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The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures
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dxmnkd316
Lucia Apologist
Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures
Visible and accessible.
It's just a leaking stem on the boiler valve that feeds my washer. I've never had to sweat a fitting before and wanted to see if SharkBite lived up to the hype or if I should just do it the old fashioned way.
The odd thing is the guy looks like he soldered the copper pipe inside the male NPT fitting. I'm 99% sure it's a 1/2" copper tube and the valve has a standard 3/4" MHT outlet, but I've never seen it done like this. Maybe it's normal. Is the tube OD the same as the ID of the threaded fitting?
Or should I just do it right and solder a plain end to NPT adapter fitting and screw the valve into that?
ETA: THe more I think about this, the more I think that guy was insane. THere is no reason to do it the way he did it. I'm probably going to just solder on a new threaded fitting and and install a threaded ball valve instead. I prefer the shutoff capabilities of a good ball valve over the globe or gate valves. It will also make maintenance easier if I have to replace the valve in the future. That makes sense right?
Visible and accessible.
It's just a leaking stem on the boiler valve that feeds my washer. I've never had to sweat a fitting before and wanted to see if SharkBite lived up to the hype or if I should just do it the old fashioned way.
The odd thing is the guy looks like he soldered the copper pipe inside the male NPT fitting. I'm 99% sure it's a 1/2" copper tube and the valve has a standard 3/4" MHT outlet, but I've never seen it done like this. Maybe it's normal. Is the tube OD the same as the ID of the threaded fitting?
Or should I just do it right and solder a plain end to NPT adapter fitting and screw the valve into that?
ETA: THe more I think about this, the more I think that guy was insane. THere is no reason to do it the way he did it. I'm probably going to just solder on a new threaded fitting and and install a threaded ball valve instead. I prefer the shutoff capabilities of a good ball valve over the globe or gate valves. It will also make maintenance easier if I have to replace the valve in the future. That makes sense right?
Last edited:
Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures
they do make combination threaded / solder fittings. the inner diameter is sized for a solder joint, while the outside of the fitting is male threaded. It's usually the same dimension though: 1/2" solder fitting combined with 1/2" male threaded fitting.
they do make combination threaded / solder fittings. the inner diameter is sized for a solder joint, while the outside of the fitting is male threaded. It's usually the same dimension though: 1/2" solder fitting combined with 1/2" male threaded fitting.
dxmnkd316
Lucia Apologist
Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures
Could be. It's connected to a standard washer hose, which I thought were 3/4" but I've never actually measured them. They don't have the end sizes on the Home Depot website either (for that hose set).
Could be. It's connected to a standard washer hose, which I thought were 3/4" but I've never actually measured them. They don't have the end sizes on the Home Depot website either (for that hose set).
MarkEagleUSA
C'mon Q!
Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures
Keep in mind that a 3/4" hose thread is NOT the same as a 3/4" pipe thread.
MarkEagleUSA
C'mon Q!
Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures
Gate valves are twist valves. Ball valves are 1/4 turn.
state of hockey
He fixes the cable?
Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures
When buying our house, there was a pipe that had a very slow leak found during the inspection. We asked the sellers to repair that, and have the plumber also replace the gate valves with ball valves while he was at it. They did it without much complaint. Very happy with the decision to reach for that
When buying our house, there was a pipe that had a very slow leak found during the inspection. We asked the sellers to repair that, and have the plumber also replace the gate valves with ball valves while he was at it. They did it without much complaint. Very happy with the decision to reach for that
dxmnkd316
Lucia Apologist
Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures
No, I know. I’m a chemical engineer so I understand piping. I just don’t know a **** thing about home installation
Regarding gate and ball valves, the only reason we would spec gate valves at work is if we can’t have fluid trapped in the ball cavity. Or there’s some sort of issue with the packing. But gates are usually used on stream at work still. Balls are preferred because they’re easier to lock out and have better shut off usually.
No, I know. I’m a chemical engineer so I understand piping. I just don’t know a **** thing about home installation
Regarding gate and ball valves, the only reason we would spec gate valves at work is if we can’t have fluid trapped in the ball cavity. Or there’s some sort of issue with the packing. But gates are usually used on stream at work still. Balls are preferred because they’re easier to lock out and have better shut off usually.
dxmnkd316
Lucia Apologist
Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures
Well, repiped the drain from the A/C and installed hammer arresters on my washer.
I don’t know why I didn’t install the hammer arresters on my washer years ago. No more banging pipes when the solenoid closes.
