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Zhentar posted:Ah, yeah, that makes sense. Thinking about it, I could avoid that potential problem by plumbing the tank heater and tankless heater in serial, and use the solenoid valve (which does look like a good way to go, thanks!) on a bypass around the tankless heater. Plastic tub or cast iron? If cast my comedy option could work. Do not try putting an immersion boiler in your bathtub.
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Aug 1, 2014 01:50
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This is the municipal water supply into my house. Some heavy rain recently seems to have resulted in higher source pressure, maybe an extra 10psi coming to the house, and now the back-flow preventer is leaking. It's dripping from the inlet side, not huge volumes of water, but enough to be concerned about. This is upstream from the pressure regulator so I can't manually reduce the pressure to see if that's the actual cause.  What are my DIY options here? It seems I could pretty easily shut off both the main supply valve and the valve after the pressure gauge to isolate the back-flow preventer to re-seat everything according to the instruction sheets but I'm not a plumber obviously, so I don't know what I would be getting myself into. mik fucked around with this message at 23:04 on Aug 8, 2014 |
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Aug 8, 2014 22:58
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mik posted:This is the municipal water supply into my house. Some heavy rain recently seems to have resulted in higher source pressure, maybe an extra 10psi coming to the house, and now the back-flow preventer is leaking. It's dripping from the inlet side, not huge volumes of water, but enough to be concerned about. This is upstream from the pressure regulator so I can't manually reduce the pressure to see if that's the actual cause. Well the first thing to try would be to tighten that nut down a little further. Also, how big is that leak? When it comes to plumbing, I'll be honest: if you have hard water, then don't worry about very tiny trickle leaks. Minerals tend to take care of them.
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Aug 8, 2014 23:43
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kid sinister posted:Well the first thing to try would be to tighten that nut down a little further. Also, how big is that leak? When it comes to plumbing, I'll be honest: if you have hard water, then don't worry about very tiny trickle leaks. Minerals tend to take care of them. Yeah I guess that's the first obvious thing to try (I'm assuming you mean the big nut that connects the two pieces of the back-flow preventer) - it's a dripping leak, but that ice cream bucket will probably fill up in about 2 hours. Our water is moderately hard here so maybe it will resolve itself over time otherwise.
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Aug 8, 2014 23:53
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mik posted:Yeah I guess that's the first obvious thing to try (I'm assuming you mean the big nut that connects the two pieces of the back-flow preventer) - it's a dripping leak, but that ice cream bucket will probably fill up in about 2 hours. Our water is moderately hard here so maybe it will resolve itself over time otherwise. Yes, tighten the big nut. Try that first, but if that doesn't work, close the bottom valve, relieve the pressure by opening any cold faucet in the house, close the valve up top, then reseat it like you mentioned earlier. That should relieve all the pressure off your lines while leaving the minimal amount of water in your lines to leak out once you open your lines when you open that nut. If a leak fills a 3/4 gallon bucket in 2 hours, that's not a small trickle leak. I'm talking like "if I wipe a joint away with a dry towel and stare at it with a flashlight for 5 minutes, I might see a 1/32" reflection in the water from the flashlight at the end of that time." kid sinister fucked around with this message at 00:47 on Aug 9, 2014 |
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Aug 9, 2014 00:44
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My wife's family has a lake house, and when you flush the toilets, they tend to do this "bloop" thing - just after the beginning of the flush, it makes a bloop noise and some water splashes upwards. What could be causing this, and is there a relatively easy way to fix it?
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Aug 16, 2014 20:10
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hooah posted:My wife's family has a lake house, and when you flush the toilets, they tend to do this "bloop" thing - just after the beginning of the flush, it makes a bloop noise and some water splashes upwards. What could be causing this, and is there a relatively easy way to fix it? Don't fix them, enjoy your new combo bidets!  Actually, that sounds like a venting issue. You could get up on the roof and make sure that nothing is clogging the stacks, like a nest or dead animal.
