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The seat on one of the valves might be corroded and need replacing as well
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Mar 10, 2024 00:45
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hark posted:So my upstairs shower has 3 knobs; hot ,shower, cold. They're Pfister valves I think it's called. A couple years ago, I started getting water leaking from the actual handles themselves. Asked around and concluded it was probably washers worn out in the valve. Decided to just replace all 3 valves+handles cause it was like 50 bucks and would make me not think about it for some more years. Now I am getting a small every 5 second or so drip from the faucet, and it's the cold water. Did I probably install it incorrectly? It wasn't dripping initially and seemed to be all good. I want to confirm the timeline: when did you install these valves? If it was a couple years ago it's entirely probable that your replacement valves just weren't of the same quality as the originals it came with.
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Mar 10, 2024 03:04
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devmd01 posted:Main bathroom shower needs a cartridge replacement, fine. Gotta love the 25+ years of corrosion keeping the handle from coming off even though the set screw is out. If you've got hard water at all I'd say you should be prepared for a complete replacement. At a minimum I now keep a spare new handle and bonnet nut on hand. I've had to drill the set screw on the handles of 2/3rds of the builders special Delta shower/tub RP46074 cartridge valves in my house to get them off due to corrosion after 17 years. If yours are like mine the bonnet nut is also probably frozen in place by mineral and corrosion buildup, because I'd bet whoever installed it likely didn't pack the threads full of silicone grease to stop that. You can pretty easily stubby hacksaw through the brass bonnet nut until you just see threads and then split it off with a screwdriver. Then comes the fun part... The valve cartridge itself is probably also cemented in by mineral buildup. I was able to remove one with some effort with channel locks, destroying the cartridge in the process. The second one the cartridge plastic body broke before it came out. I was thankfully able to get some small long nose locking pliers on the remains in the valve body and wiggle the poo poo out of it and somehow it came out without torquing the valve body and irreparably bending the mixer lines. Spent a bunch of time with vinegar and brass brushes afterwards cleaning up as much buildup as I could, especially in the valve body where the seals seat. Also on the bonnet nut threading. I haven't been able to bring myself to replace the 3rd cartridge and just ignore the pressure balance spool knock from it when a fast valve closes. At this point if I have any more problems with them I'm probably cutting open the wall(s) and replacing the fuckers. Goofball fucked around with this message at 05:13 on Mar 10, 2024 |
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Mar 10, 2024 05:11
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Motronic posted:I want to confirm the timeline: when did you install these valves? If it was a couple years ago it's entirely probable that your replacement valves just weren't of the same quality as the originals it came with. Just thought about it and it was in mid 2020 when the pandemic was really fuckin things up. I took a day off just to work on that and did it all in a day after buying supplies. drat. In my memory it seems more recent.
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Mar 10, 2024 05:19
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2020 was like, four or five months ago. Or possibly some time last century. That's how we all feel.
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Mar 10, 2024 06:12
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Goofball posted:good stuff After trying PB blaster yesterday and doing more reading, I also arrived at the conclusion I’ll have to take the destructive path. I have to be careful in general as the pipes are not secured in the wall and just clamped to the fiberglass with the trim. We have hard water but we do have a softener. No knowing when one was first installed in the 26yr history of this house. Going to get the cartridge, bonnet nut, and a new handle ordered and go from there. The cartridge feels like one of those things I should stick to OEM and not a knockoff on Amazon. E: A cartridge for the kitchen sink faucet arrived this morning and I had it swapped out in ten minutes including cleaning off the corrosion/hard water scale. devmd01 fucked around with this message at 15:10 on Mar 10, 2024 |
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Mar 10, 2024 13:10
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Managed to get my expansion tank and recirculation pump (not pictured) installed. It ain't pretty but it will do
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Mar 11, 2024 15:16
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It sure ain't What about that puddle on top of the water heater?
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Mar 11, 2024 17:41
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What is up with those braided hoses? Are they dielectric to prevent bimetallic corrosion? Is that to code where you are? It would not be here. Even if they are I wouldn't trust them.
