Water... hot water...
Aug. 30th, 2004 10:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsSunday, we got the water heater and, so we thought, all of the equipment needed to make it go. We shut down the power, cut the old relief tube off of the old heater, disconnected the cold water feed and the hot water out-line, and prepared to move it out. Omaha decided that the floor under the tank was "too gross" to leave as-is and, we discovered, we needed more stuff, so it was a trip to the hardware store for us.
We picked up everything, then started to run into a series of annoying snags. First, the relief tube was cut close to the wall, but we needed to solder a new adapter to it. We couldn't work the old adapter off, so we had to cut it even closer to the wall. I was terrified that we were going to set the house on fire soldering the new one on, but Omaha convinced me to try and get it on, and that worked pretty well.
We also tore up the linoleum and put a new vinyl flooring in its place, which was a pain in the neck, which chisel, scraper, and mallet. My arms hurt after all that. But after getting everything assembled, we finally had to put the water heater into position.
And dammit, we had the wrong connectors still. I had to run back to the hardware store, where the incompetent buffoon I'd talked with that afternoon had been replaced by a competent salesperson who gave me exactly what I wanted. Note: the white silicon anti-leak tape you can buy for $0.57 is okay, but the tape used for sealing threaded gas lines that you get for $1.97 is much better and will save you much time avoiding re-taping leaky lines.
After everything, including the new "thermal expansion tank", was hooked up... we discovered that the tank itself leaks. Omaha and I were quite gentle with it, so it wasn't anything we did. The intake and relief lines leak. They weren't taped correctly at the factory, dammit.
I really wanted my hot water. Omaha and TygerEclipse made fun of me because, rather than take a cold shower, I heated up a pot full of water to something comfortable and bathed with it, only to have to submit to the chilling shower when I didn't have enough for a proper rinse. They laughed cruelly at my squeal of indignation, but what would you do if your testicles tried to crawl back up into your body to stay warm?
I read some of Wind in the Willows to Kouryou-chan and then headed off to bed myself.
We picked up everything, then started to run into a series of annoying snags. First, the relief tube was cut close to the wall, but we needed to solder a new adapter to it. We couldn't work the old adapter off, so we had to cut it even closer to the wall. I was terrified that we were going to set the house on fire soldering the new one on, but Omaha convinced me to try and get it on, and that worked pretty well.
We also tore up the linoleum and put a new vinyl flooring in its place, which was a pain in the neck, which chisel, scraper, and mallet. My arms hurt after all that. But after getting everything assembled, we finally had to put the water heater into position.
And dammit, we had the wrong connectors still. I had to run back to the hardware store, where the incompetent buffoon I'd talked with that afternoon had been replaced by a competent salesperson who gave me exactly what I wanted. Note: the white silicon anti-leak tape you can buy for $0.57 is okay, but the tape used for sealing threaded gas lines that you get for $1.97 is much better and will save you much time avoiding re-taping leaky lines.
After everything, including the new "thermal expansion tank", was hooked up... we discovered that the tank itself leaks. Omaha and I were quite gentle with it, so it wasn't anything we did. The intake and relief lines leak. They weren't taped correctly at the factory, dammit.
I really wanted my hot water. Omaha and TygerEclipse made fun of me because, rather than take a cold shower, I heated up a pot full of water to something comfortable and bathed with it, only to have to submit to the chilling shower when I didn't have enough for a proper rinse. They laughed cruelly at my squeal of indignation, but what would you do if your testicles tried to crawl back up into your body to stay warm?
I read some of Wind in the Willows to Kouryou-chan and then headed off to bed myself.
