starfish24, Basically what happen was this....... My Diamante Plus unit is now 15 months old. I had used the original Miele tabs (half a tab per load) up until Oct/Nov of last year when I ran out. I went to buy another box, but it was replaced by a "newer" Miele tab that is now phosphate free. I again used half a tab per load and that box lasted me until about April of this year. I went and purchased a 2nd box, same "newer" Miele Tabs. It was a week or so later that my unit was running one night (with the half tab) and I went upstairs and saw something that I forgot to put in the dishwasher. So I back to the kitchen and opened it up to add the item. To my amazement, there was about 1" of suds on top of the water. I added the item and closed the unit back up, and it continued it's cycle. I know from before, that the original Miele tabs did not make suds, because once or twice I did have to open it up mid-cycle to add something....but this was the first time I had to do it while using the newer tabs. So I called Miele Tech Support and told them. They said "You need to use half a tab them", which I then informed them that I already was using half, so they then said "then try to use less, like one-forth of a tab." I tried it that night, but you can only cut them so much with scissors before they start to break apart. So instead I crushed them all up into powder using to large spoons and mixed it all together. I then used a one-half teaspoon measuring spoon (which is equal to a quarter of a tablet) to does it out into the detergent door of the dishwasher. I saw that it still did make some suds, but not nearly as much as when I was using a half tab, but everything still came out clean. So since April, that is what I've been doing, just using the one-half teaspoon dose for each nightly load. When I went to run the unit on July 22, I pressed the power button on the front, and it started a continual drain mode with the 3 yellow LED lights (rinse, dry, end) all flashing. I could not select a program and start the unit. I called Miele Tech Support, which instructed me to unplug it, and shut off the water to the unit from under the sink, so that is what I did. He said that there is a lower-pan under the unit with an overflow protection switch that will put the unit in a continual drain if it gets wet. The unit was unplugged and unused this all weekend, as on Monday 24th there was to be a service tech to come out, but he was out sick, and the other tech was booked-up, so I was re-scheduled for three days later. A bit later on that Monday, I plugged the unit back in just to see if it was still on the continual drain, and it wasn't, so I was able to try a Rinse mode, and it worked Ok. At that point, I didn't want to use the Miele detergent any more, as I had a feeling it was the suds that got down in the lower pan and tripped the overflow circuit. So I went out and got the Method Smarty tabs. I tried those (half and full tab) and it cleaned just fine and there was no suds. Now on Thursday the Miele Tech and the Area Tech Supervisor came out to inspect it. The dishwasher did not have to be pulled out. All they did was remove my lower wood toe-kick board and unscrew and remove rectangle shaped metal plate on the bottom-front (about 6"x3"), that would normally be covered-up by the toe-kick. Behind that metal plate was a bottom metal floor and he showed me where there was died-up detergent. There was also a circular piece of white plastic that was on the bottom, and attached to something else above it. He said that was the overflow protection, that if water or suds happen to get down in there, that it triggers the circuit and puts the unit into the drain mode. But they said all the water gasket seals were fine, and ran it on a rinse, and no water leaked down in there. I showed them the pictures I took of all the suds from the newer Miele tabs. They both looked at them and said it didn't look excessive, but said it still really shouldn't make a lot of suds. Neither of them could explain as to why the newer Miele tabs made suds, but said that overtime it could of built-up and then triggered the over-flow down there. The Area Tech said he was going to "forward it up" so that the other departments can be aware of my issue and maybe have to re-test the Miele Tabs on their own. They also tested my water hardness and said it was 5 grains, which my unit was already set to that level. I showed them the Method tabs and said I've been using them for 3 days and haven't had any suds from them. The one tech said he uses regular Cascade powder detergent in his older Inspira unit, and it works just fine for him. So to sum it up... I believe the suds from the newer Miele tabs that I have been using since October of last year was the cause of the problem, and eventually got down in the lower pan area and triggered the overflow circuit. Then when I had the unit unplugged and not used for 3 days, whatever was down in there dried-up, and released the overflow protection. So I'm not sure how the tech would "fix" it if there were water/suds down in pan at the time of him being here, since mine was all dried-up and just had some white residue.

It's a code violation to take your feed from a dedicated laundry receptacle, no matter what the load. You can either do it properly now, or when you sell the house and the inspector flags it as a violation. Hint : hiring an electrician when you're in a rush to close on the sale can be expensive. I know this because I've been the buyer and watched the seller squirm. ;-) As I understand it (someone correct me if I'm wrong) it's code-compliant to put everything in the bathroom on one dedicated circuit, as long as it serves ONLY that bathroom. Alternatively, I don't see anthing wrong with feeding the light and fan from, say, the hall light circuit, if it's not too heavily loaded. But you can't take your feed from circuits that the code requires to be dedicated. FWIW, I've read that very few portable hair dryers actually use the power for which they're rated. The Wattage rating is more for chest-thumping in their advertising than anything else. We don't have a recent model hair dryer, but one of these days (geek that I am) I'm going to take my Kill-A-Watt meter to a couple of friends' houses and ask them to let me check their newer hair dryers. (Yes, my friends are used to this sort of thing. ;-)

We bought our 1964 house last year with its original electrical. When we moved in, we replaced all of the old switches with decoras and dimmers, and we replaced the outlets (which were all 2-prong) with grounded 3-prong. When we redo the kitchen, we plan to upgrade the circuit box to a 200 amp (or possibly larger to leave room for later additions). To be honest, we did not realize that the outlets were all 2-prong, but we would not have let that deter us, since we had a fairly specific wish list. Things like outlets/outlet covers are simple to replace as long as the electrical is in otherwise good condition. The things that would have been deal breakers for us were: old asbestos duct work; asbestos cottage cheese stuff on the ceiling; no a/c original pipes roof in need of replacement too much wallpaper throughout the house (I HATE stripping wallpaper) Signs that the house had been neglected Things we didn't really care about: Needing new paint or carpet/decorating issues An old kitchen or bathrooms, as long as they were in working order The old electrical outlets and switches Things that I wanted to change, but which were relatively simple to fix

Zsofia; I apologize. I didn't know that you need to sleep in the morning and work late nights. If you keep it dark first thing in the morning (until you wake up), then it make sense. Plants don't mind when they start day. From times you mentioned I was under impression they get many hours of light & hardly any darkness, which is, obviously, not the case. Perhaps you read one of my posts where I described how I use lights. I have lots of plants in very dark basement, with not even a window for some, and very small window (that I cover) for others. I keep lights on from about 6:30pm until 7:00am. So they have 'reversed' day, but still experience proper daytime and nights. And yes, the electricity is much less during those hours. I do have lots of lights, so it helps some to keep them on at those hours. If I kept plants in room with natural light, I would use the supplemental lighting as I suggested. You could put succulents outdoors if it is possible to make some kind of a shelter: even just a plastic sheet that can be rolled up or down as necessary, just to keep too much rain off. I have used that for few years (didn't use it often, but it helped during few periods of extended rains we had). I had plants on shelves next to the garage wall. I stapled plastic to a piece of wood fastened to the wall just under the soffits, and other end had another piece of wood stapled to it. That way I could just drop it down if needed. No need to enclose sides - plants need air circulation anyway.