Since winter is approaching right around the corner many home owners should be aware of any plumbing water pipes that are not insulated and are near any outside walls. This is very significant to mobile homes and older houses to pay attention to. Making sure that your plumbing pipes are insulated can avoid high costs for the local plumber to come out and unthaw them, especially if the pipes become frozen on the weekend and it's charged double time to your bill from the local plumber.
First thing to do is locate any exposed water pipes underneath a mobile home or any older home that doesn't have a basement but a crawl space where your plumbing system runs below the house. If there is no exposed plumbing under a mobile home or in a crawl space than the next part of your system to check over which some homeowners overlook is the water supply lines that run up underneath a kitchen or bathroom sink cabinet that's located on an outside wall are prone to freeze just as easy as exposed water pipes.
Once you've located any such plumbing pipes make sure to insulate these as well as you can, the thicker the better. On very cold winter days a good idea is to open the kitchen or bathroom cabinet doors with plumbing pipes that are on an outside wall, this will allow the heat from your house circulate inside the cabinet and reduces the risk of freezing, even if they're insulated this is a good idea, it doesn't waste time to do and is very inexpensive if the result is freezing and calling your local plumber for an emergency call. Another tip for any water piping that's under a mobile home or crawl space underneath a home is to insulate the inside of the panels of a mobile home on top of insulating the water pipes themselves and for the crawl space if there's a storm door to the crawl space put a couple of barrel's of hay just underneath inside the door same goes with the mobile home, if you also put barrels or blocks of hay all the way around your mobile home on top of the insulation on the water pipes and inside of the panels and storm door the hay will act as a good barrier of insulation for this situation.
In case of an occurrence of a freeze in your water pipes, don't panic whatever you do, it's not the end of the world. If you don't feel like paying a fortune to the local plumber here are some steps to do to unfreeze your water pipes. If you turn on a faucet and only a trickle comes out, suspect a frozen pipe. Locate the suspected frozen area of the water pipe.
• Keep the faucet open. As you treat the frozen pipe and the frozen area begins to melt, water
will begin to flow through the frozen area. Running water through the pipe will help melt
more ice in the pipe.
• Apply heat to the section of pipe using an electric heating pad wrapped around the pipe, and
electric hair dryer, a portable space heater (kept away from flammable materials), or
wrapping pipes with towels soaked in hot water. Do not use a blowtorch, kerosene or
propane heater, charcoal stove, or other open flame device. A blowtorch can make water in
a frozen pipe boil and cause the pipe to explode. All open flames in homes present a
serious fire danger, as well as a severe risk of exposure to lethal carbon monoxide.
• Apply heat until full water pressure is restored. If you are unable to locate the frozen area, if
the frozen area is not accessible, or if you can not thaw the pipe, call your local plumber.
• Check all other faucets in your home to find out if you have additional frozen pipes. If one
pipe freezes, others may freeze, too.
Another good idea to keep your pipes warm during the winter is to buy some heat tape at your local hardware store and wrap that around the pipes with insulation wrapped around that also, but you'll need an outlet nearby the end of the pipe to plug the heat tape into in order to keep it warm and to do it's job correctly. Read the directions on the box to install properly or call your local plumber to do it if you think your not able to.
So, keep warm this winter and your plumbing also, that's one less thing to worry about this winter if your water pipes are insulated correctly.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
How To Install Your Toilet Correctly
Do you have to install you're new toilet that you bought and the job's to small to call a plumber but may seem to complicated for you to do-it-yourself? Don't make this little project harder than what it really is, I'll lay the steps out below that you should follow, work smarter not harder.
Thank You and Good Luck
- Locate the shut-off valve, either coming out of the floor or out of the wall behind the toilet. Once you've located the shut-off valve turn the valve clockwise until it stops, that will shut-off the water supplying the toilet. Note: If you can't turn the valve clockwise or it's very hard to do so than you'll want to consider replacing it. Also if the valve looks rusty or corroded you may want to replace it. In order for you to replace the shut-off valve you'll need to locate where your main water supply comes into the house and shut-off that valve before doing anything. Your main water supply coming into the house is usually located in the basement near your water softener or pressure tank. It's also good to drain the cold side water from any water supply line ex. laundry tub, by opening the cold side water after you shut-off the main water supply, it allows the water upstairs in the water supply line to your toilet to not come out of the pipe while replacing the shut-off valve for your toilet.
