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kelvron posted:That looks a lot better. Never heard of Danby, so I avoided them initially. Sweet home looks pretty reputable too. The problem is that a sink (and sprayer hose) in normal operation has almost no pressure in it because one end is open. With the dishwasher attached, that whole assembly is under city water pressure for the duration of the wash cycle, and it's mostly cheaper plastic. If you can find a replacement sprayer hose that's made of something like braided stainless and has metal fittings, you'd be in a much better place to leave it attached.
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Jun 10, 2016 21:51
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Qwijib0 posted:The problem is that a sink (and sprayer hose) in normal operation has almost no pressure in it because one end is open. With the dishwasher attached, that whole assembly is under city water pressure for the duration of the wash cycle, and it's mostly cheaper plastic. If you can find a replacement sprayer hose that's made of something like braided stainless and has metal fittings, you'd be in a much better place to leave it attached. That's about what I was thinking would happen, but I didn't know the full why. I'll go shopping and see what I can come up with.
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Jun 11, 2016 00:07
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kelvron posted:That looks a lot better. Never heard of Danby, so I avoided them initially. Sweet home looks pretty reputable too. I had a Danby dehumidifer once. It died, and they required me to bring it to some super sketchy guy like an hour away from me. Unsurprisingly, he wasn't able to fix it. Danby then insisted I go retrieve it from him, and send them the end of the power cord. However, we pretty much couldn't make contact with the guy again, and Danby was being pretty lovely about the whole thing. They kept trying to reach him, and kept failing. A month later they said they were going to send us a check for a new one. A month after that, we called back and they finally sent one out. So, don't buy Danby unless you don't plan on using the warranty. It was like 6 months from failure to actually getting the check.
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Jun 12, 2016 00:22
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We bought a 115 year old house a year ago. Plumbing has been updated at some point- copper and plastic everywhere I can see. Drains were running a bit slow when we looked at it but they cleared them up for the inspection somehow. The sink drains are getting slow again. My wife sheds hair like crazy and the tub upstairs has needed a little Drano and zip-it treatment. Downstairs bathroom needs plunging more often that normal (like 1x a month) and today I had to snake it to open it up. I noticed some sewage came up into the sink drain in the same bathroom when I used the zip-it in there right after snaking the toilet clog. We're back to normal, but I'm wondering if there is any preventative maintenance I can be doing to keep the sinks flowing fast. Seems like I have gummed up pipes in general and will have slow drains again soon, but what do I know. There's lots of chemicals that promise to take all the gunk off your pipes- are any really worth using? Or do I need to call a pro?
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Jun 12, 2016 23:59
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kelvron posted:That looks a lot better. Never heard of Danby, so I avoided them initially. Sweet home looks pretty reputable too. If you're a renter, clear all this with your landlord first. chef posted:We bought a 115 year old house a year ago. Plumbing has been updated at some point- copper and plastic everywhere I can see. Drains were running a bit slow when we looked at it but they cleared them up for the inspection somehow. Nitrox fucked around with this message at 13:29 on Jun 13, 2016 |
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Jun 13, 2016 13:23
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Haven't taken apart the shower yet, but I installed a new toilet. I went to put a new hose from the wall to the toilet, but the valve on the wall isn't 3/8. It's slightly larger, like 7/16 or something. It's definitely not 1/2. So I've got the old hose on there. It's not leaky or anything, but I don't know how old it is. The toilet was very old, like 5+ gallons per flush old. Can I get a new hose to fit the valve? I haven't seen any other than 3/8. I'm guessing its original 1970s. Or should I just replace the valve? It's in fine condition, doesn't leak or anything.
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Jun 15, 2016 05:08
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FogHelmut posted:Haven't taken apart the shower yet, but You sure it's not 1/2 compression outlet? (keep in mind 1/2 compression is not the same size as compression for 1/2" copper) You can get new braided SS supply lines in all sorts of sizes at a plumbing supplier or online. Any particular reason you aren't just replacing the old angle stop with a new 1/4 turn? Replacing the valve before you set the new toilet is absolutely the way to go barring anything strange going on.
