comcast service.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
How to replace the heating element on a Frigidaire dryer, model AEQ7000EE0
Well, my Frigidaire dryer in only 2 years old, and the heating element has burned out. Our previous dryer was made in the early 90's, so it was designed differently and it was VERY easy to change the heating element. However, this Frigidaire is a different story...so after NOT finding the answer via google, I will document it here:
To replace the heating element, you must remove the front of the dryer and extract the drum. Here's how:
1. Remove the top panel, held on by 2 screws in the back. It is not necessary to remove the silver bracket that the top panel mounts to. This will give you unfettered access to the inside of the dryer.
2. Remove the rear access panel in the lower left hand corner, held on by 2 screws. This will allow you to remove the belt from the motor pulley.
3. Remove the drive belt from the pulley (take a picture first so you know how to put it back correctly) by pushing the tensor arm to the right. This will create slack in the belt and all you to remove it from the pulley.
4. Time to remove the front of the unit. There are 4 screws on the top, 2 on either side of the control panel. Be careful with the 2 that go into plastic, as you don't want to crack the plastic by overtightening during reassembly.
5. There are 2 screws inside the unit holding the front panel to the side panels, one on either side of the drum, about 8 inches down from the top.
6. The last 2 screws to remove are the bottom screws. I found it easier to prop the dryer up by putting something (my cordless drill actually) under it, so it was easier to get my screwdriver on the screws. They are about 6-8 inches in from the side.
7. On the top right there are 2 electrical connectors (possibly held up by a zip tie) that need to be disconnected (all other electrical connections are to the front panel itself, so nothing else to disconnect there). I found it easier to clip the zip tie (and replace it with a new one later on during reassembly)
8. Once those 8 screws have been removed and connectors released, the front panel will come off. There are some clips that will release as you pull the panel off from the sides (2 on each side). It's not easy to grasp, but you can open the door and reach inside for a little more leverage.
9. Once the front panel is off, set it aside.
10. Next, there is a small, white plastic retainer on the top that keeps the drum from moving too far forward (and adds support to the top panel as well). Remove it.
11. Everything is now out of the way of the drum. The back of the drum has a ball-joint assembly, kinda like your hip, that it sets down in. To remove the drum from that joint, you need to lift it up. It might be called a jerk. Grasp the drum at the back, under the lip, and give it a good yank. You should feel it lift out of the joint. Now just slide the drum straight out the front of the dryer.
12. The heating element and it's casing are now exposed. On top of the elements housing, there is a high limit thermostat, held on by 2 small screws. Remove them.
13. The housing itself is held on by 4 screws from the back of the dryer. Remove them, being careful to hold it as you remove the final screw to keep it from falling.
14. There are still 2 leads connected to the heater coil, so disconnect them, being sure to note which is connected where. Now you can either restring a new coil, or buy the entire housing for $20 more.
While you have it apart, take a minute to vacuum it out, cleaning out all that nastly lint.
Reassembly is the opposite. When I did mine, I connected the wires to the heater element housing and held it in place with only 2 of the 4 screws (from the back), just in case it needed a little wiggle room when I put the drum in. The drum needs to be lifted a little and set down into the ball joint fitting. The trick to reisntalling the front panel is do it top down. If you look at it, you will see that the there is small tab on each upper corner of the panel, and that tab fits into the long slot on the top rail, so if you lift the front panel up, and tilt it so the tabs can fit into the slots (not the small slot at the front edge, but the bigger, longer slot behind the small one), then when you lower the panel, the locking tabs will line up perfectly and you can press them to snap them into place (I learned this easy way of reattaching the front panel because I had to do it 4 times because I kept dropping screws or drivers inside, thereby having to remove it again).
There you have it. I read somewhere that you should run a dryer on AIR only for 10 minutes after replacing the heating element. And then run it on a medium heat for 10 minutes after that...I think.
To replace the heating element, you must remove the front of the dryer and extract the drum. Here's how:
1. Remove the top panel, held on by 2 screws in the back. It is not necessary to remove the silver bracket that the top panel mounts to. This will give you unfettered access to the inside of the dryer.
2. Remove the rear access panel in the lower left hand corner, held on by 2 screws. This will allow you to remove the belt from the motor pulley.
