Interesting. I've seen a lot of black iron pipe for natural gas but all the piping for my LP system is copper/brass/bronze (except for the stub going into the generator). All this tubing is in a protected area (buried or in the crawlspace).
> -----Original Message----- > From: Mercedes [mailto:mercedes-boun...@okiebenz.com] On Behalf Of > Kaleb Striplin via Mercedes > Sent: Monday, December 30, 2019 12:16 PM > To: Mercedes Discussion List <mercedes@okiebenz.com> > Cc: Kaleb Striplin <ka...@striplin.net> > Subject: Re: [MBZ] OT - Fun with Water Heaters > > That reminds of something. So my father is living in mi grandparents house. > This is about a 100 year old house and they bought it in 71 or 72. My > grandfather died in 91 and grandmother died in 03. Not too long before she > died she hired a plumbing company to completely replace all of the gas lines > under the house and paid probably $3k or so. A couple of weeks ago I was > over there and immediately smelled natural gas. Of course my father did not. > Nevertheless he had a plumber come check it out. Plumber says he has never > seen gas lines so rusty and they are definitely original to the house. No way > they were replaced in the early 00’s. They are supposed to replace them all > this week. > > Sent from my iPhone > > > On Dec 30, 2019, at 10:47 AM, Dan Penoff via Mercedes > <mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: > > > > Since most of the household is back to work today, I figured it would be a > good time to do some maintenance on the hot water heater. > > > > A bit of a build-up: > > > > This (new) house was owned by a widow for probably 8 years after her > husband (allegedly) offed himself. That’s a pretty bizarre story for another > day. > Anyway, as you might suspect, she was prone to get sucked in by contractors > as well as not maintain things as one should. One of her early “misses” was > installing a solar water heater system. She did this when we still lived > across > the street, so it was about 10 years ago at least. She pissed everyone in the > neighborhood off, as she gave the contractor everyone’s contact information > so they could come around and pitch their crap. That did not go over well. > > > > When she had the roof replaced a year ago she had the roofer remove the > solar panel, yet they left the stub-ups for the water lines. WTF? So I’ve got > a > new roof with a couple of pipes sticking out of it about a foot, but again, > that’s > just another issue for the list that I keep… > > > > The water heater is really a glorified storage tank. It’s an 80 gallon > > American > water heater with a closed loop that the solar panel’s water would circulate > through. Funny, as when we moved in I heard this whirring sound in the > garage. The circulating pump was still connected to the loop piping and > running, despite everything being disconnected. Duh! Oh yeah - because it’s a > solar storage tank, it’s only got one 4500W heating element in it, too. > Great. 80 > gallons of water and a 4500W heating element... > > > > I was sure the water heater had never been flushed, so I did my morning run > to Home Despot/Lowe’s and got some brass parts to replace the usual crappy > drain valves on most water heaters. 3/4” brass nipple, brass ball valve, hose > adapter and a cap. > > > > I get home, turn power off to the heater, get the garden hose run out of the > garage, open a couple of hot water faucets in the house and get ready to open > the nylon/plastic drain valve. > > > > Nothing. Nada. Not a drip. > > > > Get the compressor and a spray gun with a rubber tip. Open the drain valve, > hit it with 100 psi air, and BOOM! A huge blowout on my side. Water and > probably a 1/2 cup of scale comes flying out of the drain and coats me. Nice, > but progress. > > > > Nope. There’s so much scale in this thing it just clogs the valve right > > back up > after I blow it clear. > > > > OK, so we’re going to play nasty, eh? > > > > Got out my spray can of Kroil and hosed down the joint between a nipple > coming out of the tank and the nylon/plastic drain valve. I’m enjoying some > lunch while the Kroil does it’s thing. I’ll go out shortly and see if I can > turn the > valve loose. Earlier attempts yielded no movement. > > > > This could get ugly. > > > > -D > > > > > > > > _______________________________________ > > http://www.okiebenz.com > > > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > > > > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