The AC drain may need to be revisited. It’s a few degrees off plumb and just looks kind of sloppy. Oh well, hopefully the new trap doesn’t leak. I’ve never seen literally every joint on a pvc pipe fail. I could twist them all off with a slight amount of pressure when I took it apart this spring. How does that even happen? I can see he used primer, so he’s not a complete moron. Did he only put a dab of adhesive in it? I don’t know but it’s “fixed”. I’ll get to test it here in the next few days I’m guessing.
Next step is installing a new shutoff valve on the washer cold water line. Haven’t had time to tackle it but now I’ve got some breathing room.
Oh, and as a bonus, the lawnmower started on the first pull this year for the first time in like four years. Thrilled about that.
Well, repiped the drain from the A/C and installed hammer arresters on my washer.
I don’t know why I didn’t install the hammer arresters on my washer years ago. No more banging pipes when the solenoid closes.
The AC drain may need to be revisited. It’s a few degrees off plumb and just looks kind of sloppy. Oh well, hopefully the new trap doesn’t leak. I’ve never seen literally every joint on a pvc pipe fail. I could twist them all off with a slight amount of pressure when I took it apart this spring. How does that even happen? I can see he used primer, so he’s not a complete moron. Did he only put a dab of adhesive in it? I don’t know but it’s “fixed”. I’ll get to test it here in the next few days I’m guessing.
Next step is installing a new shutoff valve on the washer cold water line. Haven’t had time to tackle it but now I’ve got some breathing room.
Oh, and as a bonus, the lawnmower started on the first pull this year for the first time in like four years. Thrilled about that.
And then the heavens opened up for 3 straight days...
bostonewe
Short/Round
Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures
It's happened twice now since we've lived in our place. We don't have a boiler for our heater, our hot water tank is our heater. When our heat was broken, it was cycling constantly and causing the pressure in the tank to rise, opening the valve. I have no idea what the cause was today.
It's happened twice now since we've lived in our place. We don't have a boiler for our heater, our hot water tank is our heater. When our heat was broken, it was cycling constantly and causing the pressure in the tank to rise, opening the valve. I have no idea what the cause was today.
aparch
Well-known member
Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures
It sounds like the WH is building up too much pressure and not being allowed to expand.
First, make sure there is still a valve to close the loop so new hot water from your WH doesn't get introduced to the system while your AC is on. When we bought our house, we were told that the loop needed to be closed when the AC runs.
Second, since you are using the AC and demanding less on the WH, you can always turn down the heat a little bit on the WH. It doesn't need to be at C during the summer (unless you like burning your skin off when you shower).
Third, when they did work on the heating system, did they put a back flow preventer onto the water system? When my WH broke, the plumber who put the new one in put a back flow preventer on to prevent the excess hot water from back feeding down the city cold supply (he assumed it was one of the problems of why we were getting cold water introduced into the hot water after a few minutes during the winter*.) After having the pressure valve release A LOT the next day/night, he installed an overflow tank to the system (instead of just removing the back flow preventer.
* My plumber found out that the previous home owners had replaced the WH with one sized properly for the house, but not sized correctly for the heating demand required by using both the furnace AND hot water for showers/dishes in the winter time. (Winter was the only time we had issues maintaining hot showers/hot water). So, I now have a 50 gallon tank that resembles something the size of a 100+ gallon tank thanks to the BTU requirements needed to run successfully in the winter.
My house might have a similar setup. For me, the WH feeds our hot water to the kitchen/bathroom like normal, but there is an additional loop from the WH that goes to the furnace to heat up the furnace (instead of gas or electric) and returns that water back to the WH in a giant loop; the furnace blower pushes the heated air from the furnace. (For those curious, it's an Apollo Heat Unit (or similar).)It's happened twice now since we've lived in our place. We don't have a boiler for our heater, our hot water tank is our heater. When our heat was broken, it was cycling constantly and causing the pressure in the tank to rise, opening the valve. I have no idea what the cause was today.
It sounds like the WH is building up too much pressure and not being allowed to expand.
First, make sure there is still a valve to close the loop so new hot water from your WH doesn't get introduced to the system while your AC is on. When we bought our house, we were told that the loop needed to be closed when the AC runs.
Second, since you are using the AC and demanding less on the WH, you can always turn down the heat a little bit on the WH. It doesn't need to be at C during the summer (unless you like burning your skin off when you shower).
Third, when they did work on the heating system, did they put a back flow preventer onto the water system? When my WH broke, the plumber who put the new one in put a back flow preventer on to prevent the excess hot water from back feeding down the city cold supply (he assumed it was one of the problems of why we were getting cold water introduced into the hot water after a few minutes during the winter*.) After having the pressure valve release A LOT the next day/night, he installed an overflow tank to the system (instead of just removing the back flow preventer.
