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Rd Rash 1000cc posted:The tankless water heaters really don't differ in technology since its pretty old technology and hasnt changed much in over the years. Rheem isnt a bad one, althought i've played mainly with takaghi. My boss hates tankless water heaters more then I but thats the brand he chooses to install for customers who insist upon one. Cool, thanks. I'll check it out. One last thing. Have you ever seen anyone with a wastewater heat reclamation system?
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Apr 3, 2010 21:10
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Papercut posted:What should I do? This is the only toilet in the house, and I'd like to go to the bathroom again today.
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Apr 3, 2010 23:23
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:Cool, thanks. I'll check it out. No I am unfamililar with waste water heat reclamation. Have any articles on it?
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Apr 4, 2010 00:21
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Rd Rash 1000cc posted:No I am unfamililar with waste water heat reclamation. Have any articles on it? Here's a good article: http://www.energysavers.gov/your_home/water_heating/index.cfm/mytopic=13040 It's a pretty simple concept. Gray water is always warmer than your water source, especially in the case of showers. Waste (or drain water) heat reclamation systems pass the warm drain water through a heat exchanger that's hooked up to a water source. The system can either be connected before the cold and hot water split off (which supposedly provides maximum efficiency), or you can place it right before the hot water heater if you like your cold water to be as cold as possible.
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Apr 4, 2010 00:34
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:Here's a good article: http://www.energysavers.gov/your_home/water_heating/index.cfm/mytopic=13040
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Apr 4, 2010 01:26
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grover posted:I haven't done the calculations, but I'm pretty sure you'd waste more energy manufacturing and installing the pipe to do this than you'd get back in a lifetime of use. What wonder is how the sensors work to trigger flow in the pipe to start up the pump on the heat exchanger. The electricity alone wouldnt be worth it.
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Apr 4, 2010 02:07
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grover posted:Use a jumbo wax ring if you find the standard is too small. They're like $1 a piece; just buy them both and throw away the one you don't use. Seriously, this isn't a problem. Make sure to shim your toilet when you reinstall it- it shouldn't be wobbling, and could crack it if you don't. Lack of shims was probably the main problem in the first place. Yeah, realized it wasn't a problem. I just used an extender to bring the flange up a bit and used two wax rings to seal everything up. A shim on one side was enough to make the whole thing rock solid.
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Apr 4, 2010 03:22
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Rd Rash 1000cc posted:What wonder is how the sensors work to trigger flow in the pipe to start up the pump on the heat exchanger. The electricity alone wouldnt be worth it. It's a passive system, basically one pipe wrapped around another. The drain water is always hotter than the incoming water. One example, the GFX exchanger, retails for around $500 or so. Here's what they look like: 
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Apr 4, 2010 04:46
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:It's a passive system, basically one pipe wrapped around another. The drain water is always hotter than the incoming water. One example, the GFX exchanger, retails for around $500 or so. Here's what they look like: So, I guess a better example would be when your dishwasher is draining... er... nevermind. It *would* work when you're taking a shower, though! That design looks horribly inefficient, though. Water falling through there will spend so little time, virtually no heat will be transferred. I can guarantee you spend more money (and energy) making/installing that than you'll get in a lifetime of showers. Not to mention you'd have to separately plumb your gray water and toilets, which costs more money/energy, too. As in most plumbing "free energy!" schemes, you're better off just taking shorter showers. If you really want to save energy, put a "Navy shower" fast cut-off valve on your shower head. And yeah, you might actually see energy pack back on your $2 valve investment and 5 minutes it would take to install 
grover fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Apr 4, 2010 |
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Apr 4, 2010 16:48
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grover posted:"Navy shower" fast cut-off valve on your shower head I have this... it is the bees' knees.
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Apr 4, 2010 17:34
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grover posted:So, for example, when your washing machine is draining that hot gray water through the PVC pipe, it will be heating all the water flowing into your hot water heater... which... oh wait, I guess it wouldn't, because the hot water heater filled when the tub filled, not when it drained. It works better with tanked water heaters since the incoming water is stored. Obviously tankless water heaters only function when water is flowing, so it wouldn't work as well. But if you're dealing with a relatively inefficient source (such as an electric water heater) the savings are there. Heat transfer is accomplished by the fact that water forms a thin film on the edges as it travels down the pipe; the large surface area allows a rapid transfer of heat to the pipe. Personally I agree that it's not the most efficient; I'd prefer a double-jacket cylinder arrangement. You're absolutely right though; for my particular application it wouldn't be worth doing. I just wanted to know if you had ever seen one. Obviously they're not too common.
