El Spamo posted:

Always do yearly maintenance on your hot water heater folks, this spring's flushout cost me $30 instead of an emergency replacement. After I bought my house I made the foolish mistake of not immediately assessing the state of the hot water heater. After all, it was operating normally and continued to do so until this spring when I decided to do the recommended flush and check of the various valves. Flushing turned out to be a good idea as a fair amount of sediment came out. Operating the T&P valve though left the damned thing dripping and it wouldn't stop. I shut down the heater to diagnose it and even with a cool tank and no pressure the thing still oozed water. I called a couple professionals and they recommended I head to the hardware store and replace the valve. So I did. Here's what the old one revealed.



Pretty nasty buildup, I'm fairly confident the previous owners didn't exercise that thing very often and it fouled on some sediment. Anyway, the new valve is in place and operating normally. The whole heater will be replaced soon since it is 10 years old, but it's not a NOW NOW NOW replacement and there's no strangeness in the water hot water supply.

I do have a question for any experts lurking around though. The replacement valve has a longer shank than the old one, though the replacement is a recommended valve for the brand and model of heater I have. Neither had a problem dealing the insulation, is the longer shank an issue? At the moment I'm more inclined to trust the manuals and replacement parts recommendations than what the previous owner may or may not have installed at some point.

wormil posted:

I guess my question is there a good reason I should remove it, a really good (not theoretical) reason? Because it would be a pain in the rear end to remove it. I can't think of one. I understand the basic physics of pipe diameter, speed vs pressure. Water will lose speed when it enters the 3/4 pipe but when the pipe fills (air expelled) the overall pressure of the system should be maintained (?)

kelvron posted:

That looks a lot better. Never heard of Danby, so I avoided them initially. Sweet home looks pretty reputable too.

Still looking for an answer to my other question about portable dishwashers and sink sprayers. Is it something thats fixable? Or will I have to lose my sprayer to get the portable dishwasher?

shortspecialbus posted:

I replaced my disposal yesterday and decided to change my dishwasher from draining directly into the drain to draining into the disposal since I have a septic system and might as well grind anything that comes out of it. The transfer went fine, replaced the Y connection with a straight pipe for the original drain, and routed it over to the dishwasher fine with a new hose.

I did have a question, though. I left a little slack in the line to make the work a bit easier for the line between the air gap and the disposal. However, as such, it bends down somewhat:



Is that a problem? It'd be easy enough to shorten it up and make it straighter if needed, but if I can, I'll just leave it as is.

fake edit: Also the line is a bit squashed from being on the spool. I assume it'll round itself out over time, or do I need to do something to that?

real edit: My worry is that water from the left side of the sink with the disposal will drain itself and crud into that dishwasher hose, leading to some nasty smells out of the air gap or disposal. I don't actually know though. Maybe it'd just work like another trap.

shortspecialbus posted:

Minus Pants posted:

I managed to acquire a used water-cooled AC for a closet-turned-home-server-room and I'm trying to figure out how to handle the plumbing. I can tie it into a bathroom sink with about a 4 foot run through a wall, but I'm not sure how to handle the drain. I've done some very basic plumbing work, but this is a bit beyond what I know. It's one of these:



It has 3 connections - supply water, 'exhaust' water, and a condensate pump drain. I'd really like to use some kind of quick disconnect for all of them. My searches for wall mounted quick disconnect fittings weren't fruitful - what would those be called? The connection on the unit is just flex tubing. Can I even use a disconnect fitting for the drains, or do I need an open standpipe thing like on a washing machine? I was thinking of running the drains through a quick disconnect over to a Y dishwasher drain fitting in the bathroom sink (with a checkvalve on the condensate drain, since I don't want the higher pressure drain to backup into it). Any suggestions? Am I approaching this completely wrong?

Spermy Smurf posted:

Holy cow, just got quotes and the propane is $9000 for a GV90-5LP Direct Vent boiler and all the other stuff installed.

Oil is $6000 for WGO-3 Chimney Vent, Weil McLean boiler and all the stuff installed.

I don't think that my cost of propane will ever make up the $3000 difference over the life of the unit.

BeastOfExmoor posted:

Ok plumbing thread, I've got myself an issue and I'm trying to figure out if I can resolve it myself with help from someone more experienced.

I recently removed some drywall in a storage room of my (finished) basement because there was mold growing behind it. Fortunately the mold was confined to a relatively small portion of the wall. Looking straight up through the wall I could see a large (4" or so?) black pipe directly above. There is a bathroom with a toilet a floor above and on the other side of this wall, so I'm assuming the pipe is the outflow of the sink and/or toilet. When flushing the toilet, a bit of water (1-2 tablespoons) comes straight down the wall and his the area where the mold was.

