Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with duct

Help! Cat stuck in duct!

holympus — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 22:27:39 -0800

My friend's cat is stuck in her apartment's A/C duct system. What should she do? She picked him up from a shelter today, and within a few minutes of getting home, he jumped into the A/C system and has not come out. It has been 8 hours.

She contacted the shelter, and the shelter put out an email to lots of cat people. Everyone has advised her to open some food near the duct, which she has done, and wait.

My feeling is that she should do more to recover the cat now. If she's going to have to tear up the floor or other parts of the apartment to retrieve a dead cat, why not do it now and have a good shot of getting it back alive?

She does not know the layout of the duct system. She heard the cat as recently as a few hours ago. People have advised her to wait up to three days for him to come out of his own volition.

Getting tape residue off windows, and holding broken ones up?

nmaster64 — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:40:39 -0800

Best way to get duct tape residue off windows, and how to hold broken car windows up? My gf's car is in some real crap shape. I'd love to surprise her one day and clean it up, specifically her windows. Her front driver and back passenger windows don't work and have to be held up. She's been using duct tape for over a year to do it, we still just can't quite afford the fix.

After a year of reapplying duct tape on a regular basis, the windows are covered in baked-on adhesive, it's actual a bit of a safety concern too. What's the best way to get that stuff off and clean them up nice and clear?

And is there a stronger non-permanent solution for holding the windows up? Even w/ tons of duct tape they fall over time or at a big bump. I don't mind the tape solution, I just wish it would hold better and for longer so we didn't have to reapply it every other week.

It's a 2000 Pontiac Grand Prix if that helps. Also, I am completely allergic to working on cars for the record.

Have 125 romance novels. What can I BUILD them into?

Quarter Pincher — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 03:47:53 -0800

RedGreenShowFilter: I've got a bunch of crisp paperback romance novels I've scavenged from dumpsters around town, and I'd rather turn them into something than read or try selling them. What can I build using them? I'm thinking clear box tape instead of duct, so the corny covers will still be visible. Bonus points for something handy. There's about 125 of them, at 4.25" x 6.25 " x (varying thickness, avg .75"). I can get hundreds more at local used book shops for less than $.50 each.

No idea too crazy, as long as it's feasible with 125 books, or more within reason.

That pretty much eliminates a giant Gundam, alas.

Such gall, no bladder

Oriole Adams — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:31:01 -0800

I know YANMMD, but even my mom's various doctors can't seem to answer this question: what causes stones in the pancreatic bile duct? My Mom is 76 years old and had her gall bladder removed back in 1992. However, in the last six years or so she has had recurrent bouts of pancreatitis. She'll get horrendous pain in the upper abdomen and in her upper back, we'll take her to the ER, they'll run the usual tests while they await her regular doctor (I forget which one of her specialists covers the pancreas). He'll suspect stones in the bile duct of the pancreas, they'll take a picture, and sure enough. They insert a stent and after a few days in the hospital she's sent home. After X amount of time, the doctor orders the stent to be removed. She checks into the hospital, they remove it, and every single time she's doubled over in excrutiating pain less than 24 hours later and rushed to the hospital. Turns out she'd gotten an infection from the removal of the stent.

She swore the last time she was hospitalized for this infection that she'd never have another stent inserted, but recently she's been experiencing similar pains to previous stone scenarios. Her doctor ran the usual tests and told her that she was a "stone factory." I told her to ask the doctor what are the possible causes of the stones - is it something dietary? She hates to ask him too many questions because he has a very pronounced Indian accent and she has trouble understanding him. She thinks it's rude to keep asking him to repeat himself. Diet-wise she doesn't seem to eat very much of anything at all, because so many things seem to cause her pain. When I take her out for breakfast or lunch, she'll have either an English muffin or a cup of chicken noodle soup, nothing more. I don't know what she eats at home except from what she occasionally mentions in emails "I made meatloaf and mashed potatoes for Dad, I just had a scoop of potatoes and a little bit of gravy."

Is there truly no rhyme or reason while bile duct stones happen? Or are the doctors just "humoring" my Mom and not bothering to explain "technical" things because she's over 70 and female? I only present this possibility because two days after she'd returned home from her gall bladder surgery she told me on the phone that she was experiencing shortness of breath. I called her surgeon and he told me that it was most likely post-operative stress; that a lot of older patients, particularly females, experience it. But when I visited her the next day and saw that she couldn't walk across the kitchen without grabbing a chair and panting, I took her to the ER of a different hospital, where they discovered blood clots on her lung.

During her last hospital stay for the post-stent removal infection, they ran an additional battery of tests and her doctor announced that there was no cancer in the pancreas (none of us had been told they were checking for such a thing). So any ideas as to what causes this frequency of bile duct stones? It particularly worries me because right now Mom seems to be willing to endure the pain of the stones rather than go in for another stent and the eventual removal, infection, pain, hospital stay, etc.

