Lissa- I just had a Franke Little Butler installed three days ago and I can't tell you how much we love it. The reason I chose it was that I wanted both the hot and cold water to be filtered, and at the time I was looking, Franke was the only company that did this that I found. (I bought the unit last year, yes it has taken THAT LONG to get to where we were ready to install it). The Insta-hot brand filtered the cold but not the hot water. Anyway, the unit is not that big-- the heater is a rectangular cube about 11x7 inches. The filter (it is a Franke triflow filtration unit) is a cylinder about 11 inches high by 2 inches in diameter. However, I don't have a separate cooling unit for the cold water, since the temp coming out of the cold tap is good enuf for me. Also, my fridge has filtered cold water for those times when it matters to me. But the Little Butler filter, heater, and my garburetor fit very comfortably in the sink cab, which is 36" wide. As for cost, when I was looking these units were quite high, but I bought mine from an ebay storefront with 100% positive feedback for about half the price I was quoted in the snazzy plumbing showroom (can't remember numbers now, it's been so long). Hope this info is of use, good luck!

A few times I solved this problem this way. Cut out a piece of the copper around 6"-8' long where you want the tee. Put the tee in place and then before you replace the 6" or 8" piece cut it to the exact size you need...slip one end into the tee and on the other end you use a coupling...but the coupling has to be a "repair" coupling. That is a coupling without a stop in the middle. You slide the entire coupling on over the pipe, align the 2 pieces of pipe and then after marking the pipe, slide the coupling in place and solder everything together. I hope this explanation is clear.

I doubt very seriously if the failure of the humidifier supply tube is a result of heat. First of all, let us consider the temperature of your incoming cold water supply. The mean average of the earths crust is 55degF (geothermal temperature of the crust). Soil is a rather poor insulator so the surface soil then cools proportional to the ambient air temperature. While the crust is 55degF the actual surface of the soil will freeze for a short depth which we define as the "frost depth". While the frost depth is the deepest point at which freezing commonly occurs it must be understood that from that depth the temperatures increase gradually from freezing temp(32degF) to the natural geothermal temp(55degF). Typically geothermal temp occurs at approximately twice the frost depth. In order to protect our water lines from freezing the codes require that we bury the line 6" below the frost line thus when the dirt is frozen to the frost depth the average temperate at the water line may be only slightly above freezing (34degF+). Fresh water reaches a maximum density of 231cu.in per gallon at 39degF. There is a very coplex formula to determine the rate of linear expansion but for the sake of illustration let us use the maximum here. When water is expanded from its maximum density of 39degF to the boiling point it expands by approximately 40:1 thus we could say the physical volume of a 40gal. water heater expands by one gallon. To put this in perspective consider that a 1/2" pipe has a volume of one gallon for each 98 linear feet. We must now keep in mind that water is not compressible therefore as the volume expands it must go somewhere. Normally the increase in volume is compensated by physically pushing some of the water back to the municipal main or to your well pump pressure tank however if we install a check valve in the line there is no place for the additional volume to go. In this case the excess volume would by necessity be relieved by discharging through the water heater Temperature & Pressure Relief Valve (T&P valve) BUT let us consider another potential problem here. Imagine for the moment that your T&P discharge line discharges out through the wall of your house. The discharge end of the line is then exposed to atmospheric temperature and in a worst case scenario the outside end of that line could freeze shut. At this point there would be no place for the additional volume to be released and it could result in blowing out fittings or valves or rupturing a pipe or the water heater vessel. Now keep in mind that the T&P valve is a spring loaded valve that is set to release when the pressure reaches 150psi and most likely the plastic line to your humidifier is failing slightly before the internal pressure is sufficient to release the T&P valve. On the other hand, if you did not have that plastic line there is a very strong likelyhood that the increased volume could be relieved by blowing out a compression fitting at a fixture angle stop, a pipe joint might fail or premature failure of Bibb Washers in your faucetts. The proper solution is to install an expansion tank on the water heater side of the check valve to absorb the increased volume. Installing an expansion tank is quite simple. You simply install a Tee on the cold water line with a male thread adapter on the Tee stub out, then screw the expansion tank onto the thread adapter.