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Aug 16, 2014 21:16
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So when I bought my house (with well water) the water softener basin was full a thick brown sludge that smelled like poo poo. I thought it WAS poo poo but apparently it was frothing iron-eating bacteria. Some receptacles are better than others but I still get a thick sulfur smell from some of them but it never lasts more than a few seconds. It happens on hot or cold. Various bits and pieces have been replaced. I got a new pressure tank, as the old one was leaking, which helped a bit. I got a new Culligan water softener (because the old one had been infiltrated with the death sludge) and the Culligan guy installed a water filter after the softener. The water heater is next on the list as it's 11 years old. I had a plumber come out for a consultation and he suggested that the water heater is the culprit as the anode was a large contributing factor to the smell. He tried to sell me a $1200 water heater so that seemed sketchy, and didn't explain why it smelled on the cold side too. The pipes are coated with the iron crud as well, which doesn't surprise me at all. What are my options? The water is safe to drink and use, but it's stinky.
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Aug 17, 2014 21:15
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One of the tank bolts for my olt toilet rusted through, and started leaking. When I went to get it out, it has rusted down to dust, and crumbled apart. Easy enough! The other one however, was only about 80% rusted, and I can't get it out. The nut on the outside is rusted solid to the bolt side underneath, and trying to turn it just turns the whole assembly. Grabbing the bolt with pliers can't get enough grip to break it loose either. The bolt assembly is now freefloating, with only a little tab of unrusted metal holding it in. I've tried chiseling aay at the lip with a screwdriver and hammer, to no avail. Any ideas? 
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Aug 17, 2014 22:18
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Dremel tool? Every once in a while that fucker is helpful for something...
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Aug 17, 2014 22:19
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ijustam posted:So when I bought my house (with well water) the water softener basin was full a thick brown sludge that smelled like poo poo. I thought it WAS poo poo but apparently it was frothing iron-eating bacteria. Some receptacles are better than others but I still get a thick sulfur smell from some of them but it never lasts more than a few seconds. It happens on hot or cold. Shut off the water, open the filter, remove the filter, and fill the housing up with peroxide or bleach. Run each tap until you smell whatever it is that you put in there. Let it sit for 15 minutes and then open each one of and prepare for an ungodly mix of gas and black poo poo (if peroxide) or red poo poo (if bleach) to come pouring out of each tap. You probably want to take the aerators off because if it's not been done before you're gonna bring up chunks. You may need to do this a few times. Some important things to remember: - it sounds like you have a tanked hot water heater, so you can't use this on your hot water lines unless you make a bypass that completely takes the hot water heater out of the loop and just runs cold water through. Should you accidentally get any of this stuff in your hot water heater tank you'll probably need to drain and fill it a few times to clean it out. And speaking of that, you should do it anyway if it hasn't been done. Ever 6-12 months to get the scale and rust off the bottom of the tank. Make sure the heater is TURNED OFF before draining it and do not turn it back on until the tank has been refilled. - You need to make sure you run all taps long enough to get this poo poo out of the lines. - This will last for somewhere between a week and 4 months depending on how bad your problem is and how hot it is in your house. I do it monthly in the summer and about twice a winter. - There are supposedly solutions to this which are all fairly expensive. I've looked into them a bit, but since what I've noted here isn't a big deal (and my hot water is from a tankless coil so it's REALLY easy for me to do). This: http://www.budgetwater.com/iron_filters.htm was interesting looking, as I'm trying to avoid chlorine injection and a holding tank - I mean....my well water is great when the pipes are clean and the softener is in good order. Why would I want it to smell/taste like city water. - It's odd that your filter was installed AFTER the softener. I don't know what your water is like other than the iron bacteria, but I occasionally pull up sludge/silt, and I'd prefer that to be in the replaceable filter element rather than in my softener. Since mine is before I put the softener on bypass when I run stuff through, although I've forgotten to do that on a couple of occasions with peroxide and suffered no ill effects. I just don't know if it's safe/harmful for it so I try to avoid it.