- Next, unscrew the toilet supply line that's connected to the bottom of the toilet tank from the tank. Note: The nut for the toilet supply line should only be hand tight so you will not need to use a channel locks to unscrew it, if necessary. Also, check to see if the rubber washer is still intact inside the toilet supply line nut after it is unscrewed, if it looks corroded it might not make a tight enough seal when connecting to your new toilet, replace the whole toilet supply line if needed.
- Flush the toilet next while holding the lever down all the way till as much water can get out as possible. Use a toilet brush or something similar to push as much water out as possible down through the hole of the toilet so no water will come out when taking the toilet off out of the bottom of the toilet.
- Take a putty knife or flat head screwdriver to pop of the toilet bolt caps that cover the bolts.
- Unscrew the toilet bolts with a crescent wrench or channel locks.
- Now you'll be able to pull the toilet up and out of the way of the closet collar and wax ring, but remember to try and keep the toilet level while doing this otherwise you'll get all the water that is in the toilet trap all over the floor. Set the old toilet aside or take it to somewhere to dispose of it.
- Now that the toilet is off and out of the way take a putty knife to scrape off the old wax ring from the closet collar and take out the old toilet bolts that are on the sides of the closet collar. Note: Whenever installing or reseting an existing or new toilet you'll always need to put new toilet bolts in and a new wax ring, preferably a jumbo wax ring because you can never have to much wax to seal off the sanitary water that flows through and own your toilet from seeping out onto the floor.
- With the new wax ring place it on the closet collar, not on the toilet like it may suggest on the back of the wax ring box, trust us it's 10x easier this way. Note: If the closet collar looks old and corroded, they have repairable closet collar parts at your local hardware store to fix the problem, because if its old the toilet won' hold.
- Place the two toilet bolts under the sides of the closet collar so they're sticking straight up.
- Assuming that the toilet is prepped and ready to install, lift the toilet onto the wax ring and lined up with the two toilet bolts. After it's rested on the wax ring, sit down on the toilet facing the toilet tank, so that your sitting on the toilet backwards to apply pressure on the wax ring until it touches the floor.
- Retrace your steps backwards by connected the toilet supply line onto the bottom of the tank and only hand tighten the toilet supply line nut to the tank. If you tighten the nut with a channel locks it may tighten to much and crack the supply line nut or will start turning the ballcock inside the tank. It only needs to be hand tight because if the washer inside the supply line nut is good than that will be enough to hold the water.
- Finally, turn on the water supply valve counter clockwise till it stops and the tank should start filling, than your all set. Note: If the shut-off valve starts to leak after it's turned on, tighten the packing nut just a little with a crescent wrench, the packing nut is right behind the handle for the shut-off vale. If you had to shut-off the main water supply to your house to replace the valve, make sure the toilet sut-off valve is off and all water lines are closed or off before turning the main water supply back on, than turn on the toilet supply valve.
Thank You and Good Luck
About Your Traditional Tank Water Heater
Even though we somewhat promote or give more useful facts about tankless water heaters for your home most homeowners still have the traditional tank water heaters, so we'd like to provide some tips about your traditional tank water heater.
Does your hot water seem to die out faster than it used to, or just doesn't seem as hot as it should be? Depending on what type of water heater you have, gas, LP-propane, or electric, is the difference between what the solution is for your water to generate more heat. If you have an electric water heater it's most likely the heating elements that are burnt out or corroding from bad water with or without a water softener. These heating elements are located inside those rectangular shaped boxes screwed onto the front of your heater, they are what heats the water.
Note: Whenever working on an electric water heater if replacing a part or testing an element you'll always need to turn off the electric to the water heater located in your circuit breaker box. If this is not done before turning off the water supply to the heater and/or draining it, it may result in shock or you'll simply burn the heating elements out, even if they're good yet.