Is this kind of leak something that could be the result of a bad toilet gasket or likely something worse? The toilet above has always looked a bit off level since we moved in 6m ago, but I've never seen even a drop of water leak from around that area so I didn't think much of it until this issue came to my attention.

BeastOfExmoor posted:

I'm not in love with this toilet (almond), but it's in good shape so I'll wait until we redo the bathroom in a few months/years.

Raised by Hamsters posted:

Building a new hole for my fridge to live in and I'm not sure about the best place to feed the water from for the ice maker. Behold top-down view with MS paint grade planning tools:



Here, the orange walls are exterior (well, against the garage anyway). The green wall doesn't exist yet - The farther I move it from the fridge, the smaller my pantry gets.

If I put one of these water outlet boxes https://www.amazon.com/Water-Tite-8...aker+outlet+box or similar where I drew the black rectangle, how much space am I going to need to route the supply line around in? Can I get away with 3/4"? Is there some totally different plan I should be considering?

Crotch Fruit posted:

Thanks for the information. I drained some of the water on Sunday, I decided to completely skip trying to let the water heater cool off for two reasons 1) I realized I could hold my hand under the hot tap for a few seconds without it hurting too much so even if I did spray myself it couldn't hurt too bad and 2) I noticed no odor from the tub's hot water tap. I use the tub less than a dozen times a year so I assumed it would be the most likely faucet to have problems. I also tested my wife's sink in the same bathroom and noticed no odor.

I think the most surprising part of everything was that I somehow managed to not spray myself with hot water at any point. I filled a 5 gallon bucket with water fresh out of the water heater's drain and I couldn't detect either any sediment or any sent of sulfur. Afterwards, I turned the hot water on to my smelly sink full blast and let it run for 10 minutes as per Google. I have not really sniffed the water yet but I believe the sulfur smell is completely gone, or at least very faint. Unfortunately I am developing a cold so I am not sure how much I trust my nose right now.

Now what I am wondering is why would this smell develop only at one faucet? Unless I am missing something obvious I don't​ believe I could easily pour peroxide into my water heater, the anode rod is "attached to the hot water outlet". Just looking at the top and sides I see no sign of a screw or nut for an easily removable anode rod. I have not yet downloaded a manual, but I fell safe in saying in order to check or change it, I would need to learn how to sweat copper pipes. I believe this is more a case of let the water heater die spectacularly and buy a different water heater (maybe tankless?) next time. I am assuming the difficult to replace anode rod placement is a sign of a disposable, low quality water heater. It's a Bradford White Defender if that says anything about the quality.

Brute Squad posted:

So here are the water lines to my shower.



What's the deal with the pvc ends going down at the t's? Water hammer prevention? Plumber too lazy to grab right angles? I would like to get rid of them, as they are the perfect level to hit me in the head.

Rescue Toaster posted:

I'm buying a house that somehow has an indestructible 33 year old natural gas water heater manufactured by State in 1984. Is it even worth having a guy come out and flush/inspect/service it or just plan to immediately replace it? I'd have to know it's 100% working correctly (holding correct temperature, nothing nasty inside) because I've got a mostly decorative immune system.

The home inspector said he thought it must be glass lined to have survived that long, but it wasn't labeled as such. Our water here is not particularly hard, but there's no water softener in the house or anything, so it seems like the thing must be half full of sediments.

Turd Herder posted:

If you plan on putting any money to service it just plan on replacing it. A new gas water heater isn't that expensive either. (unless you have a power vent)

The Gardenator posted:

Yep, you are going to want to get one of these: Activated Carbon, Reverse Osmosis, or Nanofiltration. Apparently, these systems are not cheap, as they all cost at least two dollar signs according to this PDF:
https://www.awwa.org/Portals/0/files/resources/water%20knowledge/rc%20healtheffects/AWWAPFCFactSheetTreatmentandRemoval.pdf

SoundMonkey posted:

i'll go check out the crawlspace later but i've spent a decent amount of time down there and i don't recall seeing anything trap-like. it was done by the PO (as opposed to a plumber, he was a retired industrial electrician) so it's quite possible there just ain't one.

also that wouldn't entirely explain why the RIGHT sink is draining fine (and they go into the same drain, as you can see there)

draining them both at once is just a recipe but bad times but i knew that the second i looked under the sink

effika posted:

I found what size I need, but it doesn't seem to exist? We have an externally threaded (male) faucet that accepts female aerators. It is 55/64" in size. I can't find anything that is female on one end and male on the other without changing sizes. Am I just using the wrong search terms?

