|
Sundae posted:a Bosch 500-series dishwasher. It is the single best appliance I have ever owned.
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2024 21:31
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 8, 2024 22:13 |
|
|
We're apparently using 2,244 gallons a month as a family of 3! Thats after I installed low flow faucets and shower heads in our bathrooms. We have a RO filter for lead that is pretty high use I guess and a whole house heavy metal filter too. Maybe now that I've looked closer my wife will let me replace the art-deco style toilet that's nearing 100 years old.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2024 21:33
|
|
|
stealie72 posted:gently caress me running, the Bosch 500 is currently cheaper than the equivalent current model of the Kitchenaid I have and hate. If this was a different thread, I'd be trying to finagle a "Bosch Washer Missionaries:" pun here but 
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2024 21:37
|
|
|
Democratic Pirate posted:Monthly. We’ve always had pretty high water usage (~300gpd), so I’m going to look into toilet seals as well. The heater is in the attic and has a direct drain line to the outside, so it could have steadily been draining for weeks. That's ballpark what our water bill turned into when there was a nasty underground leak just barely our side of the public mains. No massive mud pit, but the grass sure as green as gently caress. Thankfully not our pipes, it was a rental. We only ended up liable for a chunk of it too, as the water company had a thing where if you showed the leak was fix they'd forgive a chunk of the wastage. The landlord, on the other hand, got to pay whatever it costs to have an excavator tear up your entire lawn getting to the leak, putting in all new pipes from the street to the house, then re-doing all the yardwork.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2024 21:45
|
|
|
Tremors posted:Did a suspicious mud pit appear in your yard? Unexpected new swimming pool in the basement? Yard was nice and dead until a big mud pit appeared… but that was after a full night of torrential rain and everything is soaked through. I’m doing a thorough lawn walk once things dry up. Walls and ceilings don’t show any water signs and there aren’t any unusual mildew smells around the house. We’re a family of 4 that’s home most of the week. The washing machine goes nonstop between normal laundry + soiled laundry from the baby + cleaning cycles after washing said soiled laundry. 2 baths a night until the youngest is old enough to combine baths. Good amount of hand washing dishes in the kitchen on top of running the Bosch every night. Plus extremely long showers because it’s my place to zone out and stare into space once everyone else is asleep 
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2024 21:48
|
|
|
Where is your meter? If it's on the house don't bother with searching your yard. If it's at the curb and you can see it in the pit turn off the valve in your house (hopefully have have one) for 10 minutes or so and see if the meter moves. If it does I suggest shopping for mini excavators.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2024 21:56
|
|
|
Maybe I’ll start shopping for wall mounted pipe katana frames as well
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2024 21:59
|
|
|
Democratic Pirate posted:Maybe I’ll start shopping for wall mounted pipe katana frames as well At an extra 400 gallons per day, yeah you might wanna do that. 
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2024 22:21
|
|
|
All these fridge horror stories... I wonder if the amish have the same problems with their propane powered refrigerators? It's just so wild to me that all this poo poo is such a pain in the rear end to service and there's such a ridiculous range of reliability and availability on components like compressors. How is this not a solved problem in TYOOL 2024? In terms of actually possibly helpful resources, I've always found the Yale Appliance Blog to be really helpful when buying new appliances. They do a great job summarizing their service calls and calling out which brands sucked least and why. I've also found Wirecutter's recommendations to be pretty good over time as well. There's a recent Atlantic article talking about how wirecutter maybe not be so good anymore, but after skimming it on 12ft.io, their criticism seems to boil down to editors are paid per article now and some nebulous poo poo about ai and influencers are the future because the internet is too big now or some clickbaity poo poo 
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2024 22:23
|
|
|
That article also went into how they've drastically been forced to expand their coverage to more and more areas to try and bring in more affiliate revenue. I've always shopped for fridges without ice and water dispensers and that's paid off for me so far. One less thing to leak and go bad. Worth going out and buying ice on occasion for big parties when you need to and not have to deal with an once maker breaking or a water line leaking or something.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2024 22:27
|
|
|
So, uh, haven’t shut the water off but that meter is spinning pretty quick Edit, 15 minutes after the house main was shut off: gently caress Democratic Pirate fucked around with this message at 22:49 on Jan 23, 2024 |
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2024 22:32
|
|
|
Shut if off at the main at your house. If you've done that, and the meter's still spinning, then you have a leak between the street and your house. This is timely because the township installed a remotely-readable meter at my curb shutoff about a month ago. I called them today; said it was leaking a steady 6-gallons a day. They're sending someone out tomorrow to check the meter installation. The only thing else I can find that it might be: a self-filling water bowl I have sitting on my basement sump pump cover (so any spillage goes into it). I set it up several years ago so the cats would have backup water when we were away (besides the toilets...). It's plastic, and may just be aging out -- seems like the float is not shutting it off cleanly. PainterofCrap fucked around with this message at 23:30 on Jan 23, 2024 |
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2024 22:43
|
|
|
Catatron Prime posted:All these fridge horror stories... I wonder if the amish have the same problems with their propane powered refrigerators? Propane fridges are absolutely horrid (underpowered or fuel thirsty and sometimes both, typically no fans to circulate air), and that's when they're working properly. They require the maintenance of a gas furnace (the nobody you can get to your house has ever seen or heard of before) and you still have a weird sealed system that nobody you can get to your house knows anything about so you're swapping assemblies or just buying new fridges. They come with all the high price low reliability one would expect of niche consumer goods.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2024 22:52
|
|
|
Catatron Prime posted:It's just so wild to me that all this poo poo is such a pain in the rear end to service and there's such a ridiculous range of reliability and availability on components like compressors. How is this not a solved problem in TYOOL 2024?