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Mar 11, 2024 17:50
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SpartanIvy posted:What is up with those braided hoses? Are they dielectric to prevent bimetallic corrosion? Is that to code where you are? It would not be here. Even if they are I wouldn't trust them. Nothing there is to code or inspected. Come on. I just have no words about that "install".
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Mar 11, 2024 17:54
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I say this with absolutely no personal judgement on you whatsoever: If you're too unsure of your own abilities to attempt to solder pipes or install PEX, you need to hire a plumber. It's completely fine to look at a job like that and go "nah, I'm not putting in several days worth of YouTube videos and practice and half a dozen trips to the hardware store." But I've learned the hard way that 5 years from now, you're going to be standing there thinking "what loving IDIOT did this to my water heater... Oh poo poo it was me." Don't be me. KillHour fucked around with this message at 18:14 on Mar 11, 2024 |
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Mar 11, 2024 18:07
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Motronic posted:Nothing there is to code or inspected. Come on. I just have no words about that "install". WHEEEE!
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Mar 11, 2024 20:00
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SpartanIvy posted:What is up with those braided hoses? Are they dielectric to prevent bimetallic corrosion? Is that to code where you are? It would not be here. Even if they are I wouldn't trust them. They're up to code here I need to redo the pipe supports, but I think everything else is up to code, even if it's ugly.
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Mar 11, 2024 23:01
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Related question: what is it that determines the need for an expansion tank on a hot water system? I've literally never seen one on any residential installation.
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Mar 12, 2024 00:41
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IOwnCalculus posted:Related question: what is it that determines the need for an expansion tank on a hot water system? I've literally never seen one on any residential installation. Short answer: if water is in a closed system with no open vents, especially if it is being heated, then you need to accommodate for its expansion. Long answer: When there's no expansion tank, you traditionally have a twin-feed system where both the dirty side of the system (boiler and your radiators and the cylinder coil) and the clean side (water through the cylinder to become hot water for your taps) are filled by separate cisterns in your loft, each vented by an open pipe up to those cisterns. When the water in these systems expands, it heads up the vent pipes and worst case is that it ends up back in those cisterns, which have an overflow if the situation gets real bad. The drawback of this system is that the pressure in these systems is determined by the height of the cisterns, and you only get 1 bar for each 10m of head. You can do away with either cistern by making it a closed loop or unvented system. The system is then pressurised as it's filled from the mains, rather than by gravity, but the drawback is that you need to accommodate for the water expansion, especially if you're using an unvented cylinder for the clean side of the system. All of this assumes you're using a traditional boiler and cylinder, and not some of the other things on the market like combis or instantaneous heaters or primatic cylinders. It also assumes the plumber who installed this poo poo is doing their job properly. Azza Bamboo fucked around with this message at 08:41 on Mar 12, 2024 |
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Mar 12, 2024 08:29
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KillHour posted:It's completely fine to look at a job like that and go "nah, I'm not putting in several days worth of YouTube videos and practice and half a dozen trips to the hardware store." Came to this conclusion about plumbing ages ago. I’ll do any necessary homeowner maintenance like toilet repairs, cartridge replacements, or annually flushing the tankless heater, but when it comes to anything modifying the pipes I’ll leave that to the pros.
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Mar 12, 2024 11:39
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Is this a European thing? Nobody in the US has a cistern in their attic AFAIK and most people don't have expansion tanks on the hot side of their drinking water. I have an expansion tank on the input of the boiler for my radiant heat, but it's just a closed loop on the hot side.
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Mar 12, 2024 13:19
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If you have a pressure regulator on your water supply that makes it effectively a closed system and requires an expansion tank. I also never noticed either in upstate NY.
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Mar 12, 2024 13:33
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KillHour posted:Is this a European thing? Nobody in the US has a cistern in their attic AFAIK and most people don't have expansion tanks on the hot side of their drinking water. I have an expansion tank on the input of the boiler for my radiant heat, but it's just a closed loop on the hot side. Yeah, I don't think anywhere in the US does cisterns still, but in a lot of situations you'll need one if anything along the hot side of the sytem makes it Guy Axlerod posted:effectively a closed system This can include things like (one way) valves for recirc systems, which very well may be why we're seeing this very tank install. If you do not have one you will get dribbling out of your PRV when the water heats up and all the taps are closed. This is also the dead giveaway that if present the tank has gone bad.