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Aug 17, 2014 22:54
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I've got a bathroom on one side of the house that just got redone. The shower water pressure and temperature is not quite where I want it to be. The water heater is on the other side of the house. The bathroom on that side produces almost scalding water, the new bath is just barely hot enough with the lever all the way on hot. I took the handle off and attempted to adjust the little geared plastic wheel, but it appears the plumber installed it with it turned all the way to hot. It takes a good minute or two for the water to get hot. I'm assuming the water pressure should be alleviated by removing whatever flow restrictor is on the shower head. The water lines are all under the slab. I guess I could crank up the water heater, but the bathroom that does get hot is my 2 year old's, so I'd like to avoid doing that.  Just checked the tub that's separate, seems much hotter and pressure seems fine. It has separate hot and cold handles Edit: removed the rotational limit control plastic piece entirely and it still stops in the same place, same temperature out of faucet PuTTY riot fucked around with this message at 03:07 on Aug 18, 2014 |
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Aug 18, 2014 00:58
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Doom Rooster posted:One of the tank bolts for my olt toilet rusted through, and started leaking. When I went to get it out, it has rusted down to dust, and crumbled apart. Easy enough! The other one however, was only about 80% rusted, and I can't get it out. Seconding Dremel.
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Aug 18, 2014 02:43
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Dremmel purchased! I've held off for this long because I've also always felt that "Every once in a while that fucker is helpful for something... ". Thanks folks.
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Aug 18, 2014 02:48
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Motronic posted:Shut off the water, open the filter, remove the filter, and fill the housing up with peroxide or bleach. Run each tap until you smell whatever it is that you put in there. Let it sit for 15 minutes and then open each one of and prepare for an ungodly mix of gas and black poo poo (if peroxide) or red poo poo (if bleach) to come pouring out of each tap. You probably want to take the aerators off because if it's not been done before you're gonna bring up chunks. This is great info! Why is temperature a factor? I have drained the water heater, and some poo poo did come out but not nearly as much as I'd expect for an 11 year old water heater. I'm probably going to replace the water heater here very soon, should I just have the plumber install a bypass to avoid problems? Looking at the pipes again, the filter is before the softener. I'm just a dummy.
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Aug 18, 2014 04:13
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ijustam posted:Why is temperature a factor? As far as I know it's not. The problem is just the big holding tank in a water heater. You're diluting what you're putting in through the hot side and that doesn't really help you. And then you have peroxide or bleach in your tank for a long time on the hot side until it's flushed out. There is no storage of hot water at all in my setup. That's why works out just fine for me without worrying about this. ijustam posted:should I just have the plumber install a bypass to avoid problems? It's not really avoiding problems, but if you want to do what I described, hell yeah.....tell them to throw that in. It shouldn't be a big deal. Motronic fucked around with this message at 05:20 on Aug 18, 2014 |
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Aug 18, 2014 05:17
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PuTTY riot posted:I've got a bathroom on one side of the house that just got redone. The shower water pressure and temperature is not quite where I want it to be. The water heater is on the other side of the house. The bathroom on that side produces almost scalding water, the new bath is just barely hot enough with the lever all the way on hot. I took the handle off and attempted to adjust the little geared plastic wheel, but it appears the plumber installed it with it turned all the way to hot. It takes a good minute or two for the water to get hot. I'm assuming the water pressure should be alleviated by removing whatever flow restrictor is on the shower head. The water lines are all under the slab. My meat thermometer died, new one came in. 117 in the close-to-hwh tub. 114 or so in the far tub, and 109 in the far shower( separate from tub entirely) My water heater has 2 thermostats, should the both be set at the same temp? They weren't. I turned them both up just a hair, the bottom one more as it was lower. Is a standard tub/shower combo from '94 or so likely to have that same rotational limit control thing so I can have peace of mind about my daughters tub not having 130+ degree water coming out of it, or do I need to replace it with something new?