Below is the info. that Floweraremusic (zone 5) in Washington gave on her 2020 winter-survival. She has alkaline clay with rocks at bottom like mine & less snow in winter: "My hardiest roses are the Canadians. John Davis, John Cabot, Wm. Baffin, Morden Sunrise, Morden Blush and Morden Centennial, Victorian Memory aka Isabelle Skinner, also a Canadian rose. All these only have tiny bit of tip damage and bloom a lot with no special care. Also, my Hybrid Perpetuals only have tip damage after winter. Magna Charta, Mrs. John Laing, Black Prince and Marchesa Buccella. The only negative is they don’t have long enough cutting stems. All my Austins are very hardy. The one I just can not grow is Jude. Leonardo da Vinci is super hardy and always healthy. Quietness comes through winter very well. Even Rouge Royale survives beautifully. Cinderella Fairy Tale is very hardy. Gruss an Aachen also. Ballerina and Marjorie Fair are both hardy. Poseidon, Princess Charlene de Monaco and Crazy Love didn’t do as well as I’d hoped. The surprise losses this year are Quicksilver, and Dames de Chenonceau who is left with only 1 cane. Versigny is also reduced down to almost nothing. This was a mild winter with very little snow. " Floweraremusic (zone 5). From StrawChicago (zone 5a with hard black-gumbo alkaline clay & less snow but with freezing rain in winter). Versigny didn't survive winter either. So I lost Versigny TWICE. Besides Versigny, other wimpy own-root roses that don't survive winter well: Paul Neyron, Anna's Promise, Pink Peace (own-root died 1st winter, but grafted-Pink Peace survives many winter), Elantyne, Jude the Obscure, Young Lycidas (bought as grafted-on-Dr.Huey, now with only one cane), Mary Daly, and many floribundas don't survive my zone 5a: Pink Chiffon, Sheila's perfume, King Arthur, Deep Purple, Shocking blue, Honey Bouquet (survived 1 winter). Polka Climber (survived 1 winter), Cloutilde Soupert (died twice on me). Sutter's Gold didn't survive winter, same with many fragrant mini-roses from Burlington nursery. Below are my hardy OWN-ROOT roses in my zone 5a alkaline clay, only Double Delight, Young Lycidas and Lavender Crush are grafted-on-Dr.Huey. Bold-faced are the very vigorous ones: Own-roots with 3 feet of green canes: Carding Mill (since 2012), Princess Charlene of Monaco, Duchess de Rohan, Crown Princess Magareta (since 2012), Zepherine Drouhin, Lady of Shalott, James Galway, Lavender Crush, Queen of Sweden (gave away but very hardy), Poseidon (right below the rain-spout, dug down to 2.5 feet), Scepter'd Isle (very big & hardy own-root but gave that away with its lousy scent). Own-roots with 2 feet of green canes: La Reine (many winters), Blue Mist (since 2012), Prairie Harvest (since 2014), Mary Magdalene (since 2011), Evelyn (since 2012), Radio Times (since 2011), Pat Austin (since 2011), Christopher Marlowe (since 2011), Golden Celebration (since 2011), Lilian Austin (gave away but very hardy), the Squire, the Dark Lady, Wise Portia survived 4 winters but died in poor drainage clay, Dee-lish (since 2015), Twilight Zone (since 2016), William Shakespeare. 2000 (since 2011), Comte de Chambord (since 2012), Princess Anne, Sweet Mademoiselles, Aloha climber, Orchid Romance, Bohemian Rhapsody, Marie Pavie, Lagerfeld (since 2017), Frederic Mistral survived 2 winters but died when I didn't winter-protect with leaves, Sonia Rykiel (survived 3 winters) but died in freezing rain winter, same with 1/4 of the street-trees in my neighborhood, Excellenz von Shubert (since 2013), Own-roots with less than 1 foot of green canes: Gina's rose, Tchaikosky (since 2015), Cornelia (since 2018), Bolero (few winters), Peter Mayle, Sharifa Asma, Neil Diamond, Amber Queen, A Shopshire Lad, Strike it Rich, Old Port (since 2012), Veteran's Honor (many winters), Double Delight (grafted on Dr.Huey), Savannah, Tess of d'Uberville, Gene Boerner (since 2014), thornless Yves Seedling (since 2013), Stephen big Purple (since 2012), Louise Este, Mirandy, Crimson Glory, Liv Tyler survived 1 winter but needs winter-protection, Rouge Royal (bought last year with no winter-protection). Annie L. McDowell (survived 2 winters but needs a wet-spot since it's almost thornless), Nahema (survived 1 winter then died during freezing-rain winter), same with Eyes-for-you (drought-tolerant and doesn't like freezing wet winter), Souvenir du President Lincoln, Madame Issac Pererie and Madame Earnest Calvat, Firefighter (survived 2 winters) but died since it's next to tree. Bayes Blueberry (survived many winters but I gave away), Charles Darwin (gave away since it fades badly), Arthur Bell (since 2012 & killed it since I don't like the flowers). StrawChicago.