3. Remove the drive belt from the pulley (take a picture first so you know how to put it back correctly) by pushing the tensor arm to the right. This will create slack in the belt and all you to remove it from the pulley.
4. Time to remove the front of the unit. There are 4 screws on the top, 2 on either side of the control panel. Be careful with the 2 that go into plastic, as you don't want to crack the plastic by overtightening during reassembly.
5. There are 2 screws inside the unit holding the front panel to the side panels, one on either side of the drum, about 8 inches down from the top.
6. The last 2 screws to remove are the bottom screws. I found it easier to prop the dryer up by putting something (my cordless drill actually) under it, so it was easier to get my screwdriver on the screws. They are about 6-8 inches in from the side.
7. On the top right there are 2 electrical connectors (possibly held up by a zip tie) that need to be disconnected (all other electrical connections are to the front panel itself, so nothing else to disconnect there). I found it easier to clip the zip tie (and replace it with a new one later on during reassembly)
8. Once those 8 screws have been removed and connectors released, the front panel will come off. There are some clips that will release as you pull the panel off from the sides (2 on each side). It's not easy to grasp, but you can open the door and reach inside for a little more leverage.
9. Once the front panel is off, set it aside.
10. Next, there is a small, white plastic retainer on the top that keeps the drum from moving too far forward (and adds support to the top panel as well). Remove it.
11. Everything is now out of the way of the drum. The back of the drum has a ball-joint assembly, kinda like your hip, that it sets down in. To remove the drum from that joint, you need to lift it up. It might be called a jerk. Grasp the drum at the back, under the lip, and give it a good yank. You should feel it lift out of the joint. Now just slide the drum straight out the front of the dryer.
12. The heating element and it's casing are now exposed. On top of the elements housing, there is a high limit thermostat, held on by 2 small screws. Remove them.
13. The housing itself is held on by 4 screws from the back of the dryer. Remove them, being careful to hold it as you remove the final screw to keep it from falling.
14. There are still 2 leads connected to the heater coil, so disconnect them, being sure to note which is connected where. Now you can either restring a new coil, or buy the entire housing for $20 more.
While you have it apart, take a minute to vacuum it out, cleaning out all that nastly lint.
Reassembly is the opposite. When I did mine, I connected the wires to the heater element housing and held it in place with only 2 of the 4 screws (from the back), just in case it needed a little wiggle room when I put the drum in. The drum needs to be lifted a little and set down into the ball joint fitting. The trick to reisntalling the front panel is do it top down. If you look at it, you will see that the there is small tab on each upper corner of the panel, and that tab fits into the long slot on the top rail, so if you lift the front panel up, and tilt it so the tabs can fit into the slots (not the small slot at the front edge, but the bigger, longer slot behind the small one), then when you lower the panel, the locking tabs will line up perfectly and you can press them to snap them into place (I learned this easy way of reattaching the front panel because I had to do it 4 times because I kept dropping screws or drivers inside, thereby having to remove it again).
There you have it. I read somewhere that you should run a dryer on AIR only for 10 minutes after replacing the heating element. And then run it on a medium heat for 10 minutes after that...I think.
U-verse on the way!
I did it. I ordered AT&T U-verse. I ran into a AT&T field tech guy at Arby's while I was eating lunch. He looked up my address in his computer and found that I am only 2500 feet from the nearest fiber box, so I should get exceptional service. That was the clincher. Even though it will cost about $30 more per month than my current Comcast cable/internet combined, I think it will be worth it for a few reasons:
1) NFL network (BOO-YAH!)
2) ESPN Classic
3) No usage limits, so no fear of waking up to find that my service has been disconnected because I used my internet too much last month
4) Total home DVR...record once, watch anywhere (my wife pointed out that we could have paid for more converters from Comcast and gotten the same feature..true)
5) 18Mbps download - I went for the whole enchilada in terms of speed, so the U-verse speed will be double what I was getting from Comcast.
Installation is less than a week way...more to come!
1) NFL network (BOO-YAH!)
2) ESPN Classic
3) No usage limits, so no fear of waking up to find that my service has been disconnected because I used my internet too much last month
4) Total home DVR...record once, watch anywhere (my wife pointed out that we could have paid for more converters from Comcast and gotten the same feature..true)
5) 18Mbps download - I went for the whole enchilada in terms of speed, so the U-verse speed will be double what I was getting from Comcast.