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Aug 21, 2014 01:54
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What is your hot water only temperature from a sink faucet near the heater? Could just be that that water heater isn't turned up enough and by the time the hot water gets through the pipes its cooled down enough to be unsatisfying. (If you measure from a sink faucet that can do a hot water only mix you can get the actual hot water temperature without having doubt about the rotational limit screwing you up). When we moved in our water heater was set to 140-145 and that was way too hot. Backed it off to 130 or so. Still hot enough to sanitize dishes and be more than hot enough in our farthest shower. If yours was set to 120 I can see the temperature dropping by that much depending on how far the water needs to go. Might need to turn up the thermostat on the hot water heater and then use fixtures with hot limits anywhere you are worried about scalding. If your pipes are exposed in a crawlspace or basement you could also try insulating them to keep the heat in.
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Aug 21, 2014 17:29
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Motronic posted:As far as I know it's not. The problem is just the big holding tank in a water heater. You're diluting what you're putting in through the hot side and that doesn't really help you. And then you have peroxide or bleach in your tank for a long time on the hot side until it's flushed out. Does it matter what concentration of peroxide I use? Do I need the kind that melts skin or can I use the stuff they sell with first aid?
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Aug 21, 2014 21:50
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ijustam posted:Does it matter what concentration of peroxide I use? Do I need the kind that melts skin or can I use the stuff they sell with first aid? I've use regular drug store stuff and find I need to fill the container with it. I use less than 1/3 as much (and it's cheaper) when I stop by this beauty supply place and get it by the gallon in higher concentration. It's sold as "developer" and rated in "volume". Regular medical peroxide is 3%, which is 10 volume (releases 10 times it's volume of oxygen). The stuff I usually find there is 40 volume, so I assume that makes it 12%. And it's just slightly more expensive than the same liquid volume of the drug store stuff. So I'd say start with a 3 or 4 cups of 3%, reduce as required with higher percentage stuff. That seems to work out fine for me for a "maintenance dosage". With bleach I usually put in about a cup. Edit: just found the bottle. It is 20 volume that I get, not 40. And none of this is scientific measurement. I just swag it and it works. Motronic fucked around with this message at 22:12 on Aug 21, 2014 |
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Aug 21, 2014 22:10
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sbyers77 posted:What is your hot water only temperature from a sink faucet near the heater? Could just be that that water heater isn't turned up enough and by the time the hot water gets through the pipes its cooled down enough to be unsatisfying. (If you measure from a sink faucet that can do a hot water only mix you can get the actual hot water temperature without having doubt about the rotational limit screwing you up). Thanks. I cranked up the water heater up and I can get 135 out of the tub and sinks where the shower is. Shower is in 128 range. I dunno. I'm gonna back it off a little bit down to 130 or so and see what happens, I don't know what temperature a 'hot' shower is.
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Aug 23, 2014 02:33
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Motronic posted:I've use regular drug store stuff and find I need to fill the container with it. I use less than 1/3 as much (and it's cheaper) when I stop by this beauty supply place and get it by the gallon in higher concentration. It's sold as "developer" and rated in "volume". Regular medical peroxide is 3%, which is 10 volume (releases 10 times it's volume of oxygen). The stuff I usually find there is 40 volume, so I assume that makes it 12%. And it's just slightly more expensive than the same liquid volume of the drug store stuff. Did this tonight. Lots of black poo poo came out. Some red stuff too. Not as much as I expected but it was about a liter of 3% peroxide. The old filter came out looking like diarrhea, and I know that's what the inside of my pipes look like, having removed some fixtures before. There was no filter before I moved in so the pipes are definitely less than stellar. It's a start, though!   ijustam fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Aug 23, 2014 |
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Aug 23, 2014 02:49
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ijustam posted:Did this tonight. Lots of black poo poo came out. Some red stuff too. Not as much as I expected but it was about a liter of 3% peroxide. The old filter came out looking like diarrhea, and I know that's what the inside of my pipes look like, having removed some fixtures before. There was no filter before I moved in so the pipes are definitely less than stellar. It's a start, though! How's the smell now? Hopefully significantly reduced or gone. If you didn't get a whole lot out and it still smells you may need to use more and/or let it sit in the pipes longer. The poo poo on your filter looks like what's on mine. Some of it is sediment, but a lot of it is the nasty stuff that's making the smell. It grows on the filter media and I've been able to confirm this by looking at a couple week old filter that was just starting to show staining and then coming back ofter a 2 week vacation where no water had been running at the house and finding it nasty like the one in your picture. Not really sure what to do about that other than the swap them regularly. I have them set up on amazon to ship a 2 pack of Culligan 5 micron filters every 4 months and swap them out every 60 days. I tried the cheaper generic filters but the don't seem to do as good of a job and some brands actually restricted water volume noticeably.