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Mar 12, 2024 13:52
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Gotcha. Out here the most common* way houses are plumbed is for the line to come out from underground adjacent to the front of the house somewhere, with the main valve on the vertical supply pipe coming up. It tees there to one line going into the house feeding the hot water heater and all the cold taps, and a second line with some form of vacuum breaker / anti-siphon valve feeding the irrigation and other "outside" needs. So since the hot side is fed by a line that generally has no pressure reducing valve or backflow preventer, it's still an open system and thus no expansion tank is needed. *The only one I've seen done differently is my mom's, where my parents and the homebuilder they used sure made Some Choices when it came to plumbing. The front of the house is as described above but in an effort to save what would have been a few dollars' worth of pipe when that house was built, the irrigation for the back yard taps off of a line that runs all the way through the house first. So all of the sprinklers in the back yard are effectively fed by a very long 1/2" pipe.
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Mar 13, 2024 06:46
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KillHour posted:Is this a European thing? Nobody in the US has a cistern in their attic AFAIK and most people don't have expansion tanks on the hot side of their drinking water. I have an expansion tank on the input of the boiler for my radiant heat, but it's just a closed loop on the hot side. I'm in the UK. Cisterns here are very common, partly because the airgap meets our building regulations for isolating warm/hot water from the drinking water. Partly because some of our mains are old or just crap, and it's become a 'thing' to have water in storage to keep the air out of your systems if the water service is stopped or slow. You can connect a cylinder directly to the mains with no cistern or vent, but the isolation has to take the form of a sealed double check valve, meaning you have a sealed hot water system (including cylinder —which is why you need a special qualification to install this kind of system). This is called an unvented cylinder, and it's common in larger homes or commercial places where high-pressure hot water is needed. An expansion vessel is just one of the protections installed here to prevent the cylinder becoming a bomb, although there are special cylinders for this which have the pressure bladder built into the top of the cylinder instead of needing a separate one on the side.
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Mar 13, 2024 10:46
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I have a tub with a 3-handle Central Brass faucet. When I turn the cold water on high enough while the hot is off, a dribble of cold water comes out from the hot water knob. The handle on the hot valve is really on there so I'll need to pick up a puller to get access to the valve. It is used about twice a week or so and the cold water is rarely run without the hot also being on. How high a priority should it be to fix this?
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Mar 14, 2024 01:45
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There is an o-ring, a rubber bushing and a brass seat in the rebuild kit. It would take less than 10 minutes to rebuild all three valves, assuming they're not corroded to death. Use silicone grease to make your next rebuild a little easier. And there is no reason not to do it sooner, before things get worse.
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Mar 14, 2024 10:33
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Hello! I have an heated towel rail in my bathroom that is leaking. It's a slow leak, just the occasional drip from what I can see. How do I fix it?  The leak is coming, from what I can tell, from the thick horizontal cylinder pointing into the center of the radiator. This will be my first time doing any plumbing so step by step instructions would be appreciated. Thanks!
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Mar 16, 2024 01:19
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Whatever you do, make sure you know how to turn the water off not only to that fixture, but to the entire dwelling, as you may need to do that rather quickly when things go very wrong for you
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Mar 16, 2024 03:28
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That sideways cylinder with the rust leaking out of it is a handle that turns this valve. If you can take just that handle off, and show us a photo of what's underneath, I might be able to tell you a cheap way to fix it: I'm guessing this has a rising spindle and it's leaking from the packing nut. If that's the case, you can fix it with only a spanner and some PTFE tape. Sometimes the handle just pulls straight off. Other times the top (or in this case, far left side) of the handle is a disc that prises out and has a screw hidden under it.
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Mar 16, 2024 11:14
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I'm installing a heat pump for my above ground pool, but I don't know jack poo poo about PVC plumbing. 1- Any resources or guides to working with PVC? 2- Should I build my bypass loop with three ball valves, or with one three-way diverter valve and check valve? 3- Based on where I can install the heat pump, the angle between it and the filter is going to be weird? What angles do PVC elbows come in? Or maybe I make the diverter loop square to the heat pump, and then attach it to everything else with hoses?