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Apr 4, 2010 18:40
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I'm renting a new place and the shower pressure sucks. When you pull the pin up on the faucet, I'd say 45% of the water still runs out of the bottom with only a piddling amount being diverted up to the shower. Is there an easy fix for this, or will I be looking at replacing the bottom spout? If so, is it as simple as twisting it off and twisting a new one on with some pipe tape, or is there more nuance than that? Since I'm renting, that's probably about the maximum I can get away with; replacing the spout and maybe re-caulking it.
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Apr 4, 2010 19:23
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I'd replace the spout. The spout could be threaded on or it could be held on copper pipe with a set screw. They're easy to replace regardless of either kind though.
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Apr 4, 2010 22:25
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Rd Rash 1000cc posted:I'd replace the spout. The spout could be threaded on or it could be held on copper pipe with a set screw. They're easy to replace regardless of either kind though. There's no visible screw, but when I gave it a yank it didn't budge. I'm hesitant to go in there with a wrench until I know if I'm damaging anything. Is there a good way to tell what I'm looking for? I can get a picture later but it looks pretty much like every other generic chrome spout I've ever seen. My last place had a crappy one and I could twist it off with my hand.
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Apr 4, 2010 22:43
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If there is no set screw on the bottom of the spot then you can screw it off. You can use a strap wrench if you're woried about crushing it with a wrench.
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Apr 5, 2010 00:56
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Rd Rash 1000cc posted:If there is no set screw on the bottom of the spot then you can screw it off. You can use a strap wrench if you're woried about crushing it with a wrench. There's definitely no set screw. I tried loosening it with a screwdriver in the spigot, no joy. Tried a strap wrench to no avail. Wrapped a pipe wrench in scraps of old t-shirt and went to town. NOTHING. Is it possible someone cemented this thing in at some point? I've tried everything I am willing to try (since it's a rental unit) and the thing has not even wiggled. 
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Apr 12, 2010 04:28
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PipeRifle posted:There's definitely no set screw. I tried loosening it with a screwdriver in the spigot, no joy. Tried a strap wrench to no avail. Wrapped a pipe wrench in scraps of old t-shirt and went to town. NOTHING. Is it possible someone cemented this thing in at some point? I've tried everything I am willing to try (since it's a rental unit) and the thing has not even wiggled. Did you cut the silicone out around the wall and spout? And honestly I cant say what someones done. Nothing surprises me anymore.
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Apr 12, 2010 05:49
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PipeRifle posted:Is it possible someone cemented this thing in at some point? While not "cement" per se, hard water buildup LOVES to stick in threads and can keep threaded parts from coming apart easily. I know I've broken plumbing parts trying to get that buildup to free. Also, you might want to take a picture of the old spout first, just in case you break it and need to match it later.
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Apr 12, 2010 07:39
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I replaced the hot water stem in my Price Pfister shower tub because it was leaking. The replacement I got once installed now turns in a different direction than the cold. The cold handle and the new hot handle turn anti clockwise whereas before the hot handle turned clockwise (handles would move in opposing fashion) Was I given the wrong stem to install? dwoloz fucked around with this message at 07:59 on Apr 12, 2010 |
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Apr 12, 2010 07:43
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dwoloz posted:I replaced the hot water stem in my Price Pfister shower tub because it was leaking. The replacement I got once installed now turns in a different direction than the cold. The cold handle and the new hot handle turn anti clockwise whereas before the hot handle turned clockwise (handles would move in opposing fashion) Most valves turn clockwise to close, counter clockwise to open. It might be possible that you orientated the new cartridge the wrong way, but I doubt it.
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Apr 12, 2010 16:44
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kid sinister posted:Also, an unrelated toilet... I'm the maintenance guy for the family business and at one of our locations, we've got a toilet with the handle on the side, which makes it VERY hard for the arm to get enough movement range to actually lift the flapper enough that it will 'flap' up by itself. Do those side-handled tanks need special arms or am I retarded and can't bend the arm just right? Wow, it took me 10 months to get this fixed... Anyway, I thought I'd bump this to let other plumbers know that I managed to fix this stupid side-handled toilet! I did it with a handle with a bendable metal arm and a low-flush flapper. You know, the kind with the little float on the flapper chain? That float on the flapper chain gave it enough umph to want to come up when the handle is pushed down. First you need to bend the metal arm just to work in the tank. Second, low flush flapper floats don't have to stay on the low flush setting... Move the float all the way to the bottom of the chain. That way the flapper will go down around the same time a normal flapper would. It's possible that you might lose a fraction of an inch where the flapper would normally go down and the bowl might not flush completely, but you should be able to adjust the fill valve float a little higher to give yourself that fraction of an inch back.
