Bradley I realy believe that the reason we experience spear pull is from the tree staying too wet.. An example would be my 2 fortuneis I had one in good draining soil and the other in soil that did not drain so good. We had several nights of 10* and below weather last winter. What happened was my tree in good draining ground went through it with flying colors the other one experienced severe spear pull but like i said i think it was because the ground stayed too wet neither plant had any protection. Just something for you too think about .

Be VERY suspicious of what Sears claims. No one in that company has any idea what their products really do. It's an even more frustrating problem trying to find someone who can answer anything but the most simple, "script" taught answers. It's like speaking to a human robocall. My case was with the HE5t-Stream. I thought it heated in "normal" cycle because the users manual said, "The heating system ensures that the wash water is heated to the preset temperature for Normal/Casual, Bulky/Bedding, KidsWear, Heavy Duty, Whitest Whites and the STEAM TREATÂ option." I thought this was great - a vendor is finally using the heater in "normal". After buying the machine, testing it, and using some simple equipment to determine when the machine was really using it's heater, there was absolutely no question that the claim was 100% false. The only option where the heater kicked on in "normal" was when using the "steam sanitize" option. Sears took the machine back without a restocking fee, but still denied their language in the manual was false.

I didn't want to bog down my post with too much information, but to clarify, I added a 40 Imp. gal Giant brand (made in Quebec) electric water heater in series to the 75 US gal Marathon water heater I spec'd for our house, completed last year. The 105 gal Marathon I initially calculated would be enough for us is not available in Canada. The 75 US gal Marathon is mostly adequate, but the Mrs. wanted a greater reserve capacity, so I am experimenting with this set up. We have 43F incoming water temps in winter. In a few years I want to finish the mechanical room, and then I will buy a second Marathon tank. We have very hard water, 36 (thirty six) grains, with a 70,000 grain softener. I want Marathon tanks due to their polybutylene/fibreglass construction, so no need for a rapidly consumed anode rod, nothing to rust. I know this steel tank won't last long with my heavily softened water, so I just bought a standard tank to see if this combo makes the Mrs. happy. So yes, I placed 3/4 PEX onto a PEX/FIP adapter directly onto the hot water nipple of the Marathon tank. The 18 inch copper stub you speak of is needed for gas water heaters, because of the hot flue right next to the pipes. My Marathon set up from the plumber had 2 BrassCraft flexible copper lines from the nipples to 3/4 PEX that runs throughout the house. We have a recirc line, 3/4 PEX not 1/2 for some reason piped to a Grundfos recirc pump that is plumbed into the drain port of the Marathon tank as per Marathon's recommendations. I removed one flexible copper line to connect the hot Marathon port to the cold Giant port. I thought of installing copper stubs with unions on the Marathon tank, but I had left over PEX so I used that instead. So my number 3 question is can I reuse the flexible copper water heater connector if I choose, or is the crushed copper ring next to the rubber washer a one time only item? If so, are these copper rings available separately? Thanks.

If you are soldering existing sections of pipe, you should put a wad of bread (the centre of a slice of white bread is ideal) inside the existing pipe, to prevent water trickling back down and cooling the joint, preventing you from getting a good join. Then when you're finished, make sure you open a tap at the end of the line, take the strainer/aerator off, and let the bread gunk flush out. If you're working on a hot line, try to avoid having the bread get into the tank if you can. Even with the main tap turned off, you can rarely prevent remaining water in the line from trickling back to the joint, this was a lesson I didn't learn til the end of a whole day where I was struggling to make a last joint.