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2024 00:03
|
|
|
BaseballPCHiker posted:We're apparently using 2,244 gallons a month as a family of 3! The whole house heavy metal one is probably not doing it - unless it has a drain connection, it's not wasting your water. Should you decide to replace the RO, there are models (scroll down to the 50/50 section) that reduce the wastewater to 1 gallon per gallon of clean water.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2024 00:29
|
|
|
Irrigation line busted. Found it when it sounded like water was flowing down a gutter but it hadn’t rained in hours.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2024 01:19
|
|
|
At least you didn't have to dig up your yard and/or driveway.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2024 01:45
|
|
|
I’m getting the water shut offs to the house swapped out to something that isn’t “ancient and already leaking a bit” but one of the many previous plumbers who worked on this haphazardly scattered concrete over the pipes in a weird four inch tall pyramid wedging one in so they need to send me an updated quote for the work.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2024 14:45
|
|
|
Upgrade posted:I’m getting the water shut offs to the house swapped out to something that isn’t “ancient and already leaking a bit” but one of the many previous plumbers who worked on this haphazardly scattered concrete over the pipes in a weird four inch tall pyramid wedging one in so they need to send me an updated quote for the work. 4 inches? You can sledge hammer that start swinging. Disconnect the meter first. Its free water!
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2024 14:55
|
|
|
Sewer ejector pump question: Mine was running every 6 minutes at peak despite me not running water anywhere that should enter the pit. Thought maybe it was recycling water or catching drainage due to a bad check valve so had that replaced (with a quieter one). But the pump is still going every six minutes at peak. I have a couple thoughts on possibilities: 1) the new check valve broke already. It does sound like water is running back down the discharge pipe for a while after pumping, same as before replacement. But maybe I'm just misinterpreting the sound. 2) ground water is entering the pit, acting as a second sump pump. I can hear running water into the pit, even with nothing in the house running, which should not be. The frequency of pumping does seem to correlate to rainfall at least loosely. I guess my most urgent question is, how likely is it that my house will flood if the pump fails and 2 is correct? Will water rise out of the pit, or just find its level (apparently above the pump trigger point) and get pumped out by the actual sump? Should I be calling an emergency plumber to investigate and, I don't know, reinforce the pit or whatever you'd do?
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2024 16:27
|
|
|
A sewer ejection pump is supposed to be on a completely discrete circuit from your groundwater removal system, so if you have groundwater entering your sewer system, then sewage is commingling with your groundwater. This is Very Bad. I am hoping that you have some type of supply-line leak that is admitting clean water into your sewer lines and causing the ejector crock to fill. The most invisible/silent suspect is a leaky flapper valve in the toilet tank. Six-minute cycle time is an awfully large quantity of water, and your water meter should be reflecting this loss by running constantly. First thing is to check your toilets and be sure they're not leaking from the tank into the bowl. Second is to shut off the house main for as long as possible (several hours at least, preferably overnight) and see if the ejector pump trigger rate increases beyond every six minutes. If it does, then you need to find what is sending water into your sewer circuit. If it is not, then you have a serious problem with your sewer crock. They are not easy or cheap to replace, but a plumber can answer all of that. Does the ejector service the entire house, or only the circuit that's below the level of the sewer lateral to the street (in the basement)? PainterofCrap fucked around with this message at 16:42 on Jan 26, 2024 |
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2024 16:40
|
|
|
Really, really can’t thank goons enough for the sanity check. The irrigation line was shut off a few days ago until we got the cracked pipe fixed this morning. As a bad handyman, now I also know where my main irrigation valve is and won’t let it get buried under the bush and dirt like it was. $10 on these forums saved me who knows how many days of extra leakage. Now to see what my usage was for this next billing cycle…
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2024 18:01
|
|
|
Reach out to your water utility, they might be willing to credit an approximate amount for the leakage (or at least not charge you sewage on it).