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Apr 17, 2010 16:04
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Our house has a half bathroom downstairs, except its the wrong half. Its a sink and a small shower.  I'd really like to take the shower out and put a toilet in. The whole bathroom needs to be redone and I can take the shower out itself and get the walls looking nice, but I don't know if I could install a toilet. Is it hard? Should I just look for a plumber to do it for me? How much would something like that cost? I live in Durham, NC. A semi related question. Smelly air comes out of the shower drain. We pried the glued on drain cover and its just a giant hole that goes down to what I'm guessing is the sewer line. If I put my hand on the hole there's obvious suction on it. There's no ventilation in the small bathroom so if I leave the door closed, it gets a mild smell to it. Is there any way I could block the drain until we have the time and money to put a toilet in? We had a cat litter box in the shower sitting over the drain before and I think it was creating a weird suction and there would be smelly water all over the bottom of the cat box. I really want to at least solve this mild smell problem. The bathroom is connected to our art studio which is connected to our office and it makes it annoying to be on the computer sometimes.
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Apr 18, 2010 19:05
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Toilet issue. Lend me a hand. Water slowly leaks into the bowl. The toilet does not run, this happens when the tank is full. There are very light streams of water running into the bowl. I thought it might have been a leak where the flapper is but after putting a new one on, it doesn't seem to be the issue. I could be wrong, though. My knowledge of these things is pretty limited. Am I making sense? Any ideas?
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Apr 18, 2010 19:26
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The drain suction probably means the drain isn't vented correctly, or the vent is blocked. The water gets sucked out of the trap and you get your stink. The leaking toilet is most likely the flapper. If there's some leftover gunk in there, the new one might not be seating correctly. Make sure you installed it right - either slipped over the tube vs. clipped on at the sides; which is right depends on your toilet but it's probably the latter. Wipe off the rim where it sits and make sure it fits well.
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Apr 18, 2010 19:43
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Alterian posted:Our house has a half bathroom downstairs, except its the wrong half. Its a sink and a small shower. A toilet needs a drain line of 3 inches with a 2 inch vent. A shower has a 2 inch drain line (maybe 1 1/2 inch) with a similar sized vent. You would have to find a 3 inch line somewhere for the toilet to work proper. You can even plug the drain with a plastic bag if you do it right. Kaiju posted:Toilet issue. Lend me a hand. Sounds like the float needs to be adjusted. It sounds like the water line is set to high and is going over the over flow. I would look there first. It could be a pretty simple fix by just adjusting the float screw. Or you could need to replace the whole float assembly which is easy and cheap.
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Apr 18, 2010 19:48
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Alterian posted:Our house has a half bathroom downstairs, except its the wrong half. Its a sink and a small shower. Your stinky shower could be one of 2 things: 1. That shower hasn't been used in forever and the water in the trap evaporated far enough down to leave a gap for sewer gas to leak through. If you can see down the drain and you don't see water collect when you pour it in, then this isn't the case. 2. The past owner who installed that shower (the shower without a toilet is the clue here it was done halfassed by a former DIYer owner) used a toilet rough-in to install a shower. Remember that talk about traps? Well, showers and tubs have their traps down in the floor, whereas toilet traps are internal in the base above the floor... Since he put a shower on a toilet rough-in, there's no trap for the shower drain and he couldn't be bothered to chop up the concrete and put in a proper drain. You can plug it in the meantime. Take the grate off, measure how far apart the pipe is, go to the hardware store and buy one of these:  It's called a "test plug". Basically, you tighten the wingnut up top and it squeezes the rubber outwards to grab onto the drain walls. Kaiju posted:Toilet issue. Lend me a hand. That sounds like either the float is set too high, or one of two possible leaks, both in the fill valve. Either the fill valve is leaking into the tank and the water level is overflowing into the overflow pipe, or the fill valve is leaking out the little refill tube which also goes into the overflow pipe. kid sinister fucked around with this message at 19:52 on Apr 18, 2010 |
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Apr 18, 2010 19:49
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It's definitely not the overflow pipe. There's a good half inch between the water level and the top of the pipe. I also checked the refill tube and it's not running.
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Apr 18, 2010 20:03
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kid sinister posted:shower stuff This is the offending shower and drain:   We NEVER use this shower. We have no reason to. The drain actually sits slightly above the floor of the shower so it doesn't even drain properly. We were thinking about using it as a dog shower, but it would just make a mess since it won't drain right. I'll let some water run down it to see if it helps the smell at all and I'll be going to the hardware store tomorrow to pick up one of those plugs. If I can't easily get a toilet installed because of hole sizes, I'll probably look into at least taking it out and getting a stationary tub put in so I can at least get some use out of it. It wouldn't surprise me if it was a half assed DIY job. We've lived in this house for almost 2 years now and we've found a lot of really dumb stuff done to it. Luckily none of it its super damaging or super permanent to the house. We bought it knowing it was going to need a little TLC with stuff like this. (we got a great deal on it) and this is our starter house so we're learning how to fix things and take care of stuff. Edit: One of the craziest things in this house: the door that leads to the office/art room (it was an extra bedroom I guess) and this crazy half bath has a key lock on it. You lock it with the key from the inside of the room and one of those buttons on the outside. We found out the hard way that if you don't have the key with you, you can easily accidentally lock yourself in the room and have to climb out a window to get out.  I really can't think of a reason to have this set up other than to lock someone in these rooms.