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Aug 23, 2014 16:24
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This is the first house I've owned with copper plumbing so I'm a bit lost (iron was so easy). I want to replace leaky hose faucet that's connected via this thing: I did this last year on another outdoor faucet and thought I could treat it like iron (soy estupido). I of course twisted up the upstream copper and I had to replace the whole run. What's the right way to get that off? I'm thinking from the inside (duh) with a pipe wrench holding the threads by the copper, and that connector comes off with the faucet. Is this the right idea? ( That foamy stuff is liquid wrench, I hit it with that on general principal since it took a lot of effort to get the shutoff closed).
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Aug 24, 2014 15:32
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We moved to city water about a month ago, and ever since, the water pressure has been inconsistent, and mostly crappy, especially the shower head. Is there anything we can do, or are we entirely at the mercy of everyone else on the main?
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Aug 27, 2014 03:14
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hooah posted:We moved to city water about a month ago, and ever since, the water pressure has been inconsistent, and mostly crappy, especially the shower head. Is there anything we can do, or are we entirely at the mercy of everyone else on the main? Yes! Call the water company! There is likely a faulty PRV or similar near your house.
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Aug 27, 2014 15:23
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Remulak posted:This is the first house I've owned with copper plumbing so I'm a bit lost (iron was so easy). I want to replace leaky hose faucet that's connected via this thing: It looks like someone possibly soldered the pipe into the fitting that it's not suppose to really be into.. was there a nut over that fitting that you removed? I'd probably cut off the pipe where you can before the fitting, then get 2 unions, (short pieces of copper pipe that your pipe will fit into) and a small piece of pipe to replace that mess right there. You can either solder the fittings in (recommended) or if you aren't comfortable using a torch and solder get a snakebite fitting not as recommended as they can leak/fail easier than soldering, but can be a life saver in tight spaces that you can't get. I had to use one at my MIL's who had a similar issue where she needed to replace her outside faucet which was closer to the subfloor/outside wood than I wanted to put a torch. Disclaimer, I'm a DIY person who has done plumbing in my house maybe a real plumber will reply and tell me I'm all wrong.
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Aug 27, 2014 16:21
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I successfully replaced my guest bathroom toilet using skills gleaned from this thread over the last three years. Thanks, plumbgoons!
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Sep 2, 2014 17:48
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I had a plumber install a new solar water heater tank. The old location had two water heaters were inside my house in the same room as my electric breaker panel. I needed to move that before I can upgrade that old breaker panel. I've replaced my own water heaters before, but didn't feel up to soldering the amount of joins required. One thing he recommended was that I use brass nipples instead of the heater supplied nipples to prevent corrosion. Easy way to spend an extra hundred dollars, but worth it to prevent corrosion.  Original room, the nipple coming off the larger heater tank was covered in rust.  Seven feet to the breaker panel  New location  Close up of the piping. He made two extra pipes for a future washing machine and utility sink.
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Sep 4, 2014 00:55
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Do you chaps mind if I parachute in, ask for some advice and then wander out again? I've got a small leak under my sink, it's between the drain pipe from my sink, which looks to be PVC, and the waste water hose from my dishwasher, which is an unknown but flexible grey plastic. This is a really small leak, it weeps rather then sprays or gushes, but because it's inside a cupboard it's causing a mess. Is there some recommended product for sealing such a connection, preferably with an option to be removed via an easily purchased solvent since it's a rental?
