How handyare you?

Hey, DIYers – Think you know what it takes to make fixing things easy? Take the quiz below to test your knowledge of appliances, lawn maintenance, and heating & cooling equipment.

Questions:

1. What are the two most common filters found in a range vent hood?
2. A four-cycle engine runs on gasoline. What kind of fuel does a two-cycle engine run on?
3. What does a convection oven have that standard ovens do not?
4. What voltage do most gas dryers require for operation?
5. What voltage do most electric dryers require for operation?
6. Which refrigerator coils get hot, the condenser coils or the evaporator coils?
7. The heating capacity of a furnace is normally designated using what form of measurement?
8. What are the two types of motors used to draw air into a furnace's heat exchanger?
9. Which type of lawn mower blade is better to use if you bag the clippings, high-lift or low-lift?
10. What device do you need to measure "continuity" in an electrical component?

Answers:

1. Range vent hoods normally use aluminum grease filters to catch the grease and oils in the rising steam and charcoal filters to reduce smoke and odors from the air being recirculated into the kitchen.
2. Two-cycle engines run on a mixture of gasoline and engine oil, often at a 50:1 ratio (fifty parts gasoline to one part engine oil). Pre-mixed fuel is available on our site to save you the guess-work.
3. Convection ovens have one or more fan motors to circulate the air inside the oven cavity. This helps to maintain a consistent temperature which allows food to cook more evenly in less time than conventional ovens.
4. Most gas dryers require a standard 120 volts of alternating current to operate – the gas does the "heavy lifting" when it comes to heating the air.
5. Most electric dryers require 240 volts of alternating current to operate – the additional voltage is needed to power the electric heating element.
6. Refrigerator condenser coils get hot as the coils condense the refrigerant gas into liquid; the evaporator coils get cold by expanding the refrigerant liquid back into a gas.
7. The heating capacity of furnaces is measured using a "British Thermal Unit" or "BTU" – most furnaces are rated between 40,000 and 130,000 BTU.
8. Depending on the model, either a draft inducer fan motor or a blower fan motor will be used to draw air into a furnace's heat exchanger.
9. High-lift lawn mower blades are better for bagging whereas low-lift blades are best for sandy, dry terrain and when you don't intend to bag the clippings.
10. An "Ohm" meter, or a multi-meter that is able to measure ohms, can be used to test many electrical components for "continuity", a continuous electrical path present in the part. A defective component will often test "negative" for continuity.

Were you able to easily answer at least nine of the questions? Thanks for playing, "certified repair technician" – now get back to your contract job!

Did you answer six to eight with ease? Bet you spend your weekends helping the neighbors do those "little repairs".

How about three to five questions correctly answered? Don't worry - with a little guidance you'll be doing-it-yourself in no time!

Less than three? Okay, call a professional.

But seriously, not all repair projects are created equal. You may want to avoid replacing a refrigerator compressor, but replacing a dryer drive belt could be a lot easier than you think. Check out the "Repair Help" section at The Home Depot Repair Parts to find out how.