Alterian fucked around with this message at 20:20 on Apr 18, 2010 |
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Apr 18, 2010 20:16
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Kaiju posted:It's definitely not the overflow pipe. There's a good half inch between the water level and the top of the pipe. I also checked the refill tube and it's not running. Then you a have a leak somewhere. The new flapper could be making a bad seal (check the rim on the overflow tube for burrs), the tank could be loose from the base, or the overflow tube could have a crack in it. Alterian posted:This is the offending shower and drain: Yeah that looks like a toilet flange, raised above the floor to be on level with the finished floor. He didn't even lay down anything to raise up the shower liner! And get a Philips screwdriver, take that doorknob off and just turn it around so the button's on the inside! kid sinister fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Apr 18, 2010 |
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Apr 18, 2010 20:58
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kid sinister posted:Then you a have a leak somewhere. The new flapper could be making a bad seal (check the rim on the overflow tube for burrs), the tank could be loose from the base, or the overflow tube could have a crack in it. Thats good news that I'll hopefully be able to re put a toilet there. We already took care of the door. Its just a good example of the weird stuff we've encountered that the previous owners did.
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Apr 18, 2010 21:31
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Haha, if that's a toilet flange, then - no trap! No wonder it stinks. Also, what an idiotic thing to do.
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Apr 18, 2010 21:42
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Alterian posted:Thats good news that I'll hopefully be able to re put a toilet there. We already took care of the door. Its just a good example of the weird stuff we've encountered that the previous owners did. slap me silly posted:Haha, if that's a toilet flange, then - no trap! No wonder it stinks. Also, what an idiotic thing to do.
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Apr 19, 2010 00:26
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Expect they figured it could do double duty. After all you can piss in the shower but you can't shower in the toilet.
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Apr 19, 2010 00:29
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Alterian posted:Edit: One of the craziest things in this house: the door that leads to the office/art room (it was an extra bedroom I guess) and this crazy half bath has a key lock on it. You lock it with the key from the inside of the room and one of those buttons on the outside. We found out the hard way that if you don't have the key with you, you can easily accidentally lock yourself in the room and have to climb out a window to get out. I bet someone was lacking parenting skills.
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Apr 19, 2010 00:32
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Kid sinister , i don't know what you're on but that doesnt look like a toilet flange at all.That is a shower drain. Obviously it wasnt installed correctly since the pipe is to long and it needs to be cut down so the shower drain sits flush. I would cap it though with a twist in plug.
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Apr 19, 2010 03:06
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Rd Rash 1000cc posted:Kid sinister , i don't know what you're on but that doesnt look like a toilet flange at all.That is a shower drain. Obviously it wasnt installed correctly since the pipe is to long and it needs to be cut down so the shower drain sits flush. Sorry, I had to take a toilet off the flange yesterday and I kind of got flange on the brain. That toilet pissed me off  ...so where's the trap?
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Apr 19, 2010 05:59
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kid sinister posted:Sorry, I had to take a toilet off the flange yesterday and I kind of got flange on the brain. That toilet pissed me off Most likely under the pan in the ground where they usually are on showers. Turd Herder fucked around with this message at 17:23 on Apr 19, 2010 |
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Apr 19, 2010 08:40
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Would an easy way to tell be to pour water in and see if it maintains a level in the trap or if it just drains away never to be seen again?
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Apr 19, 2010 12:26
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Messadiah posted:Would an easy way to tell be to pour water in and see if it maintains a level in the trap or if it just drains away never to be seen again? Use a stick or pole that wont bend and put it down the drain. Once you cant push it in any further, pull it out and see if water is on it.
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Apr 19, 2010 17:26
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I have a 3" ABS toilet waste pipe and vent going into a cast iron sewer through the foundation. Id like to fix some convoluted drain routing for the sink and tub in that same bathroom (that currently have drain runs that go outside the foundation then dive into the earth going god knows where) but unfortunately, the 3" does not have much room to add new fittings. Is it at all feasible to drill a hole in the 3" pipe to create a bung like fitting for the 1.5" drains of the sink and tub?
dwoloz fucked around with this message at 06:42 on Apr 20, 2010 |
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Apr 20, 2010 06:26
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