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Ks Toh

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Everything posted by Ks Toh

  1. Ks Toh
    I have induction cooker but I must confess I have not used it yet. Though there are a few issues I am aware of: - If you choose those with higher power, you need a dedicated high power supply to that power point. For mine, I had to have a dedicated 32A supply to that point. - Only those pots with the "induction use" logo can be used. I was told if you can stick a magnet to the bottom of the pot, it can be used, but I am not sure of this. - Induction hobs are generally more expensive.
  2. Ks Toh
    Basically, a "Not my Job" attitude which I also encountered in my renovation here. Really pissed off by such attitude.
  3. Ks Toh
    I know that for HDB and condominium, you probably cannot discharge your cooking exhaust out of the window. But I have always wondered if you can discharge the cooking fumes into your own service yard. If this is allowed, this can be considered. Something like this
  4. Ks Toh
    During Construction After Construction Cooker Hood installed. View from inside kitchen View from outside kitchen
  5. Ks Toh
    1. Your cooker hood must be mounted against a wall where you can duct out the fumes. 2. You must buy the ventilation (duct out / evacuation) model of the cooker hood. Many makes have two models, one for circulation, one for ventilation mode. Typically, the ventilation model does not have charcoal filters. There are also models that can be used both for circulation as well as ventilation. When used in ventilation mode, the charcoal filters are normally removed. ​3. You must buy a hood with very strong suction power. This means around 1000 m3/hr. Read one bad experience I had here. 4. Most contractors are not familiar with installation of cooker hoods in ventilation mode. They do not know what to do. You have to supervise. 5. Some models do not come with the ducting tube and/or the external exhaust grille. In that case, you must buy separately. I was told both items can be bought from hardware shops but I cannot find them at the hardware shops. In the end, I bought the external exhaust grille from Eldric Marketing at Centrepoint #05-03. As for the aluminium ducting tube, it was very expensive at Eldric. In the end, I bought a spare ducting tube from Electrolux service centre at a fraction of the cost. They are all the same at 6 inches in diameter. 6. You must look at the cooker hood installation manual very carefully and determine the top of the motor. You can then create a hole in the wall above the top of this motor, and just big enough to let your ducting tube pass through to the other side of the wall, where you mount the external exhaust grille. In my case, the motor was at 300 mm mark, I opened the hole at 500 mm mark. 7. Use aluminium tape for taping. Your contractor will likely use normal masking tape since he is not familiar. Aluminium tapes can be bought at the hardware stores. 8. For the external exhaust grille yourself, if possible get one that can open/close. I had that for my previous place, but for my current place, I was not able to find it. I bought the one on the left.
  6. Ks Toh
    Cooker Hood in Ventilation (Evacuation) Mode This is likely not allowed in HDB and most condominiums but likely possible in landed housing. It is very practical if you can do it. I have come to the conclusion that no matter how good your cooker hood, your kitchen floor and walls are going to get oily when you cook regularly. The filter in the hood does not really work and the oily fumes just gets circulated in the kitchen. And most people do not even bother to wash or replace the filters. In fact, I read that some people do away with the hood completely and it makes not much difference. But if you can duct the cooking fumes out of the kitchen, it makes a lot of difference.
  7. Ks Toh
    Thank you.
  8. Ks Toh
    Hi tomasulu I have done similar works but the problem remains. This ground floor circuit that trips controls only the hall, dining and porch lights. So, it should not have high power consumption. In fact, it trips even if the lights are off. So, I think most likely there is water ingress somewhere. I am still searching!
  9. Ks Toh
    It is not possible to drill into a glass backsplash. At least I do not know how to. For my glass backsplash, I bought the items I intended to mount onto the glass, measured the location and distances between the screw holes. The glass was fabricated with the required holes for mounting. For lighter fixtures you can use suction pads or strong adhesive tape.
  10. Ks Toh
    It is possible to cut the drawers around the pipes but you lose a bit of storage space. I did this for my present house. Open shelves with hinge doors will maximise storage space but more difficult to reach things stored inside.
  11. Ks Toh
    I just want to point out that if by "strong", you mean strong suction power, then you need to check carefully the specifications of the Fujioh hood. My experience is that their suction power sucks (not literally but figuratively speaking). However, they use a different design for capturing the fumes. May be suitable for circulation mode, but I do not know. I had a bad experience: http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/44531-fujioh-ariafina-betta-bt-900-cooker-hood/?p=675019
  12. Ks Toh
    Follow the instructions in my blog here: http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/62505-top-kew-drive/?p=857347 You should use the IMG link.
  13. Ks Toh
    I drilled a hole in my countertop for both the water in/out as well as power. You can check out my blog for details on how I did it. Normally, the filter is quite expensive.
  14. Ks Toh
    Just happened to see some of these posts, and want to share my experience. I bought the Philips Ambilight TV and matching SoundBar. Very nice. But horrible functionality. Buy only if you think looks more important than function. If you are thinking of an alkaline water dispenser, I can tell you that the electricity consumption is minimal. But the water wastage is a lot. About 40% although I hope my helper uses the water to water plants etc. However, mine is KYK brand. I am not sure of Hydroflux. Originally, I thought it was from Hyflux but apparently not.
