Advice Needed: Encounter with copper pipe thief
dad2sethc
16 years ago
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16 years agosweeby
16 years agoRelated Discussions
Another raccoon encounter...................
Comments (14)Hi Catherine: No bird feeders in my yard (except hummingbirds). I learned a long time ago that with bird feeders you end up with sunflowers, thistles, etc. growing wherever the birds drop them. By mouth or the other end. Only thing I can figure is I feed my cats dry food in the sunroom. Maybe it smelled it though the screen. Sandy: My first co-op job in high school was a typist at St. Stephens School. Being my first job my mom made me wear a white blouse, black skirt and nylons. Sister Mary Rita Mae the science teacher had a pet raccoon that she would let run around the room for exercise. While I was typing notes for her she let Bandit out of his cage. He ran across the room and bit me on my knee. It broke the skin and ruined my nylons. When I got home and told my mom she was more upset over my ruined nylons (they were expensive back then) than she was the bite. To this day I am terrified of raccoons and they seem to sense it. Before I leave for work I put all my work stuff on the side step, feed the fish, pull the car out, load it up and I'm on my way. One time last year after feeding the fish I reached down to close the garage door and saw something come running at me from around the side of the garage. It was a huge raccoon. I jumped into the car, slammed the door shut and pulled down the drive. The darn raccoon chased my car all the way down the drive. Whenever I tried to get out of the car it would try to get in. Of course my cell phone was in my purse on the side step. I was trapped in my car for about 1/2 hour till the raccoon got tired of this game and left. I was late for work and so shook up I almost blew chunks on drive to work. Now in the summertime I carry shake cans with me in the morning to throw at any raccoons that may be in the yard. I just seems like I am a magnet to sick raccoons. Maybe I have a certain aura about me. I like to bicycle down in the valley. Two weeks ago after descending the hill of the entrance to the park I was waiting to cross the road. Everyone on the all purpose trail had stopped what they were doing and were pointing behind me. I turned around only to see a raccoon charging me. I hopped on my bike and rode away. The next day after I finished my hour ride I decided to sit on a picnic table by the river and watch the Canada geese swim. I saw the grass move on the bank and thought it was a fisherman. Here comes a raccoon running straight at me. I had a towel around my neck and grabbed it and flicked it at the raccoon. All my other stuff was on the picnic table next to me (cell phone, water bottle, fanny pack). Didn't that darn raccoon stand up on it's hind legs and hiss at me. It grabbed the towel. It wouldn't back down. I slid all my stuff into the fanny pack, got on my bike and took off. It may have been the same raccoon. When I got to the parking lot there was an elderly couple. The gentleman told me something was wrong with that raccoon because they are noctural and shouldn't be out in broad daylight. Of course my family makes fun of me cuz the raccoons never bother me when anyone else is around. They think it's a "figment of my imagination." I guess it's the price I must pay for being a ponder and living down the street from the Metroparks. The pond is a big attraction for them. Jenny...See MoreHot Water Heat Pipe - not copper?
Comments (2)Couple of questions for you. There is nothing in your page about your qualifications. Are you a licenced tech ? If not,and you are working in a public building, a very serious liability issue if anything happends. Your kids kids will die of old age before the law suet is payed off. Compression fittings in hot water heating is an absolute NO - NO. As in emergency heat to keep things from freezing they might cut you some slack but you had better get a qualified tech in A.S.A.P. to make the repairs permament. Without seeing your pipe it could be stainless steel ( i dought it )aluminum, galvanize, or tin plated copper. If it won't take solder it could be steel.You need a special flux. Actually on second thought i'd dought it is aluminum. It would have melted before your silver solder would have. Good luck and hope to hell nothing happends before you get a permenant fix....See MoreWhat size of copper pipe to use?
