This LED Hard Case Swivel Head flashlight by Energizer is part of the Hard Case® Professional® series and is a must have for your toolbox. It's also available in Headlight (head mounted) and small Inspection Light versions.

This swivel head version is reviewed by me in Review: Energizer Hard Case Swivel Head LED Flashlight.

The flashlight operates on 2-AA batteries and is only 7 inches long but produces a very impressive bright white light surpassing many conventional flashlights. Also gone is the wimpy blue LED light that plagued early LED's. The Energizer unit uses new LED technology and is very bright and very white.

It comes with some nice features such as an impact resistant ABS plastic case (rubberized for non-slip), self standing with an adjustable swivel head to get the light where you want it, dual level lighting controls, separate switches for white and colored LED's (red and green for low light applications), a belt clip and more.

This little guy is a workhorse and will be at home and ready for action in your truck, car, toolbox or kitchen drawer. I recommend you give this tool a look.

It's Halloween and one of my favorite horror movies is Hitchcock's Psycho.

The shower scene with Janet Leigh (as Marion Crane) is the iconic scene from the classic 1960 film.

But you know, as a Home Repair Guide, I have to say the Bates Motel provided pretty nice shower heads for their guests, although they weren't low flow heads. Of course Marion never noticed since she was dealing with other issues in the shower.

In the tutorial Replacing a Shower Head, I'll show you how easy it is for you to upgrade to something nicer than what Marion Crane used and definitely make your shower experience a lot less frightful!

Furnace ignition problems and solutions vary according to the type of furnace ignition system you have. Not all furnace pilot light ignition problems relate to a standing pilot in your furnace as I describe in How to Light a Gas Furnace Pilot.

Most all modern furnaces use an electronic ignition system having either an intermittent pilot or hot surface ignition.

Modern electronic ignition systems are more reliable than the standing pilot systems of old, but just as your new car has an electronic brain, so do some of these furnaces. And that means you're somewhat limited as to what can be done "under the hood" when they don't work

But take a read of the tutorial Overview and Repair of the Electronic Ignition Furnace and you'll learn how they work, and what you can do when they don't.

Maintaining your furnace is essential for the safety and health of your family and the proper operation of your furnace which, unlike many people we know, we want to be full of hot air.

Make sure you're ready for the coming cold weather. It's quick and easy with the tutorial Seasonal Furnace Maintenance. Just follow the simple tips I outline for seasonal maintenance on your furnace to help keep it running efficiently and safely. From furnace filter replacement to checking the fan belt and carbon monoxide testing, it's all in there!

And if you have an AprilAire Space-Gard 2200 or a unit with a similar deep pleated filter, see the tutorial AprilAire Furnace Filter Replacement.

Do you know how to troubleshoot and fix a thermostat that is not working? Did you know a little tiny adjustment arm on a thermostat device called a heat anticipator can make your furnace cycle on or off frequently or cause your furnace to not hold a proper temperature setting?

When you troubleshoot your gas furnace or install a new thermostat you should also make sure you know how to check your thermostat's operation too.

Can you count on your Pilot?

It happens to most all of us about this time of year. Really no escaping it. You can try and avoid it, but at some point you make a decision to turn on the furnace.

And when you do there is that tiny little anxious question in the back of your mind, "Will the pilot light and furnace work?"

Well, it usually does, but if your furnace wants to continue its summer hibernation, you'll need to know how to Troubleshoot a Gas Furnace and wake it up. It'll give you that nice warm and cozy feeling you've been looking for...

And for other timely furnace information, you may also want to read:

Seasonal Furnace Maintenance

Furnace Filter Replacement

Testing for Carbon Monoxide Leaks

If you care about the healthiness of your home's environment, you may already be aware of the harmful effects of VOC's but not aware of several available healthy paint alternatives. In a "Green" home I designed and built a couple years ago I used what I've found to be one of the best alternative paint options available, ceramic paint It's a wonderful product.

In the tutorial Ceramic Wall Paint, I'll explain why this paint is different and how it becomes one of the healthiest paint options for you and your family. You'll want to seriously consider this next time you have a paint job for your home.

Hammers and nails are a timeless combination that go together like chocolate and peanut butter. And sometimes beating that nail into submission can be just as therapeutic as chocolate. But I digress, anyway...

Just like hammers look similar but can be slightly different, nails are all similar in design but are all different as well. Using the wrong nail for the job can result in structural failure, damaged wood or just an amateurish looking job when completed.

Nails also use a mysterious coding for describing their size like "8d". The system used is called the penny system and has its roots going back to old England and even back to ancient Rome and 211 BC. The "d" is rooted in the old Roman penny coin called the denarius.

In the tutorial Nails 101, I'll show you the many different types of nails you may come upon in your home repair projects and describe their construction and use. We'll review nail types like cut, common, box, duplex, annular ring / drywall, masonry, brad, finish, casing, roofing.

So grab a Reese's peanut butter cup and nail this tutorial with a quick read.

Few things are worse than a low-flow toilet that will not flush. Fortunately, the advancement in technology of the pressure assisted toilet has now enabled super low volume toilets that both work (a nice feature) and save even more water than early 1.6 gallon per flush toilets (required since 1992).

These new power assist toilets use as little as 1.1 gallons per flush and according to the EPA can save up to 8,000 gallons of water per year for a family of four over a 1.6 gallon per flush toilet.

And if you have an older style toilet that uses 3.5 to 5 gallons per flush, well the water savings with a power assisted toilet will, well, blow you away!

One of the last frontiers of creature comforts we continue to pursue is that of on-demand hot water.

Sure you can use a point of use tankless water heater under the sink for one location or invest thousand of dollars in a whole house tankless water heater but these options are out of reach for economic or practical reasons for most people.

But there is a way to get almost immediate hot water from that little old water heater you have chugging away in the basement.

How? By using a device called a demand delivery hot water recirculation pump.

OK, you're going to love this. For between $180 to $500 depending on how fancy a unit you want to buy (some have motion sensors built in, simple ones use just a timer), you can attach this unit to your water heating system and have hot water up to 80% faster (that means within seconds in the summer) than you get today from your standard water heating system.

And besides the comfort of hot water faster, you don't waste our precious resource of water! Did you know that the average household wastes between 11,000 to 16,000 gallons of water a year by letting the water run down the drain until it gets hot enough to use? That is a shocking and disturbing statistic.

Well, read How to Get "Instant" Hot Water with a Standard Water Heater and see how easy it is to enjoy hot water faster, while saving money and a precious resource!