Daily Archives: August 27, 2021
Well, I Had Hoped For An Easy Weekend . . .
A number of our readers wanted to know where I get the Quercetin and Zinc tablets we take daily to ward off the Flu Manchu (my new favorite name)
And both of them are available on Amazon.
The Zinc tablets are really tasty, with a blueberry flavor, and they just melt in your mouth.
And as I said yesterday, since we heard about Debi and Ed Hurlburt’s ongoing bout with CoVid, we’ve doubled up both Quercetin and Zinc for the next week or so.
Well, I had hoped to have a easy weekend, but Jan called me about 2:30 and said she could hear water running from under the dresser area in the bathroom and the carpet was getting damp in the bedroom right next to the bathroom. So I was on my way home right then.
Based on where Jan said she was hearing the water from, I was pretty sure I knew where the leak was – our water heater, which is located under the built-in 4 drawer dresser.
Getting home, I turned off the shore water, and then removed the bottom two dresser drawers and bottom panel, and, while I watched with a flashlight, Jan turned on the pump.
And a stream of water squirted out of the side of the water heater covering. So I cut away the cardboard enclosure, pulled aside the fiber insulation, and had Jan turn on the pump again. And this time I could see where the water stream was coming from.
Directly out of a hole in the side of the tank itself, just from where the arrow is pointing.
It looks like there’s been some sort of corrosion going on in the whole area, but the only leak is by the arrow.
While I was thinking over the problem I went online to check out new water heaters. What I have in the rig is an Atwood GC10A-3E, which is no longer made. But it has a replacement, a GC10A-4E, but no one in Houston seems to have one in stock.
And the places that do have it available, show about a week or so delivery time, so I started thinking about a temporary (week-long) repair. So I dug out a tube of J-B Weld Steel Reinforced Epoxy Putty to give it a try.
After turning off the electric power to the unit, I drained all the water out and let everything dry.
Then I use sandpaper to rough up the entire area, and then used alcohol to clean any grease off and let it dry again.
Next I cut off a chunk of the putty and kneaded it into a even dark gray color and carefully pressed it into place, making sure to cover the entire corroded looking area just in case.
This stuff sets up in 5 minutes and cures hard enough to drill in an hour, so you can’t dawdle.
It will stand up to 900 PSI and 350° temps so a water heater shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve even repaired leaking car radiators with this stuff in the past.
Even though it should be ready tonight I decide to wait until tomorrow to check it out. I’ll let you know.
I went ahead and ordered our Wings Over Houston AirShow tickets yesterday. And though in the past we had always just got the General Admission tickets, the ones where we have to lug in our own chairs, etc., this time we got seats in the Prime Viewing Area, right in the center of the seating area, and that includes Prime Parking near the seating area.
And since we have assigned seating, we had to pick a firm date, so we’ll be going on Saturday, October 9th.
Now just hoping for good weather.
Thought For The Day:
You know you’re old when you read People magazine and you’ve never heard of any of those people.
