Ask This Old House

Kevin

Today on "Ask This Old House"...

Richard

If you haven't bought a washing machine in a while, you might be surprised at the level of choices. We're gonna help a homeowner in Seattle break it down. On a unit like yours, more than 10 years old, every time you hit the button, say, "Give me clean clothes," you're using 40 gallons of water.

Ryan

Wow. Per load?

Per load. -Ryan

Geez.

Richard

We can do better.

Kevin

And this light is supposed to work on two separate switches, except it's not working that way right now. I've got the solution.

Tom

A table saw is one of the best tools in your shop and one of the most dangerous. We'll show you some new technology to make it safe.

Kevin

That's next on "Ask This Old House."

Richard

Hey,

guys. -Ryan

Hey, Richard.

Kei

Hi. Welcome to Seattle.

Richard

Glad to be back in Seattle. I always love it out here. I love the neighborhood. And really, the house is terrific too.

Thank you. -Kei

Yeah.

Richard

How long you been here?

About 4 years. -Richard

Okay. Now, I see this. Is this original?

Ryan

Uh, no. This was all walled in when we bought the place, and felt the need to open it up a little bit.

Richard

Did you do it?

Ryan

Yeah. I'm a carpenter by trade.

Richard

Well, cool. How about you? What do you do?

Kei

I'm in the mortgage industry.

Richard

So you pay for it? He does it?

Exactly. -Ryan

Sounds about right.

Richard

Nice, wide-open plan here. And look at this. Nothing says the Pacific Northwest like a yard filled with cedars, right?

Ryan

Yeah. Yeah. One of the previous owners decided to plant a nice wall of 'em. And I'm not sure they realized how big they were gonna get, but, uh...

Richard

Who needs those neighbors?

Ryan

Yes. Good for privacy.

Richard

So you dropped us an e-mail about your washer and your dryer.

Kei

Yeah. Right this way.

Richard

All right. Great.

Kei

So the basement was half-finished when we moved in.

Richard

Well, it looks like a fun place for somebody. I see musical instruments and bongos and drums. -Who's the musician?

Ryan

Uh, I would be. I play a little bit here and there.

Richard

Get a little stress out here?

Ryan

Oh, yeah. It's good for that.

Richard

Sort of a man cave.

It sure is. -Kei

Yeah. So here's where we need the help.

Richard

Man laundry.

Ryan

Yeah, more like a Neanderthal laundry. Uh, yeah. I'd really like to finish this room off.

Kei

But first, we need new appliances.

Richard

Yeah. Start there. All right. So I see white and black. -Are they original?

Kei

Yeah. They came with the house when we moved in.

Richard

This one looks like it could sound like a drum.

Kei

Yep.

Richard

Needs a little bit of love there.

Yep. -Kei

And the dryer, this lint trap keeps catching my clothes.

Richard

Okay. Well, I tell ya. There was a day that making decision about a new washer and dryer would be simple. But there's all kinds of choices nowadays.

Let's go take a look. -Kei

Okay.

Richard

You know, when you think about changing your washer and dryer, you really wanna start with the washing machine selection. 'Cause that's the place you get the chance for the best reduction in operating costs,

both electricity and water. -Ryan

Mm-hmm.

Richard

You know, what you guys got is one of these, a top-loader. It's the most popular in the country by far. It's the least expensive. And there's a lot to like about it. You just throw the clothes in here. And it moves 'em around and washes 'em. It has an agitator in the middle. And that's the critical part to make those clothes get moved up. But it takes up a little bit of space.

Kei

Yeah. The sleeping bags actually don't fit. So we have to take 'em to the laundromat.

Richard

I've heard that before. The other thing to think about is the electricity cost on this style of washer. It goes to wring the clothes out by spinning, spinning, spinning. But it doesn't spin all that fast. So the clothes don't always dry out completely, which means that the dryer has to work harder. And that means more electricity. Now, what gets my attention though, really, is on a unit like yours, more than 10 years old, how much water is consumed for a single load.

Mm. Richard

Ya ready?

Yeah. Richard

For a single load, That's 5 gallons. That's 10.

Ryan

Mm.

Richard

That's 15. -Have your attention yet?

Kei

Yeah.

All right. -Kei

Oh, my gosh.

That's 20. -Ryan

Wow.

Richard

But wait a minute. We're not done. 25. This is my workout today. 30.

35. -Ryan

Wow.

Kei

Oh,

my gosh. -Richard

This is like crunches. 40. Every single time you hit the button, say, "Give me clean clothes," you're using 40 gallons of water.

Ryan

Wow. Per load?

Per load. -Ryan

Geez.