Comments (30)This is a fascinating series of emails and I hope you guys are still around monitoring this since you obviously know your stuff. I am in the process of replacing old screw (gate) valves in my basement with ball valves since they are very much deteriorated, and I'm almost finished with that job. I was thinking about changing the pipe diameter of the hot water run from the hot water heater since it takes sooo long for the shower to get hot. But after reading these posts I think I may leave it all alone since it seems to work fairly well and I'm afraid I may "unbalance" the system if I change it. I would love some advice though. Originally all the copper pipe in my house was quite large. The water main from the well was 1.25 inch pipe which split to 1 inch pipe into hot and cold supplies, and fixtures coming off of those are either 3/4 inch or 1/2 inch. My well pressure ranges from 25 PSI to 45 PSI (regulated by a pressure tank and switch), but we never have water pressure problems in the house. There are a couple of places where the diameters have changed already, and these correspond to where plumbers over the years have done work. When a new pressure tank was installed the pipe where it was patched in changed to 1 inch (from 1.25 inch). Where the water softener was installed (and this is of course before the hot and cold split) the diameter was reduced to 3/4 inch... so that is a bottle neck that is preceded and followed by 1.25 inch pipe. And finally where the water heater was installed the diameter is 3/4 inch. The water heater outlet then patches into the old pipe which goes up to 1 inch diamter, and then my bathroom hot water feed branches off of that at 3/4 inch. I was thinking about changing that 1 inch pipe to 3/4 inch the whole way for the hot water. I'm not sure it will make a huge difference. It's a 14 foot run. Any thoughts you have would be greatly appreciated, THANKS....See MoreReplace ALL of our copper pipes????
Comments (17)"Baloney, I don't believe it. What is the source of the information for these claims?" A common example is that water heaters last an average of 1.5 to 2.5 years around here. We're on a water system that runs from 25 gpg to 35 gpg hardness. Replaced my WH in 1995 and still on the same one so that's 7 water heaters I haven't paid for at an average cost of $800 installed or around $5600. My softener cost me around $700 so I'm $4900 ahead... even considering that softener salt cost me about $60 a year... good enough cost offset for you? I haven't has to touch a faucet to fix a drip or open the toilet tank once since 1995. Appliance repair people I know tell me that hard water kills tankless water heaters and front load washers and dishwashers. Oh yea, our dishwasher was installed in 1995 also and it hasn't skipped a beat and the ice maker in my 1995 fridge works great while my neighbors who don't have a softener don't have ice cubes but they do buy bottles and bottles and bottles and bottles of bottled water. People tell me, and my wife agrees, that clothes last significantly longer when washed in soft water. I can tell you that clothes washed in soft water are markedly more comfortable to wear... far less stiff and scratchy. "Some also think it should be plumbed to hot only because the elevated salt level isn't healthy to drink, but opinions are divided on this..." They may think but they don't know what they don't know. No ion exchange softener that is operating properly adds ANY salt to the softened water. Got it, that's ANY salt added. What is added are sodium or potassium ions not salt. So, for you who think, how much sodium (not salt) is really added to soften water? The formula for added sodium is 7.85 mg/l (about a quart) of softened water per grain per gallon of compensated hardness. EXAMPLE 20 gpg * 7.85 = 157 mg of sodium added per liter of softened water, not salt. How does this sodium content of softened water compare to sodium found in common foods? The table demonstrates the usual range of sodium in common foods. Food Amount Mg of Sodium Ketchup 1 tablespoon 204 Milk 2 Cups 226 Frozen Peas 1/2 Cup 295 Bread 2 Slices 322 Corn Flakes 1 oz. 260 Parmesan Cheese 1 oz. 528 Tomato Juice 4 oz. 504 Tomato Soup 1 Cup 932 Chili 1 Cup 1194 Beef Broth 1 Cup 1152 Get a softener and stop eating tomato soup. Softening only the hot water will give you hard water at every appliance and fixture where hot and cold are mixed. You'll pay for soft water and not get it. Any water treatment pro who advocates softening only hot water is either stupid, a scam artist, or to install a softener correctly would be too difficult or too expensive for the homeowner and they don't want to lose a sale (see scam artist). That you don't like the feel of soft water is a valid criticism for some and data suggests that there is an acclamation curve of about 6 weeks and getting used to using far less soap and detergent....See Moremightyanvil
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