* My plumber found out that the previous home owners had replaced the WH with one sized properly for the house, but not sized correctly for the heating demand required by using both the furnace AND hot water for showers/dishes in the winter time. (Winter was the only time we had issues maintaining hot showers/hot water). So, I now have a 50 gallon tank that resembles something the size of a 100+ gallon tank thanks to the BTU requirements needed to run successfully in the winter.
Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures
Has anyone tried building a fire pit <u>without</u> using a kit?
I’d like to build one, but reviews on kits for the big box stores seem to be pretty much universally dissatisfied with the steel liner ring.* I’ve found what seem to be better liners rings, but that would mean that I need to decide what stone to buy on my own.
Of course I could just buy a kit and throw away the ring, but that seems kinda dumb.
*The almost universal complaint seems to be that the rings are painted and that the paint bubbles and flakes off almost immediately. Most of the non-kit rings seem to be unpainted steel; you just let them rust, and they seem to be heavier gauge steel than the kits. That seems more sensible to me than painting. I’d guess even high temperature paint is going to fail eventually in a fire pit, and I’m not troubled by the appearance of rust, so long as the steel is thick enough that the rust doesn’t cause pinholes.
Has anyone tried building a fire pit <u>without</u> using a kit?
I’d like to build one, but reviews on kits for the big box stores seem to be pretty much universally dissatisfied with the steel liner ring.* I’ve found what seem to be better liners rings, but that would mean that I need to decide what stone to buy on my own.
Of course I could just buy a kit and throw away the ring, but that seems kinda dumb.
*The almost universal complaint seems to be that the rings are painted and that the paint bubbles and flakes off almost immediately. Most of the non-kit rings seem to be unpainted steel; you just let them rust, and they seem to be heavier gauge steel than the kits. That seems more sensible to me than painting. I’d guess even high temperature paint is going to fail eventually in a fire pit, and I’m not troubled by the appearance of rust, so long as the steel is thick enough that the rust doesn’t cause pinholes.
bostonewe
Short/Round
Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures
(Fortunately, the multiple visits from our HVAC/Plumbing guys did not cost us anything as it was covered under the maintenance for the newly installed AC/Heat).
So, it's funny you should ask. So after the relief valve was replaced (again). The guy thought there might be too much demand because the Nest needs a common wire to run all the time (for some set ups, including ours, so he installed a common wire)-- it would just cycle and cycle and cycle, but the AC wasn't always turning on. Since then, the water heater hasn't leaked, but the water coming out of the heater was SCALDINGLY hot. So they came back and placed a check valve (circulation valve, I can't remember, I'd been up 38 hours straight when they were at the house). The AC still wasn't working correctly. So I called Nest, who told me to disconnect the common wire. Still not working and definitely not holding a charge correctly. I reconnected the common, Googled a bunch of stuff, and emailed a local Nest Pro. Nest Pro tells me that we might need a common (which I had already reconnected and had written about int my email). She says ... *shrug* here are some other people who can come out a look at it. At this point, I have steam coming out of my ears (and off of me because it was hot as scorpion balls this past weekend), so I say f* it, I'll restore the factory settings on the Nest and see what happens. If that doesn't work, we'll hook up the old (less fancy programmable thermostat) and call it a day. Factory reset fixed the problem.
(Fortunately, the multiple visits from our HVAC/Plumbing guys did not cost us anything as it was covered under the maintenance for the newly installed AC/Heat).
hockeyplayer1015
Capt
Re: The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures
Came home from working away for past 4 weeks late tonight. Forgot to remotely lower my central AC temp. Wouldn't have mattered anyways, because the batteries to the thermostat went dead 10 days ago. Put new batteries in and the unit still didn't seem to come on. 3 sweaty hours later, with the temp coming down from 85 to 83, the lightbulb goes off in my head, to check and see if the condensation drip pan got full and triggered the safety shut off for the unit. You bet. Tired me is somewhat ashamed that I didn't check that sooner. Now (very) slowly cooling off me is thanking the Big Guy that I had a wet vac that I just so happened to purchase the day before I left.
Only got rid of the water under the unit, I'll worry about the apparently clogged drain once I wake up from much needed rest.
Came home from working away for past 4 weeks late tonight. Forgot to remotely lower my central AC temp. Wouldn't have mattered anyways, because the batteries to the thermostat went dead 10 days ago. Put new batteries in and the unit still didn't seem to come on. 3 sweaty hours later, with the temp coming down from 85 to 83, the lightbulb goes off in my head, to check and see if the condensation drip pan got full and triggered the safety shut off for the unit. You bet. Tired me is somewhat ashamed that I didn't check that sooner. Now (very) slowly cooling off me is thanking the Big Guy that I had a wet vac that I just so happened to purchase the day before I left.
Only got rid of the water under the unit, I'll worry about the apparently clogged drain once I wake up from much needed rest.
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