Richard

All right? So there are some top-loaders now on the market that use 27. So 27 would be pull three of these away. And half of that. So that's an improvement.

Wow. -Richard

But we can do better. Let me show ya. So check this out. This is a relatively new model, still a top-loader. But it's called an HE -- high efficiency. So look what's missing. No agitator. We can now fit your sleeping bag.

Kei

Awesome.

Richard

It also has a really high-efficiency motor down below, which means you use less electricity to spin it. And it spins it much faster, which means those clothes really wring dry, which means, again, less electricity

for the dryer itself. -Ryan

Nice.

Richard

The other is the water consumption. It'd use between 13 and 17 gallons. So you use 40. This is, what, 5, 10, 15, -and a half of that,

17. -Ryan

Wow.

Richard

About half the water consumption.

Ryan

It's quite the difference.

Richard

Now, let me show you one more model that's really popular worldwide. Commercial laundromats in this country have been using front-loading machines like this forever. Does this look familiar to you from your sleeping-bag days?

Yeah. -Kei

Yeah.

Richard

But residentially, worldwide, both in Asia and Europe, front-loaders are the most popular -- with good reason. You can stack them, right here. This is a washer. This is a dryer. And the way they work is it uses less water. Instead of filling that drum from the top, this thing just puts a little bit right here and then spins it and works it both ways. And at the end, it has that crazy spin cycle to really dry it out. If there's any wrap on it, though, it's this is pretty low for people to be putting...

Ryan

It's a little low,

yep. -Richard

Okay. So to make it more ergonomic so you can stand tall, they make a base like this that also has a little storage for laundry detergent

right there. -Kei

Oh, cool.

Richard

All right? But they've taken it a step farther. Let me show ya. So this is a front-loader, much like the other one, but looks a little bit different. But check this out.

Look at the size of the drum. -Kei

Wow.

Wow. -Richard

You have the capacity.

Ryan

A lot of space in there.

Richard

Now, it's also on a stand. But it's not just a stand to hold detergent. Look at this. This is actually...

Ryan

What?

Kei

Are you serious?

Richard

This is actually an additional washing machine

right here. -Ryan

Wow.

Richard

So you use it a couple different ways. You could do it simultaneously, where you can do delicates down here and whites and solids up here. But there's also times you might have a few things from the gym.

You just wanna wash 'em quick. -Kei

Mm-hmm.

Richard

This actually has a way that they weigh the clothes and puts just the right amount of water all the time.

Ryan

No way. That's awesome.

Richard

All right. So water consumption. This thing uses about 13. So that's one, two, and about here.

Ryan

Wow. And then this thing uses about that.

Kei

So what you're gonna end up with with this is about almost double the capacity in the amount of clothes you can wash with about

two thirds less water. Ryan

Wow.

Richard

All right?

Ryan

Awesome.

Richard

That's pretty serious. All right. Which one you want?

I think this is the guy. -Richard

You going top shelf?

Yeah. -Richard

All right. So we need to pick out the washer and a matching dryer.

And we'll get rolling. -Ryan

Let's do it.

Richard

All right. Let's get our new stuff installed. This is the pedestal base that'll go underneath the dryer.

Just set it right here. -Ryan

Okay.

Richard

We'll tip it down. And this is that drawer that's -- it'll make the dryer be at the right height.

Ryan

Okay.

Richard

Now, we're gonna start with out here. But we gotta level it. That's, uh, not too bad this way. Oh, boy. So you need a little bit of adjustment there. So let me tip this up. And you can just loosen that leveling leg right there.

Ryan

All right.

Richard

Try that.

There we go. -Ryan

Wow.

Richard

Now, get that one, please. Just a snug, okay?

Ryan

So we're snug.

Good. -Ryan

Good to go.

Richard

Good. All right. Let's go get the dryer.

Ryan

Sounds good.

Richard

Let's set it right in front of it.

Okay. -Richard

Keep coming. Okay. Stop. Down. Foot it, please. Good. Break the dolly. Good. Carefully, we're trying to get the legs into these four spots. You see it right there?

Ryan

Okay. Yep. That looks good.

Richard

Let's tip it back. This way. No, no. This way. Now careful lifting. With your legs.

Ryan

Okay.

Richard

Good. Just drop it in careful. Hooking up the dryer's pretty straightforward. You just have to reconnect the metal exhaust off the back, tightening up a clamp, and plug in the electrical to 220-volt outlet.

Ryan

We're plugged in.

Richard

Now let's push it back into you a little bit.

Okay. -Richard

Scooch it back.

Call it for -- -Ryan

A little bit more. That should be good.