If the case is your heating elements are burnt out or corroded you'll need to replace them. To do so, replace them, the instruction booklet that's usually taped to the side of the tank will show how to replace these elements and test them to make sure that that's the problem. If your case is that the hot water is not hot enough for you, the thermostats may need to be turned up slightly. You'll need a flat head screwdriver to do that and those are located in the same spot as the heating elements.
There are the two thermostats that control your heating temperature, an upper thermostat and a lower thermostat. Try turning these up about ten degrees to see if there is a change in the hot water temperature after about 45 minutes though, it does need time to heat up. If that doesn't resolve the problem than you'll want to replace those as well. You don't want to turn them to high, but if you have to and it works than thats fine just note that the higher it needs to be turned up the more energy is consumed and the harder the heating elements have to work which may cause your heater to go out and maybe leak somewhere because of it's needed workload capacity.
If you have a gas or LP-propane water heater than we have to look at the burner or thermocouple located at the bottom of the heater inside of it. Your burner may have rust particles or any dust and cat's or dog hair that aren't letting it perform to what it's supposed to. To check that, first turn off the gas supply and the thermostat knob back to vacation/pilot, all the way counter clockwise and take a flashlight to look inside to see what the problem is. The other problem may be your thermocouple, that which lights and keeps lit the pilot light. Read any instruction booklet attached to the water heater for other probable causes and technical support.
Does your hot water seem to die out faster than it used to, or just doesn't seem as hot as it should be? Depending on what type of water heater you have, gas, LP-propane, or electric, is the difference between what the solution is for your water to generate more heat. If you have an electric water heater it's most likely the heating elements that are burnt out or corroding from bad water with or without a water softener. These heating elements are located inside those rectangular shaped boxes screwed onto the front of your heater, they are what heats the water.
Note: Whenever working on an electric water heater if replacing a part or testing an element you'll always need to turn off the electric to the water heater located in your circuit breaker box. If this is not done before turning off the water supply to the heater and/or draining it, it may result in shock or you'll simply burn the heating elements out, even if they're good yet.
If the case is your heating elements are burnt out or corroded you'll need to replace them. To do so, replace them, the instruction booklet that's usually taped to the side of the tank will show how to replace these elements and test them to make sure that that's the problem. If your case is that the hot water is not hot enough for you, the thermostats may need to be turned up slightly. You'll need a flat head screwdriver to do that and those are located in the same spot as the heating elements.
There are the two thermostats that control your heating temperature, an upper thermostat and a lower thermostat. Try turning these up about ten degrees to see if there is a change in the hot water temperature after about 45 minutes though, it does need time to heat up. If that doesn't resolve the problem than you'll want to replace those as well. You don't want to turn them to high, but if you have to and it works than thats fine just note that the higher it needs to be turned up the more energy is consumed and the harder the heating elements have to work which may cause your heater to go out and maybe leak somewhere because of it's needed workload capacity.
If you have a gas or LP-propane water heater than we have to look at the burner or thermocouple located at the bottom of the heater inside of it. Your burner may have rust particles or any dust and cat's or dog hair that aren't letting it perform to what it's supposed to. To check that, first turn off the gas supply and the thermostat knob back to vacation/pilot, all the way counter clockwise and take a flashlight to look inside to see what the problem is. The other problem may be your thermocouple, that which lights and keeps lit the pilot light. Read any instruction booklet attached to the water heater for other probable causes and technical support.
More Tips:
- Although most water heaters last 10 - 15 years, it's best to start shopping for a new one if yours is more than 7 years old. Doing some research before your heater fails will enable you to select one that most appropriately meets your needs.
- Drain a quart or more of water from your water tank (until the water runs clear) every month or two to remove sediment that impedes heat transfer and lowers the efficiency of your heater. The type of water tank you have determines the steps to take before, so follow the manufacturer's advice.
- Take more showers than baths. Bathing uses the most hot water in the average household. You use 15 - 25 gallons of hot water for a bath, but less than 10 gallons during a 5 minute shower.
- Insulate your older gas or LP-propane traditional tank hot water heater and pipes, but be careful not to cover the water heater's floor, top, thermostat, or burner compartment; when in doubt, get professional help.
- Insulate your older traditional tank electric hot water heater and pipes, but be careful not to cover the thermostat.
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