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Jun 15, 2016 05:29
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Jadunk posted:You sure it's not 1/2 compression outlet? (keep in mind 1/2 compression is not the same size as compression for 1/2" copper) You can get new braided SS supply lines in all sorts of sizes at a plumbing supplier or online. It's definitely not 1/2. I had a "universal" 1/2 with a 3/8 adapter that didn't work. I guess I can special order a 7/16. I haven't replaced the valve because it works.
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Jun 15, 2016 05:43
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FogHelmut posted:It's definitely not 1/2. I had a "universal" 1/2 with a 3/8 adapter that didn't work. Was it this one? http://www.homedepot.com/p/Fluidmaster-Click-Seal-7-8-in-BC-x-1-2-in-FIP-x-20-in-Toilet-Connector-with-3-8-in-Adaptor-B4T20CSW/206050465 (I ask just to be sure as that item does not work with 1/2 comp, it's 1/2 FIP with a 3/8ths comp adapter) I've neither heard of nor seen, a 1/2 OD comp x 3/8 nom comp adapter that wouldn't require some real oddball poo poo to use on a toilet supply. I would be interested in a link if you've got one handy.
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Jun 15, 2016 07:34
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FogHelmut posted:Haven't taken apart the shower yet, but Would you please post pictures of the valve and of the inside of the nut on the hose?
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Jun 15, 2016 17:11
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kid sinister posted:Would you please post pictures of the valve and of the inside of the nut on the hose?    
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Jun 15, 2016 22:35
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Wow, that is an oddball. I've never seen a 7/16" compression valve before, but the internet tells me that they're definitely a thing. What size wrench did it take? 3/8" compression nuts typically take a 5/8" wrench. The good news is that it looks like your valve is a screw on valve. I'd replace that thing with something more standard too. You might be able to replace the escutcheon while it's off too, if you want something nicer.
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Jun 16, 2016 00:50
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Alright I'm got a well water problem, the problem is lack of water. It COULD be our well is dry right at the moment, we've had that happen before (a few hours of conserving water fills the well back up). Evidence to support this: We watered some plants yesterday, filled a bit of our kid's pool (I run in 5 minute increments, I did that probably 5 times over 2 days), and my wife did a bunch of laundry today. Lately our water pressure at our sink especially as been poo poo. I suspected maybe the pressure switch is the problem, so I replaced that today. It filled pretty quickly from 0-25 psi, maybe 45 seconds or so, but after that there was basically nothing. The switch contacts are stuck "on", so in theory the pump should be being called for water. So what I'm doing right now is turning the well pump breaker off for an hour to see if when I turn it back one, there is a substantial jump in water pressure. The well pump was just replaced this year, so I'm hoping that's not the problem. And of course this is the weekend and father's day to boot. I don't know if I could even get ahold of the guy who put our pump in (probably should contact him if the pump needs warranteed, right?) Ahhhhhg, this poo poo sucks 
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Jun 18, 2016 20:35
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I have a leaky drain valve on my hot water tank since I had to drain it a bit a few days ago. I just can't get it to completely stop. I tried using the water in the tank to flush the valve a bit more, open and close it a few times, no luck. Any tricks I can do to just get it closed once? Or is it reasonably possible to replace that valve without a high risk of loving up the entire tank? Not sure if they install those valves in such a way as to be effectively non-replaceable.  I figure it's just some bit of crud or whatever in the valve, but I can't seem to clear it.