Duct cleaning?? Wtf??

saradarlin — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:23:08 -0800

Do you have your household HVAC ducts for a forced air furnace cleaned? As homeowner for the first time, I'm looking for advice. Should I pay $225 to have my ducts cleaned? I do think that we need to have the dryer vent cleaned because it (apparently) has a history of getting blocked. But what about the rest of the house? Do you guys have this done? How often? Did you notice any improvement?

I live in Ontario Canada so central air and heating systems use the ducts.

The Properties of Fluids are not Strained

winna — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:47:06 -0800

Why does my dryer have to be vented to work? I live in an apartment. My dryer vent duct to the outside allows the smell of my neighbor's drying clothing to come into my apartment, since for some damnsilly reason the two vents are connected. I wanted to block off the vent and just let my dryer vent out into the room.

But if I do not have the dryer hooked up to the dryer vent, it does not ever get hot. It gets warmish, but not hot. This seems exactly opposed to what I imagine should happen, which that the dryer air flowing out into the room with no obstruction would allow for much faster drying. I hooked it back up to the vent, incidentally.

I have an extremely tiny compact Maytag High Efficiency MDE2400AYW, if it matters. When I can get it to work it makes a pleasing song after my clothes are done. I delight in the carol of my machine, but it does me no good if I open the box to find the clothes are almost as damp as when they entered it.

Is there some mechanical feature of the dryer which causes this, or is it the long column of air inside the duct is acting as a chimney to suck the air out of the dryer?

Looking for rectangular paintable ductwork that looks as good (and works as well) as boxing it in with drywall.

winston — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 09:12:22 -0800

We just boxed in with drywall a round 5" heating duct, running from floor to ceiling in the corner of the living room. Because of some odd features of the room, this took up more space than it should. What I'd really like is to replace the duct (and drywall) with a paintable rectangular duct running up the corner of the room, that would look just as good as drywall. This would have to be rugged enough to withstand small children playing in the room (e.g. not dent like typical metal duct). Does this exist? When I search for paintable duct, I get stuff that's intended to run across the ceiling, not be good as a wall. (e.g. I suspect that the metal duct would not only dent, but the paint would flake off when it did dent).

FWIW, the duct was already there and the renovation we just did made the box much smaller than it had been, but I want more.

The duct will have to make a 90-degree turn into a round duct immediately above the ceiling.

Is fiberglass duct board hazardous to my health?

wsg — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:31:03 -0800

Is fiberglass heating/cooling duct board safe? My carpenter says the fibers from the duct can get blown into the house and you wind up breathing fiberglass. Some of the reading I've done on the web says newer duct board is safer cuz of longer fibers that don't blow loose as easily and a coating that is applied by the manufacturer that helps. I couldn't find a definitive answer on the web.

The alternatives are substantially more expensive.

My heating system: just fine or time bomb?

a22lamia — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 13:12:31 -0800

My forced hot air system has no return ducts. Instead, cool air falls directly into the basement, where there's a filtered intake on the side of the furnace. Are my life, health, and or selling prospects at severe risk? You should also know that the hot water heater is right beside the furnace, though on the opposite side as the intake. Both are oil burning. Also, I live in Massachusetts, and plan to sell my home in about a year. The place is about 1200 square feet, and I've lived in it off and (mostly) on my whole life... so I've made it this long!

Will no return ducts cause my home to fail an inspection, or cause complications with the sale? In the mean time, how great are the risks from combustion fumes, dust, mold etc. from my basement?

The highly reputable firm who I am confident will do a first rate job installing the return ducting, has given me a rather expensive estimate. If I put it off, or opt for second or third rate, am I really just postponing the inevitable?

Duct tape on my arm and a frown on my face

rbs — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 12:54:35 -0800

I have a beautiful velvet blazer. While teaching today, a piece of duct tape got stuck to it (I don't know how). When I try to peel it off, it totally screws up the finish (the little fibers come with). How do I get the duct tape off the velvet?

Plugged milk duct? Bleb? This is messing up my symmetry!!

Anonymous — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 18:29:22 -0800

What is the white dot on my nipple? For as long as I can remember (since I was really young), I've had a white dot at the end of only one of my nipples. It's very small, and no one has ever seemed to notice it, though it's not something I've ever pointed out. I've searched google, but I can't figure out what it could be. The only thing that I can find that comes close to what I'm describing is a plugged milk duct or "bleb". It is right on the spot where one of these would be, and it looks somewhat like it. However, I have never been pregnant, breastfed, or otherwise lactated. It doesn't cause me any pain at all, and there is no "lump" underneath the nipple that seems to indicate plugged milk ducts from my research. I really can't figure this out.
To clarify, the dot is not on my areola, it is right on the nipple, I guess where milk would come out.
Also, if it's not obvious from the above, I am a female.
What is this? Can I get rid of it?

Cables in a duct

Krrrlson — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 10:10:03 -0800

Fire Hazard Filter: I am thinking of running a network cable through a section of HVAC ducting in my house (~6' stretch relatively far from the furnace/AC unit). Will this be a fire hazard in the winter, when the furnace is on? I don't really care about thermal wear on the cable itself.