I might just give up and get a pitcher filter.

Sub Par posted:

I'm redoing my bathroom, and I made a dumb unforced error - I've finished tiling the shower surround, but the pipe that should connect to the tub spigot is about a half inch too short, which is incredibly frustrating. As you can see in the picture below, the copper pipe is roughly flush with the tile, and it needs to stick out about a half inch to receive a brass adapter thing that my tub spigot screws onto:



Alas, that fucker is soldered on, so I can't simply remove it and put in a longer nipple. It's a 1/2 inch copper pipe, and I've tried explaining my sitch to the folks at Home Depot who were useless. I need some kind of adapter, coupling, or fitting that will extend this thing at least a half inch and that ends in a threaded half inch male pipe so I can attach this loving adapter thing. I've googled as well and don't see anything that fits the bill that's 1/2 inch - I see reducers and I see 1 inch female to male brass, but not half inch. Am I hosed? Should I just cobble together what I can and solder some contraption together?

DustyNuts posted:

My water heater is located in the attic (a dumb loving place for a tank of water to be) and it was leaking so I needed a replacement. I just had to put a new roof on the house, funds were tight, so I shopped around for a bargain and ended up hiring a plumber that offered a crazy low estimate. You get what you pay for, etc. but the water was nice and hot and I had no complaints. To access my attic, you have to use a ladder through the master bedroom closet - I don't go up there often. Now that it's getting cold, I went up there to flip the damper on my aquatherm heating unit, and saw the water heater job for the first time.

It looks like my dude didn't bother connecting the vent to the water heater.







I don't know much of anything, but I'm pretty certain that my tank needs atmospheric venting, and that this is an unfinished job? This plumber has 5 stars on Yelp, Angie's List and the BBB... What do you guys think?

Medullah posted:

Yeah I talked to a few places today to get quotes and they all universally said going tankless would require additional work with my Hobbit house.

Thanks guys.

Rubiks Pubes posted:

We recently bought a house which was built in 1977. It is a split level. The two upstairs toilets do not flush very well- there is always a bit of toilet paper or something that floats back up and requires a second flush. I noticed the previous owner had adjusted the float so that the tank was not filling up to the normal level so I fixed that. I also noticed that he had turned the shutoff valve about 60% closed which I corrected. This made the flushing better but still not at the level I would consider normal. I did a vinegar soak in the tank of one of the toilets and that didn’t help much. Is this just going to be an “it’s an old toilet” thing? The date stamps in the tank on both toilets is 1977 so They look to be original to the house.

Xenoborg posted:

We took a video, here after a week of not using it takes ~20 seconds to come on. Any ideas whats going on?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnN0U0b7xyc

Gothmog1065 posted:

Oh about 4'. There's no P-trap on this toilet, it just goes straight down into the drain, so my bathroom smells wonderful now.

RandomPauI posted:

I'd like to add an adaptor to my single kitchen faucet to run a portable dishwasher, but I'd also like to add a spray nozzle to it. Is this possible to do without having to buy a new faucet or swapping the adapters out as needed?

Memento posted:

There's not, I look down behind it last night. I'm getting a plumber to come cap it off for me because I'm not comfortable loving with gas supplies myself.

Chef Boyardeez Nuts posted:

Our old as gently caress gas water heater is on its last legs and I'm looking at replacing it. Does anyone have experience with whole house tankless water heaters? The house, when complete, will have two full bathrooms, two half baths, a kitchen sink and a hot water laundry hookup.

I've got plenty of room in my basement subpanel, and recently put most of the house on a pex manifold supply system.

VERTiG0 posted:

One out of my outdoor hose spigots has a plastic connector to quickly screw and unscrew hoses, and the whole outer barrel rotates freely. I want to remove it. It leaks like crazy when I turn the valve. I don't know what the hell to call it. Inside the unit is a spring loaded pin that I can pull down, and when I release that it returns up inside the whole thing. There's no obvious way for me to take the whole thing off, unless this is a one-piece thing that includes the valve itself. Here's some photos.

Off:



On, and leaking out of the top:



Any thoughts?

{edit} It appears to be a Watts 8P "non-removable" anti-tamper thermoplastic connector. gently caress

VERTiG0 posted:

That's what I was afraid of. I've got a plumber coming in to install a water softener, maybe I'll have him replace this whole thing at the same time.

VERTiG0 posted:

Update: the destruction begins tomorrow since I have guests unexpectedly showing up to drink beer.

