I subscribe to Freecycle. It's brilliant. I have acquired many things from Freecycle, including a very special pair of floorstanding loudspeakers with titanium tweeters which are absolutely wonderful.
Another of which was a washing machine which didn't work but thought I knew what would be wrong with it. I thought it would be the door interlock. I took the door interlock out and took it apart. There is nothing wrong with it. I figured out how it works using YouTube and a certain degree of intelligence, and it operates normally. The Interlock uses a negative temperature coefficient thermistor which heats up to move a bi-metallic switch and a pair of contacts, which then allows power to the circuit board but this can happen only after the door has been closed shut, it is locked out by mechanical means as well. The switch itself is pristine, with clean contacts with reliable connections and seems to work correctly. After that I thought well it must be something with the circuitboard. At that point I gave up temporarily.
Instead I had another look at YouTube and I fixed my own washing machine - a Hotpoint Aquarius which had symptoms of continuously flashing lights everywhere when you switch it on. I found a YouTube video which explains this precise fault for the same model of Hotpoint washing machine. (What are the chances of finding that?) However the advice given was to replace a particular electrolytic capacitor which is a common cause of this particular fault on this model. If the capacitor is slightly bulged on top, he said it's almost certainly failed and if you replace it it should fix the problem. I bought one and I replaced it. The original was 640 µF rated at 10V. The one I bought was 640 µF rated at 35V. (I think rating it at only 10V was perhaps a calculated decision in built-in obsolescence!) It did fix the problem! I now have a fully functioning Hotpoint washing machine again, and it's a nice washing machine, of much higher quality and more capable than the one I had acquired, a cheap Bosch Classixx.
But because it wasn't actually switching on and it was cluttering up the kitchen, I advertised it again on Freecycle and mentioned that it didn't work. The guy that replied is an electrical engineer and he said that's fine I'll have a look at it. We've since had an email exchange - he replaced the switching power supply with a replacement from China, and also the motor carbon brushes which he said were nearly worn out, and he said its fine now. It's working great!
I also jumped at the chance of getting a free dishwasher. I've never had a dishwasher before, but I thought it could be useful. However this is a perfectly fine SMEG dishwasher that the guy was getting rid of because he was renovating his kitchen and it was the wrong colour! (white). Apart from that he said it's fine absolutely - nothing wrong with it. So now I have a dishwasher cluttering up my kitchen, and no sensible place to plumb it in. And also I don't actually need a dishwasher, I just thought I'll grab it while I can because I might need it.
I'm actually not going to use it. I'll put it back on Freecycle.
Somebody offered an unused 5L can of Halfords 10W-40 engine oil. I thought that's useful! I could use that in my car - which is an old car, a 2001 model Honda Civic, running on unleaded.
It's still going. It works well enough and it's cheap to run. But it does occasionally need oil, (I do have some)
When I actually got this oil it is indeed an unused unopened can of 10W-40 engine oil from Halfords. But on it is a label, "Part-synthetic Diesel" - suitable for most modern turbo diesel engines.
Question Is it wise to put it in a petrol engine?
If it isn't, why not? Will it melt the O-rings?
Will it create a lot of carbon deposits?
Will it disconnect the conrods?