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Jun 18, 2016 22:47
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Don't try to take the whole valve out, just unscrew the packing nut (the big thing around what your turn to open/close it) and see what's up. If you're exceptionally lucky it will be something you can clean out. Chances are good it's just a bad washer and if you are moderately lucky you'll find a replacement at the hardware store for a couple bucks. Ninja edit for ghetto solution: if you can't find the right parts just get a hose thread cap for the valve. I'd much prefer doing that than trying to remove and replace the entire assembly from the water heater if it's more than a few years old/hard water/poor maintenance/unknown maintenance. Motronic fucked around with this message at 23:15 on Jun 18, 2016 |
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Jun 18, 2016 23:13
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Will removing that packing nut cause the valve to open? I mean, I expect I'd need to drain the tank for that, but on the off chance I don't, I figured I should ask just to save myself the trouble.
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Jun 18, 2016 23:26
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Bad Munki posted:Will removing that packing nut cause the valve to open? I mean, I expect I'd need to drain the tank for that, but on the off chance I don't, I figured I should ask just to save myself the trouble. You will have to remove the packing nut and unscrew the stem all the way out of the valve to replace the rubber washer on the end of it. That means opening the valve, which on a water heater means draining the entire tank unfortunately. Since you're going to all that trouble though, replace the packing washer too. The good news is that this is a $5-$10 fix. Take the stem along with the two washers to the hardware store so you can get replacements. Hopefully, your valve above the tank closes all the way. Edit: with the stem removed, shine a flashlight down the hole where the stem fits. Look for any bits of the old washer that broke off and pull them out with some needlenose pliers. kid sinister fucked around with this message at 23:45 on Jun 18, 2016 |
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Jun 18, 2016 23:41
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Motronic posted:I'd much prefer doing that than trying to remove and replace the entire assembly from the water heater if it's more than a few years old/hard water/poor maintenance/unknown maintenance. Have you had issues trying to replace brass hose bibs on water heaters? I've had tons of problems with the plastic junk but never personally had a problem replacing the brass hose bib with a brass nipple/ball valve/hose adapter/cap.
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Jun 19, 2016 00:02
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kid sinister posted:Hopefully, your valve above the tank closes all the way. Yeah, that one's fine, I replaced the lovely gate valve on the supply line with a new ball valve a year ago when I had to swap out a disaster of an expansion tank. Additionally, they were thoughtful enough to put a shutoff between the tank and the house on the hot side, so I don't have to drain the house, and the utility sink is on the tank side of that valve so I can actually use it to siphon the water tank more or less dry right down the sink. So it's really not much of a hassle, I was just hoping to not have to go that far if possible. I'll wait until a little later tonight since we'll be without hot water for a while, I'll just let it reheat overnight. Wish me luck! Thanks. 
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Jun 19, 2016 00:12
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Jadunk posted:Have you had issues trying to replace brass hose bibs on water heaters? I've had tons of problems with the plastic junk but never personally had a problem replacing the brass hose bib with a brass nipple/ball valve/hose adapter/cap. I've only done it a few times when it's been well water/not maintained I've ended up need a disturbing amount of force to get going. I'm not a plumber, so I go as conservative as possible not having a practiced feel for this kind of thing and understanding the possible consequences of hulk smashing.
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Jun 19, 2016 00:28
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Motronic posted:I've only done it a few times when it's been well water/not maintained I've ended up need a disturbing amount of force to get going. Oh, fair enough. I do forget that not everyone just has ever-larger wrenches handy for when things don't want to break free without a fight.
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Jun 19, 2016 01:39
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Motronic posted:Ninja edit for ghetto solution: if you can't find the right parts just get a hose thread cap for the valve. I'd much prefer doing that than trying to remove and replace the entire assembly from the water heater if it's more than a few years old/hard water/poor maintenance/unknown maintenance.
