Mostly it’s bullshit numbers. A 1.5hp motor should draw around 14 amps on 110v. That’s pretty much maxing out what you should have on a household circuit. Manufacturers just like to make up things like “developed” or “max/rated hp” or other stupid terms that don’t actually mean anything but make their products seem more robust. Look at the current draw on the opener. The more it draws, the more powerful it will be.

Not much you can do unfortunately. I've tried everything (also in Chicago) and it's mostly the windows not being very insulating.

Just open your windows and let fresh air in/the humidity out a few times a day for like five minutes.

Check the vent for clogs. That’s where I’d start.

It will clog in the most difficult to access location.

If you check there first, it will be clogged some where else - unless its not, in which case it is a different problem.

We had this problem badly in our bathroom. We put a frosted film over the window (for privacy) and that stopped the condensation. I don’t know how/why, but it worked. The condensation was so bad that it was causing mould, and we were having to dry the windows with a towel at least twice a day.

The film we used is removable - you just spray the window with a light mist of soapy water, put the film on, and squeegee out the air bubbles.

Plaster over blue board is still common in the northeast. Everywhere else uses drywall. Not sure why.

If you’re going to do substantial work anyway, why not just wait til the current opener fails, and replace it with a stronger one that’s meant to lift the amount of weight that it’s lifting?

I replaced an air gap with a high loop into a disposal. No issues since.

Right. And the CDC text you quoted says molds can produce allergic effects. Toxic effects have never been proven.

Hmm I haven’t checked that. Would it clog by the fill port / vent ? Or the tubing?

I don't think these trap air. Instead, I think it has to do with the "impedance mismatch" between the glass and plastic making the heat not conduct as well. Put simply, heat doesn't conduct well between different materials. Imagine one material is a bunch of marbles bouncing around, and another is a bunch of bowling balls bouncing around. The energy wouldn't transfer well when the marbles and bowling balls hit each other.

Then your response to dog dander and pollen sound allergenic rather than toxigenic per se.

Exposure to dust can likewise cause blockage, irritation, and problems with abrasion not related to actual toxicity.

Hope this helps you out!

We always install the frostking plastic and then the condensation happens in the plastic. It happens less often though

Do you have a small fan you could point at the window and run it on low? Likely the overall air in your apartment has low humidity and you would benefit from something that just evaporates that water and makes it available as 'humidity' in the rest of the living space.

> you kinda need it though? My house does this when it's super cold and the interior humid

Run a small fan on the lowest setting. Just the tiniest bit of air moving will do wonders for getting rid of this.

Perfect. I will be ditching that. Glass washer is much more useful.

My county did...for like 1-2 years. Right as I built.

As a former garage door technician, I can confirm the comments above. A spring upgrade would have been plausible however several factors to bear in mind when it comes to springs 7 foot doors require 7 full spring rotations and an extra 1/4 turn for good measure in order for the door to raise all the way. 8 foot door, 8 rotations (so on and so forth) your garage door opener has force limit settings on it, most modern ones are automatic, and older models will have two turn dials that symbolize opening force and closing force, if it’s turn dials, check to see their current positioning (max or min) if both dials are set to max this will indefinitely shorten the life span of the motor as it’s basically being told that it can open/close as hard as it wants without repercussions. Not only is this bad for your motor but it also means if the spring breaks and or your door closes while someone is in the way (providing it doesn’t trigger the safety sensors that should be installed on the vertical tracks of the door) the opener won’t stop, it’ll keep closing crushing anything in its path. Resulting in harm to a person or objects beneath it. Likewise if your spring is broken and the door weighs far more than the opener is intended to pull, it’ll keep trying to open the door inevitably burning the motor out itself. Spring upgrades are not only costly but going back to my statement at the top, higher spring ft/lb torque ratings mean that if the door is too light with the upgraded springs at 7, 8, etc rotations. Those springs are useless. Overwinding the springs can also shorten the lifetime of the springs themselves. I would have the garage door company come back, take the insulation off and revert the spring tension to how it should be. Otherwise the costs long term would cost you the same as an R35 properly insulated garage door + new hardware.

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Put you cat on a diet and just put a smaller on in.

Sorry, I'm understanding now that you are replacing a ceiling fan light combo with just a light. I think what you'll find is very simple wiring and no extra wires because the current fixture operates on one switch.

Game plan: Turn off power to the fixture at the breaker box.

Disassemble the current fixture before removing it from the ceiling. This means removing the ceiling fan blades, any lightbulb cover(s) & lightbulbs, probably nothing more.

Unscrew the fixture from the ceiling and carefully pull it off the ceiling mount so the wires are exposed. You might see a small hook on the ceiling mount that allows you to hang the fixture from it from a hole at the top of the fixture (maybe a screw hole or other hole in the rim of the top of the fixture). If you see that, hang the fixture from it to free your hands. If you don't see it, you might want a helper so you don't have to balance the fixture in one hand while working the wires with the other.

Use an electrical tester to run over the wires and make sure there's no current going through them.

Take pictures of the existing wiring. Carefully note which colors from the ceiling fan are twisted to what colors of wires from the house wiring. If you are confused at this point you might want to stop here, post your pictures in a new thread and ask any questions you have.

This sounds like something I would do... And I do lots of things that end of wasting huge amounts of time. Like many other people have said, this would suck to do and should probably be avoided.

Anyways, if you must do this, a high quality respirator is a must. You also must do something to control the dust. Even though it's outside this is critical to avoid putting yourself and others at risk. If you've never done this sort of work then you can't possibly understand how much dust it'll produce. You can't just wear a respirator while working. Unless you're very lucky with the weather, the dust will stick around and blow all over the place when it's windy. This could last days or weeks after the job is done.

You can grind dry with a pretty serious dust collection system or you can wet grind with a pneumatic grinder or a very well insulated electric grinder. I prefer the former, but if you must use the electric grinder to wet grind then plugging it into a GFCI outlet is essential...

But you really don't want to do this... If you just don't like the lines, maybe you could stucco the whole thing instead, I really don't know about that though.

So is dog dander that gives me asthma "toxic"? How about dust? That gives me nasal symptoms. How about tree pollen that makes me sneeze?

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