Back in September, I was doing a fair amount of plumbing. I installed a water filter, new hot water heater and an acid neutralizer. I never mentioned it, mostly because I couldn’t bear to think about it, but the stupid neutralizer never did work right and I finally just bypassed it in the water line. The problem seemed to be that I couldn’t get the fittings right, so they leaked and filled the neutralizer completely up with water. The instantaneous pressure in the line caused by turning off faucets in the house would then create a huge amount of pressure in the neutralizer and the top would pop off.
Today, I went out and bought a pressure tank to absorb that excess instantaneous pressure. But I couldn’t find my old standby for getting it installed: QEST fittings. Instead, I finally bought the PEX fittings: barbs, rings and the $100 crimping tool. That let me get the 1″ MPT to 3/4″ PEX fitting for the neutralizer instead of the crazy set up I mentioned here.
I’ve got everything connected and so far, so good. There’s even a 3″ head of air in the neutralizer that should limit the effects of any instantaneous pressure that the pressurizer doesn’t take care of. The really nice thing was how easy the crimping tool is to use. The parts are also cheaper and given the amount of plumbing I seem to do, that’s a big help.
When reading this post, I suddenly understood how Peppermint Patty feels when sitting in the classroom. Waaaaanh -wa-waaaanh waaaaaanh.
Comment by etselec — December 29, 2006 @ 5:49 pm
i’ll bet you didn’t know they made plumbing geeks. same geek – different medium
Comment by cec — December 30, 2006 @ 10:13 pm