Richard

Now let's check it for level one more time. Lovely. Perfect. Good. All right. Time for the washer.

All right. -Richard

All right. So here's your other base unit. But it's not the pedestal.

It's actually the other washer. -Ryan

Right.

Richard

Tip it down.

Okay. Richard

Okay. We'll make sure the pedestal washer's level too. Good.

Good. Richard

Here we go.

Careful. Little bump. -Ryan

Yep.

Richard

All right. -Now, foot it,

please. -Ryan

Okay.

Richard

Tip it to me.

Footed. -Richard

Okay. Okay, break it. Thank you. Up we go. Get the front corner. Those white key-ways drop in.

Lovely. -Ryan

Boom.

Beautiful. Great job. -Ryan

Very nice.

Richard

Okay. So now it's time to make the connections. Now, in a washer machine, normally we have a hot. You have a cold. You have a drain.

And you have electrical. -Ryan

Okay.

Richard

You have two. So manufacturer has shipped short pieces of rubber hose with splitters for the hot and for the cold because they gotta come down and go to the upper and to the lower hot

and upper and lower cold. -Ryan

Okay.

Richard

But this is rubber hose. They also ship these rubber supply hoses. And this is plastic. So I'm gonna actually give you those.

Ryan

All right.

Richard

What I wanna do is actually switch and step it up a little bit more. I'm gonna put bronze splitters with separate shut-off valves on each hose

should any hose ever leak. -Ryan

Awesome.

Richard

You know, if those rubber hoses let go, you got full city water pressure. Right? And that would flood your drum set, flood your bongos.

Ryan

Ooh, that would be bad.

Richard

All right. So we'll do that. And I'm gonna use stainless-steel braided hoses. Now, they don't last forever. But they last two or three times longer than that.

Okay. Richard

All right. So we'll do that. And then it's just a question of connecting the dots. Good. All right, Kei. What do ya think of this? -Pretty beautiful?

Kei

Oh, my gosh. -It's incredible!

Ryan

Yes.

Richard

You got the washer right here. Okay? Look at the size of the drum in there.

Yeah. -Richard

Now you take the clothes out, right at the same height. Perfect. Down here, you've got your little second washer.

Kei

Yay.

Richard

Okay. You're gonna love that. And then down here, you've got the storage. And it's a place for your detergent.

Ryan

Nice.

Richard

Now, this is really important. You gotta be sure you use the right detergent. It has to be an HE, high efficiency. And you use hardly any. Too much is not good. So you put it right in here. And you're done. All right? What do you think?

Kei

This is great. Speechless.

Pretty awesome. -Richard

Well...

Pretty awesome. -Richard

I tell ya. I gotta get out of Seattle sooner or later. But can I test this out? Look at -- look at how I've been sweating.

Of course. Richard

Okay. Can I be the first one?

Ryan

I think you absolutely should be.

Kevin

Tommy, I read that there are 65,000 table-saw injuries a year, which means we really can't talk about safety with these tools enough. And now, there's a new one on the market that's supposed to keep you safe.

And it's smart in the process. -Tom

Exactly. Well, like all table saws, there are safety features that come with the saw. And everybody should use 'em. First is a riving knife that goes over and behind the blade. So if you're ripping a piece of wood, that riving knife will keep the space open so the board, if it's wet or warped, it could close up on the blade and the wood can kick back at you.

Kick-back is nasty. -Tom

Another thing, right here. These are called dogs. And these go on the riving knife.

Yep. -Tom

And they're spring-loaded. So they keep pressure down onto the board.

Kevin

Right. And the way they're shaped

allows the board to go forward. -Tom

Right.

Kevin

But it doesn't allow it to come back.

Tom

I can't pull that board backwards.

No. -Tom

Another thing, right here, to keep the saw dust from blowing into your face, is this guide right here. Let's put this on. Lock it down.

Mm-hmm. -Tom

The board can go in. But the saw dust doesn't blow into your face.

Kevin

You know, and it's important you know how to use it. Right? I mean, it's not just a typical saw. Right? It's got rips, fences. It's got outfeed tables.

Tom

Right. Your rip fence, you wanna make sure when you're using a rip fence, keep your hands away from the blade. Sometimes you're gonna need to use a push stick like this to protect your -- your hand so when you're pushing it in close

to the blade. -Kevin

Right.

Okay. -Tom

The other thing is, is when you're using a crosscut guide, you don't use it in conjunction with your rip fence.

Kevin

Right. So these are features that are gonna be on just about every portable table saw. This one, however, is smart. Check out this control panel.

Tom

Right. This control panel right here. If you look at this right here, that has smartphone technology. In other words, I can program this saw to say who and who I don't want to use this saw.

