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Your most humiliating low stakes experience

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Bought a car at auction. Auction house loaded it onto transporter guy's flatbed with a forklift. Transporter guy brings it to my house, can't reverse it off down the ramps. Back wheels are obviously rusted stuck - maybe a bit more accelerator? Nope, won't loosen. Me and transporter guy smack and poke and prod - then discuss how to drag it off the ramp with a chain...

...and then remember in addition to a button operated handbrake that is integrated with the auto gearbox, some Toyotas have a further foot-operated "handbrake". Couple of numpties, both of us.


 
Posted : 15/09/2025 7:49 pm
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Every single time I can't find something in the house.

"Darling, have you seen xyz?"

"It's in the 3rd drawer down in the kitchen, haven't you looked?"

"OF COURSE I'VE LOOKED. I'VE LOOKED EVERYWHEEEEEEERRREEE.... oh"


 
Posted : 15/09/2025 7:54 pm
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Posted by: bob_summers

so I had to just take the lecture about never using the Eco cycle...

May one ask why? As it's the one I always use (less £ = Yorkshire)

 


 
Posted : 15/09/2025 7:56 pm
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Posted by: Rich_s

Posted by: bob_summers

so I had to just take the lecture about never using the Eco cycle...

May one ask why? As it's the one I always use (less £ = Yorkshire)

 

 

Might 'save' water but it takes hours and hours.

45 min 40c wash cycle for me every time.

 


 
Posted : 15/09/2025 8:02 pm
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Posted by: RichPenny

Whilst a test engineer, probing an awkward spot underneath a PCB with limited space, managed to connect myself to 240V. Then I called my mate over to help me diagnose the fault. So I electrocuted myself again, obviously. 

Oh that reminds me.

Just the other day, my mechanically minded 9yo son and a friend were taking apart an old printer in the garden that they'd found somewhere, so I let them get on with it. A little later I hear "it's only buzzing a bit, why isn't it working?" and somewhat rapidly arrive to find them with a bare circuit board plugged directly into the mains, with the motor that they're trying to use plugged into to a random connector 😱 

Cue panic and immediate unplugging followed by a safety lecture, during which I managed to put my finger across the terminals of a 400V capacitor! Felt like a right idiot but hopefully got the point across...


 
Posted : 15/09/2025 8:06 pm
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Posted by: Rich_s

May one ask why? As it's the one I always use (less £ = Yorkshire)

Doing the same myself and wondering the same thing I Googled it... apparently the cool temperatures can mean the soap doesn't always dissolve properly so builds up in the machine until it eventually breaks something. True? I dunno. Worth running a hot cycle now and again just in case, I guess 🤷‍♂️

 

But I will be forever nervous now until the original question gets answered:

Posted by: politecameraaction

my ultraefficient method of plate stacking was "all wrong" and partially responsible for the failure.

What's the method? Help!


 
Posted : 15/09/2025 8:10 pm
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On a similar vein but very different outcome.

Has anyone seen what happens when you dissolve soap flakes in boiling water? First it all melts and its all liquidy then as it cools it turns to sludge. If the water volume is small enough it turns into a sort of hardish paste wax consistency.

Now this is all very well and good. It makes a nice wood finish for that Scandinavian look for example.

However if you follow the instruction and pour the hot runny soap mix in with manky sports kit to make an effective sports wash... Don't forget to actually turn the machine on...

Or the soap now liberally soaked into all the fabric and cooled is quite an impressive lump. The door won't open because its full and the drain won't drain because there ain't no liquid...


 
Posted : 15/09/2025 8:25 pm
Posts: 12974
Free Member
 

On a similar vein but very different outcome.

Has anyone seen what happens when you dissolve soap flakes in boiling water? First it all melts and its all liquidy then as it cools it turns to sludge. If the water volume is small enough it turns into a sort of hardish paste wax consistency.

Now this is all very well and good. It makes a nice wood finish for that Scandinavian look for example.

However if you follow the instruction and pour the hot runny soap mix in with manky sports kit to make an effective sports wash... Don't forget to actually turn the machine on...

Or the soap now liberally soaked into all the fabric and cooled is quite an impressive lump. The door won't open because its full and the drain won't drain because there ain't no liquid...


