Kitec Plumbing in Our House

I am sad to say that my house has kitec plumbing in it. We have owned our new home for over seven years and have experience two leaks so far. Fortunately for us, we were home both time the leaks occurred so we were able to limit the damage to our home. Kitec for those that don't know is a plumbing product whose fittings begin to fail and cause leaks in your home. I believe there was a lawsuit that was settled but it provides no relief for homeowners. This sucks for a lot of homeowners out there that have kitec plumbing and cannot afford a re-plumb at the moment. From my research and from my own experience I have read that the piping is still good in most cases but it is the fittings that corrode by leaching zinc. I am working on a solution to this problem for myself and I will share what I find with everybody in my next post.

Craftsman Cordless 4.0v Lithium Ion Screwdriver, 1 Year Review

It has been almost one year since I posted my first review of the new Craftsman Cordless Screwdriver that I purchased and have been using. It is the 4.0v Lithium Ion Screwdriver, model #315.113980. It is now time to let you all know how it has been performing. First off I want to say that I am in no way being compensated by Sears or Craftsman for this article. First things first here are some pictures of what my drill looks like after one year.

4.0V Craftsman Cordless-1

4.0V Li-Ion Craftsman Drill

As you can see this little drill has some wear on the handle which means I used this drill a lot! The only time I used my bigger Craftsman cordless drills was when I needed a ton of torque or the 1/2" chuck. I probably used this drill 80% of the time instead of my larger drills. This drill packs a powerful punch in a small package and I love using it. It works great inside of a PC case as well as out in the yard driving screws into the fence. I used this cordless screwdriver as often as possible during the rebuild of our 1989 Skamper pop up camper, http://frugal-travels.blogspot.com/. This drill was great for installing the small cabinets back into the pop up where the full size drills didn't have the room. I do call my cordless screwdriver a drill because it offers two speeds 200rpm and 600rpm. 600 RPM is a little slow for some drilling jobs but it got the job done when I didn't want to go find a different drill. I really pushed the torque limits of this little drill as well. I have probably driven screws that were way too tough for it but the Li-Ion power pack pushes through slowly but surely. I actually thought one time that I broke it but it just popped out of gear into a neutral position until I pushed it back into gear. I am not sure if this was by design but I have not yet broken the gear box. The battery still holds one heck of a charge still. I often misplace the charger because I may not charge the drill for a month under light use. When pushing the drill hard the charge will last for one to two days which is unheard of with a Ni-Cad drill. I highly recommend this drill-driver to all people, you will not be disappointed.