The strangest fix I've seen

[dennis thompson]

My heating and AC thermostat was showing low battery so I changed the batteries, still showed low battery so I changed them again, still showed low battery. I poked around the internet and someone said "install the batteries in reverse and leave them for 30 seconds and replace them correctly." It worked! Strangest fix I've seen.

[Lee Schierer]

I think you were lucky, on many electronics, putting the batteries in wrong will permanently damage them. I wouldn't do it.

As batteries get old many ( even the top brands) will leak electrolyte and the one or more of the terminals will corrode. A light scuffing with sandpaper will usually cure the problem without the risk to the electronics.

[dennis thompson]

I think you were lucky, on many electronics, putting the batteries in wrong will permanently damage them. I wouldn't do it.

As batteries get old many ( even the top brands) will leak electrolyte and the one or more of the terminals will corrode. A light scuffing with sandpaper will usually cure the problem without the risk to the electronics.

Lee
The advice to put the batteries backwards actually came from Honeywell, the manufacturer of the thermostat

[Brian Kent]

I reverse the polarity on my car battery every summer to switch from heating to AC.

[Bill Orbine]

I reverse the polarity on my car battery every summer to switch from heating to AC.

Yeah, and I reverse the polarity of my saw to uncut my mistake.

[Stephen Tashiro]

My heating and AC thermostat ,,,,

What is the specific make and model of your thermostat?

[dennis thompson]

What is the specific make and model of your thermostat?

Stephen
It's a Honeywell

[James Pallas]

I reverse the polarity on my car battery every summer to switch from heating to AC.

Be very careful, your headlamps will shine in.
Jim

[Simon MacGowen]

Yeah, and I reverse the polarity of my saw to uncut my mistake.

I simply flip the blade in my #4 (keeping the chip breaker is optional) to turn it into a low angle plane!

Simon

[John C Cox]

Wouldn't surprise me that you need to clear the memory registers.... Probably the reverse voltage hits a diode and stops the flow of electricity for a bit - effectively turning the unit off briefly without having to shut off the breakers...

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

30 years ago, ex-in-laws were getting their bath room remodeled. I was actually there one day, and progress was horribly slow. Instead of using a pre hung door and sill, this "old world craftsman" was building the sill himself to use the old crooked door that was on the bathroom. the pieces of pine lumber he used for the sill had knots in them. When he nailed the sill in place one of the knots fell out and rolled through a hole he left in the floor for the electrician to run new wires. Well the approx 1.5 inch knot was no where to be found. So he went out to the barn and came back with a corn cob. He wedged the corn cob into the knot hole, cut it off with his knife and then smeared glazing putty over it. The same rocket scientist was hired to put storm windows on the old farmhouse. Except that the kitchen stoop roof blocked part of the upper 10 inches of one living room window. So when he ordered the storm windows, that one was ten inches short. He put it up and screwed it fast where it met the ceiling of the stoop outside the kitchen. So that winter when a snow storm blew in, the snow drifted off roof over the porch door and down between the old window and the storm window. ex FIL walks in the living room and can't figure out why just that one living room window is frosted up. So the following day when the weather gets warmer, the snow between the windows melts and seeps in across the window sill and down onto the carpet. So what does the contractor do to fix the problem? He nails a piece of roll roofing across the upper part of the window and bridges it over to the roof of the stoop. He leaves it that way for a year, comes back to fix it and paints the whole thing with roof coating and leaves again. A hurricane is coming and FIL asks me to help him patch a leak in the roof before the storm gets there. I drive the hundred miles to get there and find him on the roof. He is painting the are with roof coating and laying down sheets of aluminum foil and painting over it with roof coating and then another layer of aluminum foil. Never heard of using aluminum foil I tell him. He says it works good, but only lasts a year or two. I see patches of fresh coating and aluminum foil all over the roof. Why don't you just get a new roof? I ask. This is a 25 year roof and has two years to go under the warranty. Why didn't you make the warranty claim? Don't have time the storms coming, he says.