 
Posted : 15/09/2025 8:26 pm
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apparently the cool temperatures can mean the soap doesn't always dissolve properly so builds up in the machine until it eventually breaks something.

Have a running battle with Mrs dB over the washing machine thermostat 😕

 


 
Posted : 15/09/2025 9:16 pm
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Just last week myself and work colleague have to deliver a new freezer in work van to a local - we decide to lift it over the balustrade and at chest height through the front door to make life easier. We put it down in the house OK and as we are heading back to van he notices he’s caught his hand on a sharp edge underneath and his hand is bleeding profusely. I offer to drive and drop him at the doctor’s surgery around the corner and he says to tell his wife (who also works in shop) to come back up to the surgery in the van. I drop back down to the Main Street, it’s quite busy / no parking spaces so I double park outside, put the hazards on, hit the stop engine button and realise the keys are in my colleague’s pocket! We did sort it out, eventually… 


 
Posted : 15/09/2025 10:00 pm
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Might 'save' water but it takes hours and hours.

45 min 40c wash cycle for me every time.

 

Eco mode isn't just about saving water (I'm not convinced it does much of that) but also about shortening the time the washed plates are actively being dried for.

Ours pops the door open when it finishes so that everyone just air dries rather than being heated to dry, which seems to make no sense to me (as everything is piping hit anyway, so just mostly dries fine).

 


 
Posted : 15/09/2025 10:04 pm
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Eco mode 2.5 hours on our washing machine uses half the water of a 30 minute wash.

Same electricity but eco cleans better.


 
Posted : 15/09/2025 10:50 pm
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Posted by: singletrackmind

New gas hob with flame failure protection.

Rtfm. You have to hold the button down for 5 seconds after it lights to get the burner to stay on apparently.

Or so the rather exasperated call out engineer told someone who definitely wasn't me that was the technique 

 

Ah. You know the "What, no waaaaay" guy on instagram? I'm just having one of those. Explains a lot!

 

 

Posted by: RichPenny

Whilst a test engineer, probing an awkward spot underneath a PCB with limited space, managed to connect myself to 240V. Then I called my mate over to help me diagnose the fault. So I electrocuted myself again, obviously. 

Electrocuting yourself twice is mighty impressive! 😉 


 
Posted : 16/09/2025 10:11 am
dove1 reacted
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That squeaky earring ad way up there. There was a hostel in Sorbas whee many a geology student visited as part of their uni field trips, myself included.  The 'garage' was an old shack owned by the woman who ran the hostel who turned up one day to find them filming at it, probably thinking it was just old abandoned place. She moved it after that to the hostel and made it into the bar.

If any of the geoscientists on here have been, and saw a bloody great red wine stain on the pool table in it, that was my fault, i happened to be very, very drunk. 

 

found it! Cortijo Urrá Field Centre

looks like the shack is still there: https://maps.app.goo.gl/9yPxmsJszLfmeHbn6


 
Posted : 19/09/2025 12:39 pm
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A family holiday to Belgium and NL, a coach trip through Amsterdam with the guide giving a running commentary of the sights.

'Dad, what's a Six Shop' asked this 12 year old, after mishearing what the guide had said. The whole coach party seemed to hear my question.


 
Posted : 19/09/2025 1:04 pm
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I had a fairly flash new car (Audi obvs) which I let MrsP borrow for the weekend to drive up north to see her sister. On the way back down the oil light came on (not unexpected for it to get through some in the first few thousand miles) so she topped it up from the can in the boot. An hour or so later as she's leaving the motorway she tried to change out of 6th but the gear lever wouldn't move. She limped to a stop but couldn't get going so called the VAG recovery folk. They also tried to get it to change gear but couldn't so then attempted to drive it onto the recovery truck by slipping the clutch at about 6000 rpm. It was taken back to the local dealer to be inspected and fixed.

I turned up there the next evening expecting a grovelling apology for a warranty issue but was surprised to be handed an invoice... "inspected stuck gear linkage, found oil filler cap lodged in mechanism, removed cap...".


 
Posted : 19/09/2025 2:18 pm
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