Erwin posted:

I have a toilet shut off valve that's leaking, however it looks like it'll be a pain in the rear end to replace. It's a on a chrome pipe that's soldered onto a copper pipe, and it seems like the whole assembly is one piece. There's no packing nut to tighten and I can't see a way to get to the guts of the valve to replace anything internally, so it seems like the only option is to replace it. I have a torch and solder, but I haven't done much plumbing soldering, and I don't want to be stuck in a situation where I get it off but break something and I have to keep my water off for a few days while I wait for a plumber to come fix it.

Is this easily doable with a high chance of success, or should I just pay a professional to handle it? Is this something that will be a few hundred bucks or less to do? There's a toilet on the other side of that wall with the exact same valve - should the plumber replace that one while they're at it?

NEED MORE MILK posted:

So we have a couple of out door spigots that are not frost proof, and have inconveniently located shutoff valves. In addition, our existing hot water heater is vented naturally (no fan) through an existing flue running through the center of the house. I really want to move the hot water heater and have it use a fan to exhaust out the rear of the house to free up space in the utility area. Finally, I want to put a whole home filter in to easily feed the kitchen, fridge dispenser, and (in the future) a bar.

With all of these changes, I was also thinking I might replace the copper with PEX. Having individual shutoff valves at a manifold would be awesome, and I can run it through basement floor joists. Considering I want to finish part of the basement in the future, removing pipes from the bottom of the joists would make life a lot easier.

My questions are:

1) Am I dumb as hell for wanting to do this?
2) Can I reuse my existing expansion tank?
3) Where should I place that expansion tank?
4) Are crimp fittings okay?

Here's a diagram of what I'm wanting to do. Note that the expansion tank is not in here because I'm just not sure the best place to locate it. In addition, I'm basing the order of the incoming water line from memory. I could have the order of the meter, backflow valve, regulator, and shutoff valve wrong.

The Dregs posted:

Yeah. All brass. But turns out I am hosed. The valve seat in the cold water is cracked. Cant even screw that bushing in. Looks like it will need to be replaced. This is bad.

Think I may have to call the plumber on this one. Replacing the valve looks lovely.

SpartanIvy posted:

The lowest bid of $200+/hr, for some pretty loving simple work with easy access. I didn't cheap out and hire some back alley "plumber" or something. This guy is supposed to be a trained and licensed professional.

It was through Home Depot, so they'll make it right, I just have to bitch enough.

BubbaGrace posted:

It's a fill valve and ball cock. The hissing sound is more than likely the fill valve failing. The new style will not have a giant ball cock and arm attached to it, just a donut float.

tactlessbastard posted:

I have what is probably a dumb question. I have a toilet that a few years ago ran and ran and ran so I bought the hardware and changed all the innards out. Easy peasy, no more problems. Two weeks ago, I had the flush handle go limp and stop working. The arm had snapped off that connected the handle to the chain & flapper. The local hardware store sells replacement parts so i bought the same part and as was broken and replaced it. Now when I flush, i get a flush but it only leaves a very low water level in the bowl and the next flush just fills the bowl too much. Then that will flush but it leaves behind only a little bit of water, and the cycle repeats. What the heck? I've even used the sprayer to 'prime' the bowl to the proper level and it still does it.

Boner Wad posted:

So I got one of these and tried it out. Some decent sized hair nuggets came out but nowhere what I expected. I ran the water and it seemed to not backup, so I’ll run this for awhile and will see what happens.

The one thing I noticed was a bunch of hard, rock like things on the side of the pipe when I look down at it. Sorry for the poo poo picture. I’m guessing it’s calcium build up from hard water. I’ve read CLR can get rid of it?

effika posted:

Hmm, ill see what I can find locally with a sturdy lid. I forgot stores sold them because I never see them in Target.

Usually the seats are fine, it's the lids that will be terrible and flexible.

quote:

I hate to knock a product that looks so nice. The bamboo wood is fine, but the hardware, unfortunately is not. I purchased this in February 2016 and 10 months have passed. Now it is hanging on by one hinge. The metal simply deteriorated into ugly black crumbs. The picture says it all. The seat is also somewhat small and it barely covers the bowl. It is very flat and not molded like most toilet sets. In other words, it is hard and uncomfortable. Maybe I can convert the lid into a nice cutting board.

BubbaGrace posted:

I run in to them from time to time in a 2 cities in our service area. It's a nightmare to have to make repairs to after so many years because it becomes way too soft and brittle. I love the scrap dollars though. Just cut out a 4" copper soil stack last week.