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Jun 22, 2016 01:11
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Looking for some general advice on PEX. I'm looking to slowly redo our plumbing supply lines with PEX. At the moment I have a slow kitchen sink supply. It's the only fixture that has bad pressure right now and it's gotta be buildup in the lines as the fixture itself is clean. In the next year or two we'll be redoing a bathroom and adding a laundry upstairs so there could be some significant plumbing changes happening soonish. I was planning to get a manifold and slowly add fixtures over time. 1. Is there any real problem with my plan of doing it over time and running partial copper and partial PEX for a while? 2. Do I want a NPT or Compression supply manifold? Example 3. I assume I should get a manifold large enough for all my fixtures planned in the future? I was planning on doing home runs for everything, the exception being icemakers or something, I assume I could just tap into a faucet cold supply for that. It looks like I'd want a 30 port manifold in that case if I add all the stuff I want (Kitchen, Kitchenette, 3 baths, laundry, outside spigots, etc). Basically where should I start?
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Jun 23, 2016 18:43
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dreesemonkey posted:Looking for some general advice on PEX. I'm looking to slowly redo our plumbing supply lines with PEX. At the moment I have a slow kitchen sink supply. It's the only fixture that has bad pressure right now and it's gotta be buildup in the lines as the fixture itself is clean. In the next year or two we'll be redoing a bathroom and adding a laundry upstairs so there could be some significant plumbing changes happening soonish. I was planning to get a manifold and slowly add fixtures over time. Hold on a second. You might not need to redo your kitchen. Grab a bucket. Turn off the stop valves under the sink and take the supply lines off. Make sure they're clear, then attach the end back up to the stop valve. Hold the other end in the bucket and turn the valve on. What is the pressure like now? It's possible that something got caught where the water gets restricted down to the smaller size. Like for instance, say your stop valve doesn't shut off the water completely. That's a pretty good indicator that the stem washer broke off and got stuck down the line. There's no problem with mixing PEX and copper, but there are some concerns with replacing copper with PEX. Are you going that far? Also, PEX can't do everything. You will have to use something else in certain circumstances. When "NPT" and "compression" are used with manifolds, they're referring to how the manifold attaches to its own supply line, or in the case of that Viega Manabloc, which adapter they send you to attach it to your supply line. I assume your service entrance is copper? How would you be attaching the manifold to the original plumbing? kid sinister fucked around with this message at 23:16 on Jun 23, 2016 |
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Jun 23, 2016 22:48
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Just bought a house with a sump pit (last one was pitless, and just sorta seeped from time to time.. I don't recommend it) and it's great and all, but there's no battery backup. I had the notion that I could just buy a battery & trickle charger contraption that I'd just plug in between the existing pump and the outlet, but from my googling that doesn't seem to be a thing. I really want that to be a thing so that I don't need to plumb in a second pump. Please tell me it's a thing. The best plumbing related jobs are the ones that don't require me to do any plumbing. Assuming that's my only option here, am I safe in assuming the secondary pump needs it's own pipe heading out to the yard, for situations where both pumps are going at the same time in heavy rain? (which is admittedly an advantage to my dream of just getting the existing primary pump on a battery backup)
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Jun 24, 2016 05:00
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kid sinister posted:Hold on a second. You might not need to redo your kitchen. Grab a bucket. Turn off the stop valves under the sink and take the supply lines off. Make sure they're clear, then attach the end back up to the stop valve. Hold the other end in the bucket and turn the valve on. What is the pressure like now? It's possible that something got caught where the water gets restricted down to the smaller size. Like for instance, say your stop valve doesn't shut off the water completely. That's a pretty good indicator that the stem washer broke off and got stuck down the line. Thanks for the reply. I've been meaning to check the pressure at the shutoff valve before the sink, I will try to do that this weekend. So what are the circumstances that I can't use pex? I know that you still need 18" of copper going in/out of your water heater. Just curious what else there is. Eventually, yes. I'd be taking as much copper out of the house as makes sense. I have a well, so that hardline would remain in tact and then pretty much everything after my pressure tank I would be trying to convert over to PEX. NPT or compression doesn't matter to me for the pex manifold, I'd probably be enlisting my sister's boyfriend who has done a lot of copper work before. I was more asking to which is "better", if there is such a thing.
