I was surprised to find out that, of all building-like DIY projects, I tend to enjoy plumbing the most. I mean, sure, it can be nasty and smell horrible, but I follow some simple prep-work rules:
* Clean everything as much as you can before hand – There’s no reason you should be sitting in a puddle of dirty water
* Wear gloves – It just decreases the chance of you touching something nasty that escaped your cleaning (step 1 above).
So, a few months ago, our old garbage disposal crushed its last piece of food, and died a quiet death. It just wouldn’t turn anymore, sounded like the gears were stuck out of place or something. Well, off I went to the store and got a new one, slightly more powerful (.75 hp, as opposed to the 1/2 hp we had before). Replacing it took about 1 – 1 1/2 hour, including removing the old drain (it didn’t have any putty!!! I’m surprised it wasn’t leaking). It worked like a champ.
Last night, I’m getting some water for the kids after dinner when I step on a bit of water. “Oh yeah,” says Ginger, “It seems that we got a bit of a water leak from the sink. I first noticed it today.” No big deal, I thought, I’ll just take a look after we put the kids to bed. I knew one of the pipes needed to be replaced after I’d installed the new disposal, it was a bit short, but it wasn’t bad. Anyways, I got under the sink, tried moving the disposal a bit to see if I could find the source of the leak, and not really finding anything really telling, I go and turn the disposal on. Surprise!!! The whole thing falls off the sink, with water from the faucet spilling through the now empty sink drain. Oh boy! What a mess to clean!
It wasn’t too bad, though. Ginger got me some towels, I dried everything up and quickly (really, under 10 mins) hooked everything back up. The source of the leak? Apparently, when I installed the disposal, I didn’t turn the neck lock (which holds the disposal to the drain) far enough, so it didn’t actually “lock” in place. There’s little notches at the end of the thread that you’re supposed to lock the neck to, and I didn’t do that. Slowly, over time, the neck went down the thread, until it fell off! The moral of the story is “When tightening something, tighten it really, REALLY tight”.
1 comment:
Very good moral! Only one thing I'd say not to tighten too tight, jars of things that you need to open again when making food. I'm such a wimp and have to have Fernando always open all the jars cause I always tighten them too tight. It's bad when Fernando's not home to help. I have to either make something else, or do without the ingredient. :-D
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