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2024 18:03
|
|
|
Shifty Pony posted:Reach out to your water utility, they might be willing to credit an approximate amount for the leakage (or at least not charge you sewage on it). That’s next on the list, they have a good process in place. I’m curious to see how many thousands of gallons went out. The most efficient home in my last cycle was 97 gpd. I was at 619.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2024 18:07
|
|
|
PainterofCrap posted:If it is not, then you have a serious problem with your sewer crock. They are not easy or cheap to replace, but a plumber can answer all of that. Does the ejector service the entire house, or only the circuit that's below the level of the sewer lateral to the street (in the basement)? I shut off water to the basement toilet, with no visible impact yet. That, two sinks and furnace condensation drip should be the only sources feeding the sewer ejector as far as I understand the new house. Possibly also drains above the lateral, if the check valve is not working properly.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2024 20:17
|
|
|
I'm wondering if someone installed a French drain and routed it to the ejector pump to try and save money.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2024 21:01
|
|
|
Shifty Pony posted:I'm wondering if someone installed a French drain and routed it to the ejector pump to try and save money. That's interesting. I hope not because I think I would need a battery backup for the sewer in that case.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2024 21:23
|
|
|
Update on the septic saga. The septic expert came over with the county's "registered environmental health specialist", aka the official who signs off the stuff that needs doing. She and the septic expert and she were obviously old friends, chatted about stuff, then the guy who was going to pump the septic system showed up, and the three of them talked about the dog in his truck and the specialist joked that she'd have to inspect the dog next. In short, I am confident that the septic expert is hooked into the local government and its requirements, and that his proposal for what to do will pass, although likely with modifications. Me to county official: "So we'll find a solution and you don't think the house will be declared uninhabitable?" Her: "We don't do things like that here. Now, over in Sonoma county..." Current proposal is setting up a greywater system covering the existing needs including kitchen (normally not allowed), and then a pumpable tank for the blackwater. Inspector is very unhappy about a blackwater system that could fail completely if the homeowner slacks off on the pumping schedule. They were chatting about alternate solutions. Also (separate meeting) it turns out that the reason the neighbor is reluctant about selling a septic easement because the entire property is owned by a trust set up by her deceased husband. The other people in the trust, his children from a previous marriage, hate her guts and tried to argue that they ought to have keys to her front door.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2024 21:31
|
|
|
Arsenic Lupin posted:. The other people in the trust, his children from a previous marriage, hate her guts and tried to argue that they ought to have keys to her front door. "I want to fill her home with sewage, you in?"
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2024 21:47
|
|
|
PerniciousKnid posted:That's interesting. I hope not because I think I would need a battery backup for the sewer in that case. You have to route it to a separate crock. Do you have a separate crock & pump for the french drain? I have been assuming that you do.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2024 22:20
|
|
|
PainterofCrap posted:You have to route it to a separate crock. I don't even think I have a French drain but I've only owned the house for a few weeks. It could have a gutter draining into it for all I know. I have a sump pump and a sewer ejector pump.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2024 23:17
|
|
|
PerniciousKnid posted:I don't even think I have a French drain but I've only owned the house for a few weeks. It could have a gutter draining into it for all I know. I have a sump pump and a sewer ejector pump. Just to be clear, the sump pump is in a separate pit than the ejector pump, right? I think that's what you're saying, but want to be 100% on that. Additionally, you have shut off the water to all things you think are feeding the pit the ejector pump is in, and it's still cycling every 6 minutes or so, right? Can you take a photo or two of the ejector pump setup? That'd be helpful here I think. Either the check valve on the pump discharge has failed AND the amount of wastewater that backflows into the pit through the pump discharge pipe is enough to trip the switch, OR there's additional flow coming from somewhere. We can test the first theory pretty easily, but you're not going to enjoy it. Steps as follows: - Verify that you've shut off everything you believe is feeding the pit. - Use a stopwatch, record the time between pump cycles (i.e. pump off -> pump on) for a minimum of 2 cycles (more is better) to confirm that the cycle time is consistent. - Find an old oil jug, or other jug/container of some kind that has measurement indicators on it. If it's an oil jug, cut the top off of it. - Wait for the pump to run, and turn off. Immediately start a stopwatch when the pump turns off. - Before the pump starts again, use the oil jug and scoop out a bunch of the liquid. Get as much as you can. Set somewhere you won't knock it over, and note the volume of liquid removed. - Stop the stopwatch when the pump starts again. - If the pump hasn't started again for about an hour, go ahead and pour the sewage back into the pit. If the pump doesn't start again, then the amount of sewage backflowing due to the failed check valve is enough to start a cycle after it all drains back. To be honest though, I don't expect this is the case, which is why you timed things. We can now figure out a ballpark on the flowrate entering the pit that is unaccounted for by subtracting the average time from the time where you removed liquid from the pit. I.e. if you use an oil jug and take 4L of liquid out, and your cycle time increases to 7 minutes, you know that it took 1 minute to replace the 4L of liquid you took out. This may give a clue to the source of the inflow. After that I'd probably be turning off the water to the entire house and flushing every toilet after doing so, and then seeing if it's still cycling.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2024 23:47
|
|
|
Biggest issue is accessing the sewer pit. Usually, the cap is bolted down tight & opening it is a (fragrant) project.