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Jun 24, 2016 12:58
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dreesemonkey posted:Thanks for the reply. I've been meaning to check the pressure at the shutoff valve before the sink, I will try to do that this weekend. Before replacing any copper for PEX, you need to consider how your electrical panel is grounded. One method of grounding electrical panels and the rest of your house is to run a thick grounding wire from your panel and clamp it to your metal cold water pipe. These days due to PEX, that clamp must happen within 6' of where your water enters your house so you can see with your own eyes that it's a complete metal path all the way to the dirt outside, but that distance wasn't the case in the past. So if your panel is grounded to the cold copper pipe past that 6', you will either need to extend that ground wire to within 6' or switch to a different grounding method. Well for starters, PEX can't be used outdoors. It flexes, expands and contracts a lot more than copper, so you need to plan ahead for that. Strap it down more, leave more slack or even loops over long runs, drill bigger holes through boards, etc. Then there's exposed work where you need to decide whether or not you want the PEX showing, like for stop valves under toilets and pedestal sinks. They do make little copper stub outs for those situations. There are some other weird situations like drop ear elbows for washing machines. It doesn't have to be copper off the water heater. You could do galvanized and skip the dielectric unions. The main difference between NPT and compression is that NPT is considered permanent and allowed to be buried in walls, while compression is considered removable and must always be accessible. The reason for that is that NPT threaded parts all screw together, so removing any piece without a union nearby tends to involve removing a lot of the other pieces attached to it, all the way to the ends. Compression fittings with their nuts basically are unions, so they're easier to switch out replacements. But since your manifold will most likely be exposed, either one should work. I would probably go with the compression one just for ease of attachment and fewer pieces. kid sinister fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Jun 24, 2016 |
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Jun 24, 2016 20:03
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kid sinister posted:Then there's exposed work where you need to decide whether or not you want the PEX showing, like for stop valves under toilets and pedestal sinks. They do make little copper stub outs for those situations. There are some other weird situations like drop ear elbows for washing machines. Please god, no exposed PEX. I love the poo poo but it's a terrible idea to hook angle stops onto flexible pipe. Use copper stub outs.
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Jun 25, 2016 05:40
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Help me goons. I have a dishwasher problem. It won't start a cycle and seems to constantly be trying to drain itself, as there's always a little bit of wastewater in the bottom of it - if I pour in extra water it drains out, but there's always a small amount left in the well. The pump runs fine but seems to squirt water back into the dishwasher as quickly as it pumps it out. Is this probably just some kind of waste pipe blockage or kink? The filter was fitted alright and there's no clog in the impeller so I don't know what would have gotten in there. I live in an area with really hard water, so maybe it's just calcified? I mean, I'm assuming that the non-starting has something to do with the non-draining. It keeps trying to drain itself whenever it's powered on, even if the door is open. I know gently caress all about dishwashers so I might be wrong about that. Luigi's Discount Porn Bin fucked around with this message at 22:15 on Jun 25, 2016 |
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Jun 25, 2016 21:52
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Make/model helps a lot so we can figure out if it's a common issue to your particular dishwasher. The model will be gibberish letters/numbers somewhere inside the door or the part the door closes on most likely.
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Jun 25, 2016 22:15
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Motronic posted:Make/model helps a lot so we can figure out if it's a common issue to your particular dishwasher.