Kevin

So how -- how will you use that on a job site?

Tom

Well, I can program it for, uh, let's say one of the subs that come on the job site.

And I don't know those guys. -Kevin

Oh, interesting.

Tom

And I don't know if they are qualified

to use the table saw. -Kevin

Huh.

They can't use it. Kevin

So, I guess, if I've got it at home in my garage, I could use it. But my kids couldn't if I didn't give them permission.

Tom

Absolutely.

Kevin

Oh, that's a nice lock-out feature. I like that.

Cool. -Tom

But I think the biggest thing about this saw is you can't cut your hand with the saw.

Kevin

Right, which is really where all the injuries come from. And, you know, we've seen that technology before where there -- there's actually a sensor. Right?

Yeah. -Kevin

It senses moisture.

Tom

It senses moisture.

Kevin

It'll actually drop that blade. Um, and what is it? It blows it into, like, a...

Tom

Yeah. It drills it into an aluminum block.

Kevin

Yeah.

Tom

So the blade gets down into that aluminum block. You have to buy a new aluminum block and a new blade.

Okay. -Tom

With this saw, the blade doesn't get destroyed. And you have to buy a new cartridge.

Kevin

Yeah. So you can actually maybe keep going on the job site. You don't have to run down and find a new blade.

Exactly. -Kevin

We gonna test it out?

Absolutely. -Kevin

All right.

Tom

We're gonna use your finger.

Kevin

What?

Tom

We wanna make sure we have safety equipment on to protect our eyes and our ears. We don't wanna get hit by any flying meat. All right. So ya ready?

Ready. Tom

All right.

Laughs

Kevin

No matter how many times I see it, it is amazing.

Tom

Look at that. Not a scratch on it.

Kevin

That's awesome.

Tom

All right. So I'm gonna shut this off. See, the red light's on? Why don't you unplug that. And I'm gonna open this up so I can reset the cartridge. Now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go inside here. And I'm gonna flip the cartridge 'cause there's two of 'em in one. All right?

Kevin

So this'll actually drop the blade twice with one cartridge?

Tom

Yep. So I just unplug it right here. Okay. So now you can see what's happened here. This cartridge was activated. It drove this piston down, which drove the blade down, away from the table. All I have to do now is turn it 180 degrees and put the new one back in the spot.

Kevin

So you actually get two measures of protection out of that cartridge there.

Exactly. -Kevin

Oh, that's great.

Tom

All right. Now I make that nice and tight. Then I reach down, push this button, right here, pull the blade back up and lock it in.

Kevin

Hmm, and the blade's not damaged at all.

Tom

Right. Now I put my cover back on. We have power. Turn it on.

Saw whirring

Tom

And we're good to go.

Kevin

Just a minute and you are back in business.

Yeah. -Kevin

Great tips, Tommy. I love it.

Hi. -Jenny

Hi, there. -Hey,

Scott. -Scott

Jenny, how are you?

Jenny

Good. How are you doing?

Good. I got your e-mail. -Jenny

Great. Come in here to the dining room.

Scott

Oh, very nice.

Jenny

We have a switch here

that works just fine. -Scott

Okay.

Jenny

And another switch over here, it also works just fine.

Scott

On and off. Okay.

Jenny

Um, if you turn the light off, then this switch does not work.

Scott

Oh,

okay. -Jenny

And the same thing. When that's off, this switch...

Scott

Oh,

boy. -Jenny

...it does not work.

Wow. -Jenny

Yeah. So we're kind of going back and forth. And my husband and I get confused about which switch actually works.

Scott

All right. well, it's not uncommon to have two switches controlling one light. And I think the problem is not uncommon either. I see it a lot. So let me grab some stuff out of my truck. I think it'll be easier for me to explain

actually what's going on. -Jenny

Great.

All right. -Jenny

Thanks.

Scott

All right, Jenny. Take a look over here. You've actually got a couple of different types of switches here.

All right. -Scott

So this middle switch here, which controls this hallway light, when you shut it off, it says off right on top of the switch.

Jenny

Okay.

Scott

Now, when you turn it on, you can see it says on down below.

Jenny

Right.

Scott

Now, this other switch, which controls the dining room light, it has no writing on it at all, which is a good thing because that switch or this switch are made to operate that light in either of the two positions.

Jenny

Okay.

Scott

Let me show you what I mean. So I have a switch here. So this is the single-pole switch with the on off written on it. It only controls the light from one location. I brought a cut-away here. You can see that when the light switch is down, in the off position, the two contacts are actually not touching on the inside.

