Friday night I was sitting at the table with Mum finishing my pizza when I heard what sounded like water running. Since we were both at the table and it wasn’t raining why would there be water running? There shouldn’t be… I got up and traced the sound and it was coming from the water heater.
Uh oh!
I already knew from a previous problem we’d had with this water heater that the valve to shut it off didn’t work. I had to shut off the main to the whole house – which meant no water anywhere, and no tank refill the next time the toilet gets flushed.
Oh crap! Or, well, try NOT to crap…
I called my friend and handyman Ted: “Buddy, pall, friend o’ mine…” He had a job that had to be done in the morning before it rained, but he could come over and install the new one after that. Works fer me. Mum and I can ‘fly a holding pattern’ until then.
Actually we went out for breakfast the next morning (and their bathrooms!) and went over to the old house after so I could pick some more at the carcass. We still have some things over there and I’ve been slowly grabbing the best of what’s left and bringing it to storage or here to the new house. Ted was working a couple houses down the street from his and saw us drive by. He called my cell phone and told me where he was so Mum and I stopped there.
Poor Ted looked wrecked! I don’t know anyone with a stronger work ethic than he has and I include myself in that list. I had come up with a quick fix to get the water back on. But I’m no plumber. The idea was to remove the bad valve and replace it with a good one so we can isolate the water heater and turn the water back on to feed the cold side of the system. That way Ted wouldn’t have to install my new water heater that night. My plan was approved and I learned about a new kind of plumbing fitting I’d never heard of before. SharkBite fittings. They are a snap-on fitting that work with the copper I have here and with PEX or CPVC. They are versatile, easy to use and can be disconnected and reused. What they aren’t is cheap!
Ted still had quite a bit of work to do on that job so we let him get back to it and went on our way.
Later that evening Ted came over and I drove the two of us over to Home Despot to pick up some parts. Then we set to work on fixing my plumbing well enough to at least be able to flush the toilet.
Then we went back to Home Despot for more parts. All told I probably spent around $60 on parts.
In the end, we were successful and the cold water side is functioning normally. We’ll schedule the water heater install around Ted’s other jobs. Mum and I can make due in the mean time. Well just heat water on the stove when we need it.
This morning (as I was sitting in my now functional ‘thinking room’) I realized there was an easier way to accomplish the same thing. Both Ted and I were thinking of the feed side of the bad valve. If I had known more about the fittings we used and was thinking more holistically, and if Ted hadn't been so wrecked, we would have realized that we could accomplish exactly the same functionality with one cut and one $6 fitting. If we had cut the pipe after the valve and put on a cap the job would have been done in under two minutes!
Doh!
Live and learn…
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