That’s Twice Now . . .

March 30, 2022 Uncategorized

That’s Twice Now . . .

You’d think I’d learn.

i worked on a number of projects yesterday, but wasn’t able to finish any of them.

First up was to replace my leaking water tank fill valve with a new one. I couldn’t find an exact replacement, since it’s now only sold in Europe.

But I did find this one on Amazon.

It was a little shorter than the original one, but i thought I had enough slack in the tubing to make up the difference.

I was wrong.

My first task was to remove the water line connecting to the left side of the old valve. Although it took a little work, I finally got the 23 year old joint loose and pulled it apart. At this point, water started running out of the open line, draining from our 100 gallon fresh water tank. Prepared for this, I immediately screwed the new valve onto the line to stop the flow. Leaving me with this.

Then I removed the line going to the other end of the valve, a little more difficult since it was hanging free. But it finally came loose.

So now I switched the old and new valves, using the old one to keep water from running out of the fresh water tank. Next I screwed the new valve onto the open line and tightened it down. But when I removed the old valve and tried to hook the line up to new valve, it wouldn’t quite reach.

Bummer!

So I put the old valve back in place and tightened it all down, done for the day. I was going to have to find a short extender piece to make it work.

Moving on, I wanted to change out my rusted 2 hose splitter with my new solid brass 4 spout one like this.

Using my water pump pliers (nee Channellocks), I started loosening the connector. At least I thought I was loosening it. But then I realized that the outer yellow plastic ring was all that was turning, not the actual inner metal connector. It was not turning at all.

And then, suddenly, I had a bad feeling about this. It was déjà vu all over again.

I had been here before.

And the last time I actually to cut both the plastic ring and the metal connector off, using my oscillating multi-tool. This, because I couldn’t really force the connection since it was all mounted on a PVC pipe, which I did not want to break off.

And I also remember that to forestall this happening again, I used both Teflon tape and plumber’s grease on the connection.

Which apparently didn’t work very well.

So now I’ve got to dig out my multi-tool and cut this one off too.

Done for the morning, we headed up to Webster to have lunch at Snooze for brunch.

Jan had her usual Bravocado Toast,

while I got the Goldilock’s Porridge, a mix of steel cut oats, quinoa and millet simmered in almond milk and topped with strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, bananas, toasted almonds and hemp seeds.