Okay. -Scott

So, normally, the power comes into either one of these two screws. And then it goes out to the lights from the other screw. When it's in the off position, this is broken right here. They don't touch each other. When you put it in the on position, you can see the contact is now made. These are connected, turning on the light. Now, what you have in your dining room is

a three-way switching system. -Jenny

Okay.

Scott

So we have two switches controlling one light. And this is a three-way switch. There's a black screw right here, and then two same-color brass screws. When the switch is in one position, you can see that the connection is made here. However, on the other side, the connection is broken. When you flip the switch into that position, it makes this connection on this side and breaks the connection on that side. So what that means is that the black screw is either sending power to this screw terminal or, when the switch is in the other position, to that screw terminal. The black terminal is called the common. And it either wires to the power source or the light fixture. The brass terminals are called travelers. And there are two traveler wires that connect the traveler screws on the two switches. When the light is on, power is following from the source, across a traveler wire, to the light fixture. However, when you change the position of one switch, that path is now broken. And the light turns off. The power has two possible path. And either switch should be able to turn the light on or off at any time. So what I think happened is two wires

were probably just mixed up. -Jenny

Okay.

Scott

The common wire

and the traveler wire. -Jenny

All right.

Scott

If you can show me where the electrical panel is, we'll shut this power off and take a look.

Jenny

It's right over here.

Scott

All right. Good. All right. I've shut the power off to this switch, taken the plate off and pulled out the switch. The power originates from this location.

And everything looks great. -Jenny

Okay. Great.

Scott

However, over here, I found a problem. We have two wires that go down into this box. They both have a white and a bare ground wire. Now, this one has a black wire that goes up to the light fixture.

Okay. -Scott

That's supposed to tie on to the black common screw.

Jenny

Okay.

Scott

This cable has a red and a black. And they're supposed to tie in to the brass traveler screws. It doesn't matter which one goes where.

Jenny

Oh, okay.

Scott

Now, if you look inside the box here, you can see this wire here on the right is the wire that's supposed to go up to the light fixture. And these two wires on the left here are the wires that are supposed to go to the travelers. So take a look what they did here. The red traveler wire's actually tied in to the black common screw. And the black common wire is tied in to one of the brass traveler screws.

Jenny

Okay. How do you think that happened?

Scott

Well, my guess is that this switch was probably replaced from the original switch. Homeowner possibly because you can tell that screw right there, they wrapped the wire around counterclockwise.

That's not correct. -Jenny

Oh, okay.

Scott

It's supposed to go around this screw clockwise. So when you tighten it, it tightens the wire around it.

Okay. Scott

But it's an easy fix. We'll just swap these two wires.

Jenny

Okay.

Scott

Okay. The power is back on. Go ahead and hit the switch. There ya go.

Jenny

Okay. That's on.

Scott

Now, the other switch.

Jenny

All right. We got it off.

Scott

All right. Now, the big question is, will this turn the light back on?

Jenny

Ah,

it did. Excellent. -Scott

There you go.

Yeah. -Jenny

Thank you so much.

Scott

You're welcome.

Kevin

When it comes to electricity, I think one project that almost every homeowner could tackle

is swapping out that switch... -Scott

Mm-hmm.

Kevin

...until it comes to a three-way. I mean, they can really mess you up.

Scott

Yeah. With the extra color, the extra wire. Where did it go? Where does it go? It can be complicated. It took me a good three years when I first started in the trade to figure out these three-way-switching systems.

Kevin

Because there's a lot of options. Right?

Scott

Yeah. That was one of the biggest things. The power could be up at the ceiling. The power in the switch leg can be at one box. Or it could be at the different -- It's just all kinds of options. So the biggest thing is don't get fixated on the color of the wire, more of where it goes, because I might have something different here than you have at your home. I'll tell ya what. If you're gonna change a switch, this is your best friend. Just take a picture of the wiring that went to the switch. And go back to it if you need it, so...

Kevin

All right. Good information. Thank you, Scott. So if you've got questions about your house, we'd love to hear from ya. Keep your letters, your tweets, and your e-mails coming.

Scott

That's right.

Kevin

Until, next time, I'm Kevin O'Connor.

Scott

And I'm Scott Caron.

Kevin

For "Ask This Old House." Next time on "Ask This Old House"...

Man

Hi, Jen. Welcome to my farm.

Jen

This is a farm? I've never seen a farm like this.

Kevin

And we'll install a lift to make a home more wheelchair accessible.

Tom

If you're working on an old house, the money is in the detail. And I'm gonna show you some tips on how to copy any mold.

Richard

And sometimes, you may have a high electrical bill. And you may have to call the plumber. I'll explain.