Friday, June 28, 2013

Hot water part II

Things very seldom go as planned, at least for me.
I replaced the lower thermostat on the hot water tank, waited until the water got hot, took a shower and went to work three hours late.
I forgot me cell phones.
Mrs A was desperately trying to get in touch with me. The upper thermostat had gone haywire. Mind you I did not even touch the upper thermostat. But when I got home there was evidence of a fire, and the plastic shield that covered the thermostat was mostly missing, with drips of plastic and flame and scorch marks going up the side of the tank.
I think it was a message.
So I quickly went down to the Hardware store and bought a similar sizee and design hot water tank. Then I needed all the adapters elbows and pipe to replace the stuff that hooked up the old tank.
The hook-ups for the tank are 3/4". The house line is 1/2". So I had to go back and buy adapters to go from one pipe to the other. And adapters to go from brass pipe to plastic pipe.
When I first started filling up the tank, I forgot to leave a faucet cracked, but it is a good way to test the system for leaks. I heard hissing and was checking the pipes to see where the leak was when
BOOM! Loud hissing.
I hadn't done a very good job of putting pipe goop on one joint and it had blown apart.
Mrs A thought I had been killed or something, ran to the top of the stairs yelling "AL, are you OK???" I was
busy turning off the water, then answered. Scared the heck out of her.
Regooped everything and put it back together.
Ran water, and did not have a good seal on the adapter that goes from brass to plastic pipe. Leaking pretty steadily. Only one way to fix it, and that was to cut the pipe so I could unscrew the fitting and goop it and put it back on. Of course it was too late to go down to the hardware store and get an adapter to glue the two halves of the pipe together, so no shower.
Fill the bathtub part way. Get your largest kettle. fill with water, heat to a boil, add to bathtub.
Mama was not happy.
Hell, I wasn't happy.
Gotta stop on the way home and buy an adapter. Might buy a couple just in case.

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