  15. Ks Toh
    From experience, I find aircon contractors usually "up-selling" the products. Although in theory their calculations may be correct, I find that they always push much higher BTU units than I really need. So far when I downsize, I find the units suitable. For tarzanboy, I am not sure how big is the hall. But if the rooms are 9,000 BTU, I am sure 12,000 or at most 18,000 BTU will be more than enough for the hall. For nextstep, looking at his floor plan, I would take 9,000 BTU as well for the MSR and 12,000 BTU or 18,000 if the aircon is intended also to serve the kitchen/dining area.
  16. Ks Toh
    Mooncake Festival 2015 Do you guys agree that mooncake prices are now ridiculous? Many of them were selling for $60 upwards per box. So, if you have 10 friends to give, you end up spending almost a thousand dollars on these things. Then in return, you get 10 boxes. Don't know how to finish them. Or throw them away. Starting last year, my group of close friends made a pact not to give each other any mooncake. Instead, we agree to meet and each family will bring one box of the best or most unique he can find. This has been a great arrangement, which I suggest some of you can try. And so we met last week, with lanterns and all.
  17. Ks Toh
    Hi Carol Welcome back. My vertical garden is from http://www.verticalgarden.com.sg but there are many companies offering vertical gardens with different technologies. You might want to check them out to see which is more suitable. Good luck to you. After 3 years, but with regularly maintenance, my vertical garden is still doing well. .When it was first put up, one of my closest friends actually said: haha, let's see again in one year's time. I recently celebrated Mooncake Festival at my place. Took a photo of the vertical garden. Will put in up in next post.
  18. Ks Toh
    Although the ideal gap may be 10 cm, I normally leave a gap of only about half of that, and so far it is fine. Did you measure the actual fridge? Sometimes, the depth is measured up to the most protruding point e.g. handles. So the actual fridge body does not protrude as much.
  19. Ks Toh
    If the WC is defective, you can consider lodging a claim with the Small Claims Tribunal. I lodged one such claim against this shop back in 2011. You may not get back every cent but the satisfaction of proving a point is worth it. See my experience here: http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/44531-fujioh-ariafina-betta-bt-900-cooker-hood/
  20. Ks Toh
    If you seal off the drain opening, where will the water drain off? In my previous place, I had a kerb going into the shower area, and I sometimes trip over it.
  21. Ks Toh
    For network cabling, this is what I feel should be done: http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/62505-top-kew-drive/?p=835953 Basically, you should lay network cables from your fibre point to all rooms. Trust me, you won't regret.
  22. Ks Toh
    My first attempt was to seal off the sides of all the external lights (gate, porch & garden wall). I figured that since it trips only when it rains, it must be due to water seepage at one of the lights. I used my glue gun for this. I was quite pleased with myself as I thought I did a good job. The rain came and it tripped. Instant failure. Back to the drawing board. My second attempt was to call another electrician. My idea was that even if he could not solve my problem, he could split my circuits. Perhaps one for the porch, one for the hall and one for the dining area. In this way, I can further isolate the area that is misbehaving. Alas, this was not possible as the entire ground floor lighting was somehow one and the same circuit. He ended up simply moving L1R to a secondary main switch. In this way, when L1R trips, it trips by itself. It does not affect the main switch. He added that with this L1R by itself, hopefully it will be more stable and less susceptible to tripping. The rain came and it tripped. Failure again. But at least, the main switch did not trip.
  23. Ks Toh
    Power Trip One of the biggest problems with landed properties is power tripping. This happens often to homes with older electrical cabling, mostly hidden or underground. Whenever it rains heavily, my circuit breaker will trip, and the whole house will be without power. I tried to call back my electrician but he never returned my call. As these kind of problems are difficult to troubleshoot, I think he does not want to come do the job. After some trial and error, I established that the culprit is my ground floor light circuit L1R at the bottom left corner. Whenever it trips, my main switch will trip. Then I have to go to the circuit breaker switchboard, turn off L1R, then I can turn on the main switch. If I leave L1R on, I will not be able to turn on the main switch. This was my standing instructions to my helper. This solution is not satisfactory because whenever it trips, I have to carry out the procedure of shutting down L1R, otherwise the whole house is without power. Quite apart from messing up many of the equipment with timers, power to the refrigerator, chest freezer and koi pond pumps are cut. These may have serious consequences if nobody is at home to activate the turn-off-L1R routine. Even when I am at home, shutting down L1R greatly inconveniences everybody. This switch controls all the lighting and fans to my car porch, front entrance, hall, walkway, lounge and dining areas. I had to turn on the vertical garden lights or use candle light for dinner. I had to turn on the aircon instead of the fans. I had to find a better solution.
  24. Ks Toh
    Gas Detector My gas stove is in the open yard, so I do not need a gas detector. But I saw one at HomeFix DIY. Might be useful for most homes where the gas stove is inside the house. But it is expensive.
  25. Ks Toh
    National Day 2015 Every August, I will fly the Singapore flag. At NTUC FairPrice, they sell two types of flags. I always wonder why one type is called HDB House type, while the other is Private House type. Anyway, I found out that the HDB type is the type with two strings for you to hang, while the private house type needs a flag pole. The price does not include the pole. The size of the flag is the same. I find the labelling not very useful, since most private homes also use the HDB type, to hang from their gate or balcony. In fact, I saw very few private houses using the flag pole type. I myself have been using the HDB type for the past few years, but I find the strong wind always flipping my flag over the balcony into the house. So, this year, I decided to try the pole type. https://youtu.be/pspChyjxGVY After I put up my flying flag, two of my neighbours saw it and also changed their hanging type to the pole type! I also took the opportunity to have a National Day Durian Party at my roof terrace!
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