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Mar 18, 2024 00:17
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IOwnCalculus posted:Related question: what is it that determines the need for an expansion tank on a hot water system? I've literally never seen one on any residential installation. It's a local city requirement where I live near Denver. My house didn't have one and I didn't have one in my last house either. I knew I needed one here though since every time I turned the water on it surged and then calmed down. Anything that could expand and hold a higher pressure was, such as washing machine hoses, supply hoses to sinks and toilets.
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Mar 18, 2024 14:37
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StormDrain posted:It's a local city requirement where I live near Denver. My house didn't have one and I didn't have one in my last house either. I knew I needed one here though since every time I turned the water on it surged and then calmed down. Anything that could expand and hold a higher pressure was, such as washing machine hoses, supply hoses to sinks and toilets. Yeah, this is how you make all of those hoses wear out and cause leaks at an extremely accelerated rate.
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Mar 18, 2024 15:07
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Outdoor hose spigot leaks. Can I just get a sanity check before I attempt this fix? 1. Shut off the water from the spigot 2. Undo the nut with the blue arrow? 3. Find "washer" remnants. 4. Try to identify and find replacements.
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Mar 18, 2024 19:06
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Leaks where? Out the spout or out the stem?
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Mar 18, 2024 21:41
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kid sinister posted:Leaks where? Out the spout or out the stem? The stem. Seeps out the nut with the blue arrow. Both the top and bottom.
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Mar 18, 2024 22:52
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The packing nut. Start by just tightening it a bit. If you can still open/close the spigot and it stops leaking you're done.
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Mar 18, 2024 22:55
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Tighten the blue arrow nut. You're good for another year
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Mar 19, 2024 00:07
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Wondering if someone can help me make sense of my home's sewer pipes. I know I've got a clog somewhere down the line, I'm probably just going to call a plumber, but I'll try my little snake first on the off chance it's close to the "house" side of things and my snake will reach. But I'm not sure where to snake from, as you'll soon see. I guess I can just snake everywhere? Here's the drain in the main "wet room", I guess you could call it. Not a real room, but lightly framed (non-load bearing) in the basement with wood paneling around it. Has the water heater, washing machine hookup and standpipe, main vent stack, and all the plumbing for the bathroom. This is the main area the backed-up water is CURRENTLY coming in through (you'll see what I mean son enough):  Clear hose is from my dehumidifier, and orange cord I forgot to move out of frame is just an temp. extension cord for the fans blowing on other wet spots. The toilet and tub feed directly into that pipe just above where the picture was taken. You can see from the wet spots that the water was coming up from the dishwasher standpipe. Closeup:  The clog/blockage is not IN the washing machine standpipe, though, because all that water is from my shower this morning, which as mentioned hits the main stack about five feet above the washer standpipe. My morning shower is how I found out there was more blockage/backed up water from the first time from last weekend. So regarding my previous comments about this being the main wet room/main area of leaking...about ten feet to the right of that drain pipe is this area:   You can see a little bit of water (compared to the gallons that came out in the other room) and it's going towards the right, but I think it came from the left cleanout, BECAUSE: Last weekend, the left cleanout's lid was off, and there was a bunch of water and toilet paper (blech) all in that dirt spot. I cleaned it all up (as far as I could tell, the dirt was JUST dirt. I didn't notice anything else in it, though there certainly must have been other waste in there if there was TP pieces. So whatever "waste" was there at least wasn't in any large, recognizable pieces.) I scraped off all the top layer of dirt and sprayed some sanitizer, and opened the only casement window that opens and put a window fan in it to vent out any lingering sewer gasses. At the time, I thought it leaked because that cleanout lid was loose and it was just some "splash damage" , for lack of a better word. Like...there was just a little bit too much water in the pipe, so it sort of pushed the lid off? I realize now that was a very, very dumb thought cause the sewer line isn't pressurized...well, shouldn't be, at any rate. But now after screwing the left one back as as best I could (VERY rusty threads on the pipe and lid), it looks it's not remotely water tight. Tight enough that now most of the leaking backed up to the washer's standpipe, but it still had some leakage itself. You can't see well in the photo, but when I was looking at it close up, it's very possible I cross-threaded it and that's why I couldn't get it to screw down well, but I also stand by my statement that all the threads are exceedingly rusty, so I might need to get a new cleanout lid. Regardless of my blockage...what's the deal with that second cleanout? Kitchen sink is full across the house, maybe fifteen feet from these cleanouts, sort of straight "behind" where I was standing to take the photo. Like the other "wet room", the kitchen drain goes all the way down and runs under the basement floor to the main sewer line. I can only assume, for whatever reason, the kitchen drain has its own cleanout six inches before it joins the main sewer line? BUT, to get to the bigger question at hand...since that left cleanout lid was obviously leaking, it seems I should just go ahead and start my snaking there? I only have a small hand crank one, maybe 20-25'? Do you think I'll have much luck, or should I just go straight to a plumber?
