More on the water heater

Last night around twenty past eleven I was in the vicinity of the water heater.  OK, I was in the can getting ready for bed…  And I could hear this dripping that sounded like it might be coming from the water heater.  I thought to my self “That must be drained out by now!  I wonder if it’s just rain dripping from the roof.”  It had been extremely windy just a little while before and it came along with a nasty sounding driving rain.  But it seemed to have stopped.  So I threw some clothes back on, grabbed the cordless drill (it has a couple of screw driver bits that live in a compartment on top of the motor housing) and went out side to check.  You see, the water heater is in a closet accessed from the outside of my home and the original door was long gone by the time I bought the place and was replaced by a sheet of plywood that’s screwed to the door frame..

All of the connections Ted made are holding just fine without a drip in sight.  But the pipe we cut off that feeds the water heater was still dripping at an alarming rate.  Something must be back-feeding the tank.  I thought I’d checked everything inside and made sure they were all off.  Time to button up the hatch and go check again.

Ah ha!  The valve in the tub. While turned off was still set to mix for the temperature I prefer for my shower!  That must be the path for the water to flow backward down the out-flow from the water heater and out the cut off in-flow pipe!  I cranked the knob over to full cold (I really hope I remember to check that after the new water heater is installed!) and after a few minutes the dripping has stopped.

Thank goodness!  If that hadn’t worked I don’t know what else I could have checked…

One other little tidbit, while I was checking for leaks I noticed that my idea to cut off the pipe after the valve would not have worked.  Whoever installed the water heater that’s there now used the shortest possible nipple between the tank and valve that they could.  There is simply no room there to even cut it off, much less to install a cap.  So to borrow a line from Weekend Update: “Oh, um, never mind…”

It’s always something…

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…

You know, it’s always something…

I’ve been expecting it for a while now.  This evening it finally happened.  My water heater took the gas pipe both literally as well as figuratively.  I have its replacement warming up in the bullpen just waiting for the coach to wave him in.  Now I just need to schedule the inst – pardon me, the phone is ringing…

That was Ted, the handiest handyman south-west of the Merrimac.  We’re on for tomorrow afternoon.  He has a job that has to be done in the morning, then he’ll call and come over.

Tires & Tank Traps & Tow Trucks, oh my…

So Mum and I drove up to Vermont to check out the jail.  I mean Bed & Breakfast…  It was a nice ride that included Franconia Notch.  People drive clear across the country to see The Notch.  We’ve been through The Notch several times over the past couple of years and each time it was simply the road between here and there.  We didn’t even stop – except for traffic.  This last time was a breeze.  We were heading north when most of the other traffic was already heading south.

Klunk, our GPS, sent us on a couple of wild goose chases.  How she came up with one of the roads she put us on is a complete mystery to me! 

But we survived.  355 miles round trip. 

Well, it should have been 359 miles…   

We were about four miles from home driving down a road I’ve driven dozens if not hundreds of times when ...