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Sep 4, 2014 12:36
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Sir_Substance posted:Do you chaps mind if I parachute in, ask for some advice and then wander out again? It should be attached to the dishwasher drain nipple after the p trap by simply sliding the hose over and fastening with a hose clamp. No sealer should be necessary. If you have some other kind of setup (never know.....I've seen some very interesting/creative plumbing when it comes to this type of thing) a picture would help.
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Sep 4, 2014 12:49
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Motronic posted:It should be attached to the dishwasher drain nipple after the p trap by simply sliding the hose over and fastening with a hose clamp. Oh, you'll never guess what it doesn't have on it!  edit: based on your description it's also been put in the wrong place (before the p trap). The landlord offered to bring in a plumber to sort it out if I couldn't. What are the potential repercussions of having it placed before the P trap rather then after? Sir_Substance fucked around with this message at 14:21 on Sep 4, 2014 |
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Sep 4, 2014 14:18
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Sir_Substance posted:Oh, you'll never guess what it doesn't have on it! It's in the right place......I meant "after" from the perspective of the sanitary sewer line. The concept is that it needs to be like that because the water that sits in the p trap is what keeps the sewer gasses from coming out of your drain. If you put the dishwasher connection on the side towards the sewer it has no trap and the inside of the diswasher fills up with sewer gases. I've seen this WAY too many times. So, basically.....it looks like you don't have the correct parts. And the correct parts are cheap. You're looking for one of these to replace the part that attaches to your sink "tailpiece" (the pipe screwed to that actual sink drain):  Then just use a washer clamp to secure the dish washer hose to the stub out. and attach the bottom of that to the existing p-trap. They even make kits with all of this ready to go, no gluing needed just possibly some pipe cutting. I don't really like those types of compression fittings, but it beats the hell out of what you have now which was either home brewed or it used to be the correct thing and the nipple broke off and someone jammed it onto what was left.
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Sep 4, 2014 15:19
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I think I've misinterpreted what before and after mean in a plumbing context. Can I assume based on your reply that "after" means "closer to the sink"? Let me upload another image, on a wider angle and with the paper towling I wrapped around it to absorb the moisture removed.  I...think that's set up the way you recommend, disregarding the lack of anything securing the waste hose onto the nipple?
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Sep 4, 2014 15:28
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It looks like the grey dishwasher hose used to have a clamp on it... Also it should run up and then back down, not just straight up from the floor to the sink drain, so that water doesn't get siphoned back into the dishwasher. Otherwise it's all in the right place.
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Sep 4, 2014 15:44
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So get a new hose clamp and tape/prop the hose so that the top of the hose arc is above the level of the exit pipe of the p trap, and she's all good?
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Sep 4, 2014 15:49
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That's quick and easy so it's where I would start! The hose should run all the way up to the bottom of the counter, assuming it's long enough.
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Sep 4, 2014 15:57
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Yep, plenty of length on the hose, I'll probably duct tape it to the underside of the sink or something. Cheers for the advice!
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Sep 4, 2014 16:09
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Should I buy one of these water hammer arrestors from Sharkbite or just make my own with leftover PEX and a Sharkbite stop I have? It says it's meant for commercial installs. I just need air chambers before the faucets for my tub. http://www.homedepot.com/p/SharkBite-1-2-in-Brass-Commercial-Water-Hammer-Arrestor-22631LF/204417394 I saw this at Home Hardware which looks similar but it's from a company called Waterline http://www.homehardware.ca/en/rec/i...hammer+arrestor kripes fucked around with this message at 02:11 on Sep 8, 2014 |
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Sep 8, 2014 02:01
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The air in air chambers eventually dissolves into the water, removing their intended purpose. Get some dedicated hammer arrestors.
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Sep 8, 2014 06:35
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