ITT: your best deals

It's a chilly grey Saturday and we're all coming down from the high of the election drama.

So, what kind of awesome deals and savings have you come across?

Briggs V-Twin lawn mower engine

The engine on my lawn mower was getting pretty tired and I kept having carb issues. Came across a nearly identical one ("for parts") on Marketplace for $100. Going rate for running models is 400+.

He said the PTO pulley bearing seized, engine came to a sudden halt, throwing the pushrods. Well that doesn't sound so bad, pushrods are a sacrificial item. It's a non-interference engine so the valves won't be hurt.

He mentioned that he got 40psi compression. On paper that's pretty low, but it's a good thing actually. No pushrods means no valve actuation. It can only build compression based on air in the cylinder at the moment you attach the tester. If the piston is at TDC, there's basically no air and you won't see any compression. Any compression at all means the piston is at least moving.

Picked it up and dug into it a little. I had some spare pushrods, popped them in and spun the motor by hand. Everything moved as it should. Pulled the heads off and it looked darn good. No gouges, no variable displacement. Gave everything a deep clean, reassembled, and solid 120psi, both cylinders.

Of course I forgot to add oil for the first start. There was probably enough in the crankcase that no real damage occurred.

Beyond that, it was surprising that this engine was almost identical to mine (just branded John Deere instead of Briggs), and was built within a few months of mine back in 2008.

A new front door

We have a South-facing door with double pane storm door. It gets hot in that gap, melting the trim around the glass.

Took a wander around Home Depot and Menards and all that, looking for replacement trim and weighing out our options for a future replacement and anticipating the price. Most are in the neighborhood of 500-800 depending on design.

As we search for the trim, there's a single, dusty, lone door back by all the screen doors. The same one is on display for $500, so what's with the sadboy in the back? It was an extra display they were sent by mistake. Their displays are prehung, this one wasn't. $25. Thought he was kidding but no, that's the actual price. Went home, measured our door, and grabbed my car to pick it up.

The reviews mentioned the same issue, failure in direct sunlight with glass storm doors. We decided to paint it right away and we'll leave the screen attachment on up until it starts snowing. My wife chose "Tornado Season" for the color, leaving the window bezel black. I like it. Of course I accidentally painted the inside by mistake, too.

Fingers crossed, having the window higher will also help -- it'll be shaded by my roofline during the hottest parts of the year. Bonus, I can on the Amazon wagie without them noticing.

Air conditioners

So the story goes, my parents bought a camper in 2016. They used it twice, then my dad passed away. Mom wasn't comfortable towing it, so I used it through the summer while traveling for work. Noticed the air conditioner was broken. When I brought it back at the end of the season, Mom had the AC replaced under warranty.

Next year, camper didn't get used.

Following year, Mom had the camper moved to a permanent campsite. But the replacement air conditioner wasn't working either, and now it was out of warranty.

As it turns out, Dometic had an extremely high failure rate in 2016 due to inscrutable chinamen messing up the brazing.

Replacement units are $1,200. Mom's not willing to pay because she doesn't go when it's hot anyway. I'm not willing to pay because it's not my camper. I kept my eye out on Marketplace but most deals are 4+ hours away. The ones near me are still $800+.

Came across someone parting out their camper. Based on interior pictures, it had both a Coleman and a Dometic unit installed. Inquired further and she said one unit was damaged.

Of course, the direct-replacement Dometic is the damaged one. I was on the fence -- yeah the condenser is bent, but as long as the tubes aren't crushed it's probably ok.

She said $50 for both units. Well heck, I'll take a gamble for that price. Worst case, I buy the adapter kit to use that bigger Coleman.

I get there, a little dismayed to see the copper tubes are, in fact, crushed. But I'm already here so I take both. As a bonus, they're already off the camper. No screwing around on the roof or leaving an open hole. Nice guy, building a monster truck in his shed.

Looking closer at home, the condenser actually has a weird split design. Incoming charge runs through two parallel runs, rejoining partway through the condenser. The crushed portions only affect one run. Hook everything up and it still has a charge, cooling beautifully.

I don't know if I'll be able to straighten the condenser back out without damaging things further. I also don't realistically know how long it'll run -- Top Minds of Reddit assured me it'll eventually develop a leak at those crushed points, but realistically it'll only run a handful of times per year..

Better yet, the Coleman unit isn't a Coleman. It's an older Dometic and also works. Missing the shroud but it'll still fit right in with the same wiring.

I'm thinking of putting that bigger unit in my garage attic, cool down the garage while I'm working in it.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk, this was a lot of work to type on mobile.

!friendsofxirabolt i like engagement

Edit: garage floor coating. $240 kit, clearanced to $26. Let it sit for a couple years before I finally had a chance to apply it. My pad was a bit worn so some of it is coming up now, three years later. Still happy with it though.