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2024 00:05
|
|
|
PainterofCrap posted:Biggest issue is accessing the sewer pit. Usually, the cap is bolted down tight & opening it is a (fragrant) project. Yeah, that's why I haven't done that yet. And other broken stuff being higher priority.
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2024 00:34
|
|
|
TrueChaos posted:Just to be clear, the sump pump is in a separate pit than the ejector pump, right? I think that's what you're saying, but want to be 100% on that. I forgot to answer these but yeah the pits are separate. I don't have a picture handy but the sewer pit is a screwed on lid with a discharge pipe (with check valve) routed to the main sewer outlet pipe, and what I assume is a vent next to it. Can't really see anything else until I take the lid off (or have someone do it). Edit: should also say it isn't always every six minutes (not now for instance), that's just the peak I've noticed. When I turned the main off for an hour it seemed to slow down by a minute.
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2024 03:21
|
|
|
Hey guys, do mortgage companies ever either purposely or accidentally gently caress your escrow analysis up? Mr Cooper has claimed that my payment is going from 677 to 941, claiming there is a 2k shortgage. And the information I see on the website doesn't make any sense at all. I tried to copy and paste but it messed it up so I'll just retype the information. Projections County Tax - Last 12 months: 977 Next 12 months: 977. 0 difference Hazard Insurance - Last 12 months: 1759 Next 12 months: 1759 0 difference Mortgage Insurance Last 12 months: 674.05 Next 12 months: 622.20 51.85 in the green So that looks good. And under that is says Analysis Result: Shortgage Minimum Required Balance456.12 Lowest Projected Balance(1,560.94) SHORTAGE TOTAL 2,017.06 And I have no idea how that math even maths. It's the weekend, so I can't call them. And I'm having a hard time getting the actual escrow analysis document from their website. I found it earlier, but it didn't have 2024 available when I looked, and now I can't find it again at all. It's the weekend, so I can't call them.
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2024 15:51
|
|
|
My escrow changes all the time with Mr. Cooper. It's obtuse, they try to explain it on the site, but my understanding is it's partly based on their own projections so it doesn't really make much sense. My escrow is significantly more than yours but bounces all over the place year by year. What's weird is the site says that the projected shortage is covered by payments over a 46 month period, except where I am we get property taxes reassessed every 3 years and that usually swings a grand or show in our yearly amount due to the county. The whole thing is kind of a mess considering how much property taxes and insurance can fluctuate in a year. . trevorreznik fucked around with this message at 16:20 on Jan 27, 2024 |
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2024 16:00
|
|
|
Turn off paperless billing. Seriously. Then you get the document in your hand to review. As to the reasons I don't know, you have to see the full accounting of last year's stuff. Is this your first year of the mortgage or has it been going for several?
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2024 16:01
|
|
|
H110Hawk posted:Turn off paperless billing. Seriously. Then you get the document in your hand to review. this is my 3rd analysis. It's just weird to me because nothing has gone up, in fact my PMI has gone down. I guess it's possible they hosed last year up really bad or something. I guess I just have to get that escrow statement from them next week to look at it.
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2024 16:06
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 8, 2024 22:13 |
|
|
Drunk Driver Dad posted:this is my 3rd analysis. It's just weird to me because nothing has gone up, in fact my PMI has gone down. I guess it's possible they hosed last year up really bad or something. I guess I just have to get that escrow statement from them next week to look at it. It's very possible that the 2nd year had very bad data from the idiocy that is our mortgage origination estimate system. 1st year they have to base it on the docs they get at closing (whoops who could have foreseen a property tax change on sale) then the next year its based on that bad data, perhaps only a month or two long, now they're truing that up yet again to deal with the shortfall. It's all super dumb. Just make sure the numbers they're using match your actual bills (from the insurance / tax people) and that they are actually depositing the amount billed to you in (from your payments to them.)
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2024 16:14
|
|