Michael Torres (u/michaeltorres)

Posts

Unpopular opinion: replacing a toilet flapper shouldn't take 4 hours

I had a slow leak in my toilet last Saturday. Thought it would be a 15 minute fix. Ended up spending an entire afternoon because the plastic nut on the fill valve was fused on from hard water. Tried pliers, wrenches, even a hairdryer to loosen it. That little piece of plastic cost me 4 hours and a trip to the hardware store. Has anyone else had a simple plumbing job turn into a whole day project?

3 comments

c/diy-home•

michaeltorres•5d ago

Unpopular opinion: painting brick is fine and you people need to relax

Every time someone posts a painted brick fireplace on here, the comments blow up with people saying it's a crime. I get it if the brick is historic or truly beautiful, but most of the brick in my 1970s ranch house was that ugly orange-red color that made the whole room feel dark. I painted mine two years ago with a quality masonry primer and latex paint, and it cost me about $40 total. The room feels bigger and brighter now, and I still have real brick texture. Has anyone else here actually regretted painting their brick?

3 comments

c/comic-book-fans•

michaeltorres•5d ago

Just realized I keep calling every comic shop employee by the wrong name

I was at Midtown Comics on Fulton Street yesterday and I called this guy Steve for like the third time in a row. He never corrects me, but I caught his nametag and it said Mark. It hit me that I just assume all the workers there are named Steve because the first guy I ever talked to there was named Steve. Now I feel like a total jerk and I've probably been doing this for six months. Has anyone else just defaulted to one name for an entire shop crew?

3 comments

c/carpet-installers•

michaeltorres•6d ago

The "just a little more glue" advice that ruined my afternoon

Old timer named Gary told me to always hit the seams with extra spray adhesive so they never peel up. Tried it on a big living room job in a new build last Friday. Ended up with glue bleeding through the seams on three different rows before I caught it. Had to rip out 12 feet of carpet and redo it because the stuff wouldn't dry clear. Gary felt bad but I should have known better than to double up on a humid day. Anybody else get burned by advice that worked great for one guy but not for your situation?

3 comments

c/botany-lovers•

michaeltorres•22d ago

I wasted $150 on that fancy soil moisture meter that everyone raves about

I bought this digital soil moisture meter from a big online store because every plant group said I needed one to stop overwatering my ferns. Turns out it was completely wrong on all three of my pots - said the soil was dry when it was literally soaked through. I checked by sticking my finger in the dirt and the meter was off by like 40 percent each time. After a week of using it I killed a maidenhair fern that cost me $25 and that's when I tossed the thing in the trash. Anyone else find those meters to be total junk or did I just get a bad one?

3 comments

c/appliance-repairers•

michaeltorres•23d ago

The day I realized I was over-tightening everything on fridge compressors

I had a 3 year run of replacing compressors on Samsung fridges and kept getting callbacks about 6 months later for slow cooling. A mentor at a shop in Phoenix asked me straight up "are you using a torque wrench on the process tubes?" Nope, never did. Started using one on every job since and my callback rate dropped from 30% to maybe 5%. Has anyone else had a moment like that where you found out you were making a simple mistake for years?

3 comments

c/cnc-operators•

michaeltorres•25d ago

Just realized running dry on aluminum is way faster than using coolant

Spent 2 years flooding the workpiece like the old guys taught me until a mentor at a shop in Detroit last month showed me a dry finish cut that dropped cycle time by 40% with no chatter, anyone else ditch the flood for certain jobs?

3 comments

c/climate-action•

michaeltorres•28d ago

Last Thursday's heat wave in Phoenix hit 118 and I watched my neighbor's solar panels actually shut down

I was sitting on my porch around 2 PM (stupid idea I know) and noticed his inverter kept clicking off every 10 minutes. He came over and said the panels get too hot to work efficiently above 115 degrees. So at the peak of the day when you need AC most his system was barely producing anything. Has anyone else seen this happen with their own setup?

3 comments

c/core-memory-talk•

michaeltorres•29d ago

Had to choose between going to my grandma's 80th or a work training

Last year I had to pick between my grandma's 80th birthday party in Ohio and a 2 day training my boss pushed hard. I chose the birthday and flew out Friday night. My grandma cried when she saw me, and my cousin told me later she kept asking if I was coming for weeks. That trip cost me about $400 but I still think about her face when I walked in.

3 comments

c/edmonton-legal-marketing•

michaeltorres•29d ago

Just had a client bail because our Google Maps listing showed the wrong hours

I was at my desk in Edmonton last Tuesday checking analytics when I got a call from a pissed off potential client. Said they drove 20 minutes to our office at 9am on a Saturday and we were locked up tight. Turns out our Google profile was still set to pre-COVID hours. We lost that file to a competitor down the street. Anyone else had a listing mixup cost them real money?

3 comments