Super Matt Bros.
As I alluded to in an earlier post, we had a plumbing emergency the other day. It wasn’t a full-blast emergency complete with water spraying uncontrollably throughout the house. For starters, the spraying water was confined to the kitchen. Plus it was only spraying uncontrollably for a few seconds before I could reach the shut-off valve, so everything was in hand. We simply didn’t have a kitchen faucet for a couple days.
It started when I installed a reverse osmosis filter under our kitchen sink. A reverse osmosis filter removes impurities in a water supply by osmosifying it in reverse. The purified water can then be used for several uses, such as drinking or pouring into an aquarium. We intended to use it for the latter. One of Ellie’s former co-workers gave us this filter when he moved across the country. We assumed that he didn’t want to bother moving it, although I now wonder if he just never wanted to see it again.
This particular filter looked like a quality piece of equipment. It has a faucet running off five separate stages of filtration for drinking water. It also has a spigot running off seven stages of filtration for aquarium water. Those two extra stages proudly announce the priorities of aquarists. It has a five-gallon tank to store water, a shut-off valve on the main water line to shut off water, and an adapter that attaches to a kitchen faucet for easy installation.
Except the adapter didn’t attach to our faucet. It only fits the most common faucet size, not our faucet size. No problem; I can tap directly into the water line beneath the sink. So what if my entire life’s plumbing experience involves screwing adapters onto the end of faucets and furrowing my brow quizzically when they don’t fit? I know enough to turn the house water off before opening anything up, and that’s all I need.
I pulled piping apart to install the adapter directly under the faucet. With everything reattached, I turned the water back on and watched water drip out of every seam I just created. No problem, I turned the water back off and tightened everything. To my surprise, I could give the main tubing another three or four rotations. I must’ve left that one loose. I turned the water back on, and watched it shoot from directly under the faucet. My many rotations stripped the tube running directly into the faucet.
While I put the kids down, Ellie went out that night to buy a new faucet, along with the connectors needed to install the filter directly above the shut-off valve, farther down the water line and away from anything I might break on our new faucet. When Ellie returned, I installed the faucet, and looked at our new connectors. Sadly, they only fit the most common pipe size, not our pipe size.
The next morning, yesterday, I took the kids to the hardware store to buy the correct connectors. Few parenting experiences are as fulfilling as taking three small children to a hardware store while you search foreign aisles for a tiny part that may or may not exist. After steering my screaming children to what I felt was the correct quadrant of the store, I found a helpful employee to help. After a couple minutes of searching, he helpfully informed me that the part I wanted didn’t exist. They did, however, have an adapter that would attach to the connector. Of course I’d need an adapter for my adapter, and another adapter for that adapter…
When all I needed was one correct adapter, I walked out with five pieces of pipe. Happy that I could at least complete my project, I went back home to on work connecting my connectors. With everything attached and tightened as far as I could twist it without breaking anything else, I turned the water back on, and watched water drip out of the seams on all five pieces I just attached.
I shrugged, unhooked everything, and reattached the sink faucet. At least that bit of plumbing works. While wondering what to do with the filter I couldn’t correctly install, I cleaned my mess, starting with the towels laid under the sink to catch the uncontrollably spraying water.
It started when I installed a reverse osmosis filter under our kitchen sink. A reverse osmosis filter removes impurities in a water supply by osmosifying it in reverse. The purified water can then be used for several uses, such as drinking or pouring into an aquarium. We intended to use it for the latter. One of Ellie’s former co-workers gave us this filter when he moved across the country. We assumed that he didn’t want to bother moving it, although I now wonder if he just never wanted to see it again.
This particular filter looked like a quality piece of equipment. It has a faucet running off five separate stages of filtration for drinking water. It also has a spigot running off seven stages of filtration for aquarium water. Those two extra stages proudly announce the priorities of aquarists. It has a five-gallon tank to store water, a shut-off valve on the main water line to shut off water, and an adapter that attaches to a kitchen faucet for easy installation.
Except the adapter didn’t attach to our faucet. It only fits the most common faucet size, not our faucet size. No problem; I can tap directly into the water line beneath the sink. So what if my entire life’s plumbing experience involves screwing adapters onto the end of faucets and furrowing my brow quizzically when they don’t fit? I know enough to turn the house water off before opening anything up, and that’s all I need.
I pulled piping apart to install the adapter directly under the faucet. With everything reattached, I turned the water back on and watched water drip out of every seam I just created. No problem, I turned the water back off and tightened everything. To my surprise, I could give the main tubing another three or four rotations. I must’ve left that one loose. I turned the water back on, and watched it shoot from directly under the faucet. My many rotations stripped the tube running directly into the faucet.
While I put the kids down, Ellie went out that night to buy a new faucet, along with the connectors needed to install the filter directly above the shut-off valve, farther down the water line and away from anything I might break on our new faucet. When Ellie returned, I installed the faucet, and looked at our new connectors. Sadly, they only fit the most common pipe size, not our pipe size.
The next morning, yesterday, I took the kids to the hardware store to buy the correct connectors. Few parenting experiences are as fulfilling as taking three small children to a hardware store while you search foreign aisles for a tiny part that may or may not exist. After steering my screaming children to what I felt was the correct quadrant of the store, I found a helpful employee to help. After a couple minutes of searching, he helpfully informed me that the part I wanted didn’t exist. They did, however, have an adapter that would attach to the connector. Of course I’d need an adapter for my adapter, and another adapter for that adapter…
When all I needed was one correct adapter, I walked out with five pieces of pipe. Happy that I could at least complete my project, I went back home to on work connecting my connectors. With everything attached and tightened as far as I could twist it without breaking anything else, I turned the water back on, and watched water drip out of the seams on all five pieces I just attached.
I shrugged, unhooked everything, and reattached the sink faucet. At least that bit of plumbing works. While wondering what to do with the filter I couldn’t correctly install, I cleaned my mess, starting with the towels laid under the sink to catch the uncontrollably spraying water.
posted by Matt at
11:49 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home