Installation is less than a week way...more to come!
Monday, April 13, 2009
Well, AT&T U-verse may not be a go!
Well, the AT&T U-verse requires a converter box for each TV, and the package only includes a single DVR, so I would have to pony up $7/mo for each additional TV in the house....which at this point is 4, so another $28/mo. I'm not sure that's gonna be worth the cost, not to mention the hassle of changing email addresses (I guess I could have the kids chip in, since 2 of those TV's are in their rooms).
However, this 250Gb monthly limit imposed by Comcast is driving me crazy. I've reduced uTorrent to only 50Kpbs, and its uploading just under 3Gb a day,which is doable, I guess, but it leaves very little room for downloads....1 4Gb DVD, like the Phil Collins live in Tel Aviv I found today, and that day's 8Gb limit is wiped out...on just this PC....that doesn't count the other 4 that are running in the house. This is gonna kill my sharing ratios!!!
I did call AT&T to see if I could get just the U-verse internet w/o the cable....I can't. If I want JUST internet, I have to go with DSL (yuk! although from what I've read, there are no artificially imposed limits, but I'm very used to cable speed now, so going back to DSL would be pretty tough.
More to come...
However, this 250Gb monthly limit imposed by Comcast is driving me crazy. I've reduced uTorrent to only 50Kpbs, and its uploading just under 3Gb a day,which is doable, I guess, but it leaves very little room for downloads....1 4Gb DVD, like the Phil Collins live in Tel Aviv I found today, and that day's 8Gb limit is wiped out...on just this PC....that doesn't count the other 4 that are running in the house. This is gonna kill my sharing ratios!!!
I did call AT&T to see if I could get just the U-verse internet w/o the cable....I can't. If I want JUST internet, I have to go with DSL (yuk! although from what I've read, there are no artificially imposed limits, but I'm very used to cable speed now, so going back to DSL would be pretty tough.
More to come...
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Could AT&T U-verse by in my future?
Well, as I just found out this week, my penchant for downloading and sharing live concerts is pushing me perilously close to the 250Gb monthly limit as outlined by my ISP, Comcast. Combine that with 5 or 6 other PC's in the house, including my work from home office, and it's pretty easy to see that it's gonna be painful to try and stay below the threshold.
Enter AT&T U-verse. I've heard really good things about it, and apparently it's available in my area. If I combine the price for the 200 channel package and the fastest internet connection (18Mbps), it's about the same as my Comcast monthly cost. The AT&T channel package has ALL the same channels we get now, but it also has a few more that I would like to have (NFL network and ESPN Classic). The internet rated d/l speed, assuming it's available, is nearly twice as fast as the fastest offering by Comcast, and even if i have to step down to the 10Mbps, that still faster than the 8Mbps I'm paying for now. The best part is that there don't appear to be any usage limits associated with the service (unless you an abhorrent abuser to the tune of TB's per month), so it will allow me to continue sharing my stuff w/o fear of getting dropped for exceeding some arbitrary limit. Sounds like a winner!
Throw in a super cool DVR that lets you playback on any TV in the house, and it's really a convincing offer....more to come!
Enter AT&T U-verse. I've heard really good things about it, and apparently it's available in my area. If I combine the price for the 200 channel package and the fastest internet connection (18Mbps), it's about the same as my Comcast monthly cost. The AT&T channel package has ALL the same channels we get now, but it also has a few more that I would like to have (NFL network and ESPN Classic). The internet rated d/l speed, assuming it's available, is nearly twice as fast as the fastest offering by Comcast, and even if i have to step down to the 10Mbps, that still faster than the 8Mbps I'm paying for now. The best part is that there don't appear to be any usage limits associated with the service (unless you an abhorrent abuser to the tune of TB's per month), so it will allow me to continue sharing my stuff w/o fear of getting dropped for exceeding some arbitrary limit. Sounds like a winner!
Throw in a super cool DVR that lets you playback on any TV in the house, and it's really a convincing offer....more to come!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
First post!
I've just created a new blog, and this is my first entry just to see how things look. My eventual objective is to have a place outside of the traditional personal networking sites (facebook, myspace, etc) that allows me to have a web presence where I can share my growing collection of music, post personal opinions about various subjects, and keep my family current on the happenings in the household.
Let's just see how it goes for now.
Let's just see how it goes for now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)