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Mar 20, 2024 15:15
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DrBouvenstein posted:BUT, to get to the bigger question at hand...since that left cleanout lid was obviously leaking, it seems I should just go ahead and start my snaking there? I only have a small hand crank one, maybe 20-25'? Do you think I'll have much luck, or should I just go straight to a plumber? Sounds like the blockage is past that cleanout, so yeah.....you're not gonna hurt anything trying to reach it with what you've got. Those caps are pipe thread (so tapered). When they get rusty they are tough to seal. I like to use a wire brush on the threads to clean them up (both sides). You can also replace the caps with PVC ones, which are easier to really crank down in there, and easy to cut/drill/destroy out later if need be - no worries about breaking the pipe.
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Mar 20, 2024 15:32
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You could dig around it to make sure, but that looks like a house trap to me. It was a way to prevent sewer gases from backing up into the house before it was determined that individual traps on each drain was a much better solution. They have a tendency to get clogged, but fortunately it is very easy to determine whether the clog is in the house trap or in the lateral between the trap and the sewer line. Open up the left cap and start running water down the drain until the water starts to rise. When that happens, open the right cap and see if the water level is the same as the left. Be ready for some smells when you open that right cap. If the water level on the left is significantly higher than the water level on the right, then your clog is in the trap itself. If the right hand water level is the same as the left-hand water level of the clog is further down the lateral. Cleaning the trap itself is fairly easy, but it is still sewer work so it is not going to be pleasant.
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Mar 20, 2024 15:49
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Shifty Pony posted:You could dig around it to make sure, but that looks like a house trap to me. It was a way to prevent sewer gases from backing up into the house before it was determined that individual traps on each drain was a much better solution. Ahhh, ok. I looked that up and yeah, that seems to fit, though I'm still confused how the drain from the washing machine/bathroom gets to the right side of the house trap...I guess maybe the U bend in the trap just does deeper into the ground/basement floor than I'm thinking it does and the washer/bath drain goes around the left side? Cause here's the layout from the top-down from what I can SEE, no clue where the pipes are buried under the floor:  The washer/bath drain, sewer line, and house trap are all in a perfect line a few inches from the basement wall. I guess it probably looks something like this under the floor:  ? DrBouvenstein fucked around with this message at 16:27 on Mar 20, 2024 |
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Mar 20, 2024 16:23
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God I remember removing the 4" cast-iron house trap from my friend's house (used a cast cutter) when she had a serious clog there. It was packed with Q-Tips. I trooped her down to the basement while the line was still open and funky and showed why you don't do this.
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Mar 20, 2024 16:23
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PainterofCrap posted:God I remember removing the 4" cast-iron house trap from my friend's house (used a cast cutter) when she had a serious clog there. It was packed with Q-Tips. I trooped her down to the basement while the line was still open and funky and showed why you don't do this. Oh, my girlfriend has admitted to me months ago that she has flushed her hygiene products. I noticed that I never seemed to see them in the bathroom trash, and was wondering if maybe she was just wrapping them up a lot so I didn't notice. But for my sanity, I asked her and she admitted it, so I wasn't paranoid. I asked her to stop for this VERY REASON. She definitely had a blasé "yeah, ok, whatever" attitude about it, so I will ask her to pay the plumber's bill if I can't clear the clog myself.
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Mar 20, 2024 16:29
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