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Jun 25, 2016 22:20
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Luigi's Discount Porn Bin posted:It's a small Neff dishwasher. I can't find the model number anywhere. It's not in the manual and the nameplate on the door is covered up. edit: found this: http://www.fixya.com/support/t572663-neff_s5946x0gb_02_dishwasher_continually which sounds like the same problem. The suggestions all seem pretty different in terms of what to do though. I don't remember stopping it on a hot cycle. Luigi's Discount Porn Bin fucked around with this message at 22:41 on Jun 25, 2016 |
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Jun 25, 2016 22:24
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PEX is pretty awesome. Did a new run for an exterior spigot with it, it took so much less time and effort to install (once I realized I had pinch clamps when I wanted cinch clamps)
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Jun 26, 2016 00:06
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I second that PEX is great. One rehab job had all it's copper replaced with pex, as sloppy as possible. Many pipes in exterior walls, in uninsulated crawl space, kinked to hell and back, you name it. pipes routinely froze, but never burst or leaked, since 2007. So the moral of this, is PEX allows drunk incompetent people create functional plumbing.
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Jun 26, 2016 19:04
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kid sinister posted:Before replacing any copper for PEX, you need to consider how your electrical panel is grounded. One method of grounding electrical panels and the rest of your house is to run a thick grounding wire from your panel and clamp it to your metal cold water pipe. These days due to PEX, that clamp must happen within 6' of where your water enters your house so you can see with your own eyes that it's a complete metal path all the way to the dirt outside, but that distance wasn't the case in the past. So if your panel is grounded to the cold copper pipe past that 6', you will either need to extend that ground wire to within 6' or switch to a different grounding method. Thanks for the info. I'll have to check out my current grounding situation. On the bright side, the well line runs within 10' of my breaker box so any adjustment would be an easy fix. And speaking of easy fixes, I did get the kitchen sink water pressure fixed. I took off the supply lines to the H/C and they were fine. Pressure was good directly at the shutoff valve. On my faucet there is a quick-connect type fitting in the flexible metal hose line, I took that apart and there were tiny bits of sediment in there, I could barely see them. Bingo bango it's now awesome.
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Jun 27, 2016 16:08
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FYAD lol
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Jun 27, 2016 21:42
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My wife shut off our water to replace the shower yesterday and now the hot water wont go hotter than lukewarm out of any outlet in the house. It all flows fine and at its normal pressure, just warm instead of hot. Cold taps are cold as they should be. The boiler is a Potterton Promax System HE Plus (which apparently is an entirely different model from just a Promax HE Plus), 3 and a half years old. It's on, claims that it's heated to 66 degrees C, I can feel the heat coming off of it so it's definitely heating something up, and it's not the central heating because it's summer and that's turned off. Help me plumbers what has she broken, and am I going to have to pay a dude to come unbreak it? History Comes Inside! fucked around with this message at 11:52 on Jul 2, 2016 |
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Jul 2, 2016 11:39
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You get your hot water from your boiler? At 66? I admit I don't know how things work over there in Brexitania, but that sounds hella strange. Are you sure you don't have a regular ol' water heater? Usually looks like a big cylinder.
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Jul 2, 2016 13:17
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Bad Munki posted:You get your hot water from your boiler? At 66? I admit I don't know how things work over there in Brexitania, but that sounds hella strange. Are you sure you don't have a regular ol' water heater? Usually looks like a big cylinder. Apparently it's a "combi boiler" that does both? IANAP. There's a bigass tank of hot water underneath the boiler itself and the pipes that run into it are plenty hot which suggests to me that hot water is going into this tank, but you get to the actual water coming out of the taps and it's just warm. The only progress I've made so far was resetting the boiler, at which point after giving it half an hour to work its mojo I got a split second of actually hot water out of the tap nearest the boiler before it went back to lukewarm bullshit. History Comes Inside! fucked around with this message at 13:32 on Jul 2, 2016 |
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Jul 2, 2016 13:27
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Does said big rear end tank have a make/model? Any utility hookups on it, like electrical or gas? I'm wondering if your hot water tank just gets supplemented from the boiler, I've seen that sort of thing before. In which case, you'd still need to ensure the tank is functioning, or you'd just be mixing hot water into the cold water in the tank. I assume the tank has a drain valve, can you open that a touch and check the water temp coming out? Also, how big is big? Pics, maybe?
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Jul 2, 2016 13:30
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