An easy test is to roll up a sheet of newpaper, light it, and hold it in the firebox -- with the flue open, of course. There may be a downdraft at first because cold air tends to flow downward. But then the heat from the lit newspaper should create an updraft. If that does not happen, you probably have some kind of clog in the chimney. It might have been cause by a chimney cleaning that was not done right. If the problem started immediately after you had the chimney cleaned, it's possible that something the chimney sweep did, or didn't do, is the cause. Maybe you should have him look again or, if you're not sure of his competence and honesty, have someone else look at it.

Our pool is 25 years old and we just this month had it resurfaced with Wet Edge Satin Matrix Pebble finish. Our pool had no leaks or cracks, the original plaster was in good condition but the original color was a green/black plaster and that had faded heavily with all of the gas chlorine that was used by a pool maintenance company. A lot of people are going to Cartridge filters because of their ease of maintenance. We also added a salt chlorinator. My pumps had small leaks so I pulled them out and took them to the local Leslie Pool store. When you bring the pumps in they do not charge for labor, only the parts. My main pump cost me $35 to get a new seal in it and the Polaris booster pump cost $18 to get a new seal and O-Ring. The pool now looks brand new and we love it. The dark color of the Wet Edge Midnight Sea even raised the temp of the pool about 5 degrees. With no solar, no blanket the pool is at 83F in the San Francisco Bay Area with daily air temps in the mid 80s. ..Doyle

There's something seriously amiss if the wire it getting that hot from an ordinary light bulb and the primary concern would be that overheating could lead to a fire. Not to mention that fixtures hanging from wires isn't such a good idea either. If she can't afford to get it fixed properly, it might be best to avoid using the light and investing a flashlight. Your friend might also consider talking to her pastor or leader of any groups she might be involved in. Certainly she has marketable skills and perhaps there's an electrician that would be willing to barter.

I had previously written about a fuel leak on this one but no comments came in. During operation, there was no problem, but sitting in the shed it would get wet with fuel at the base of the carb where it sits on the tank. Now Keep in mind, this is a Pulsa-Jet that has no fuel bowl - the gas tank is the fuel bowl, and it sucks a shot of gas up into the carb with every intake stroke, but after shut down there really is almost no fuel in the carb itself - so how does it run down the carb onto the base plate? Well, I found out by accident. The rubber adapter from the side of the carb to the crankcase vent tube was the original and it was hard and cracked. I had bought a new one and put it on this time when I had the mower. Bam! No more fuel outside the carb after shut down. The old one was definitely leaking vacuum so I think fuel tended to build up in that area and leak down when the engine was cut off. I solved another problem related to the driver and generic blade - it had a high-frequency vibration after putting the new blade on last year but I figured it was my hand work on the blade cutting the pin slots closer to the center hole so it would fit on the original adapter - maybe the blade fit maybe 0.01" more to one side, but you don't know which side so you can't balance for it. So right before I delivered this mower the other day, I started it just for one more check and that vibration got my attention. I got out the balancer and the blade was way off! I had only lightly filed it on both ends prior to that so there's no way I caused it. This time I measured the work I had done before by eye and the holes were equidistant from the center hole, but there was about 0.02" play in how the blade could be mounted, which is pretty normal. But first things first, it was definitely heavy on one end - the most I have ever seen, and it had to have come that way new. So I started filing, checking, filing, but I was getting nowhere fast. So I had to drag out the bench grinder, and I had to seriously grind the one end to balance it. Bottom line, when I put it back on and tried the mower, it had only the normal light vibration from the engine. I know my nieces are going to appreciate that when they have to cut grass with it. Anyway, I will never again mount a new blade without checking the balance - it just never occurred to me that a new blade could be out by that much.