Does the Fun Never End?

I returned home from work Tuesday nite to find my nice new shiny pump installed and ready to go. I could barely wait to try it out, but first I had to fill up all my pipes and the tank with water since I drained it all out last nite. I opened up the valve for the city water and was immediately disheartened to find a pretty heavy leak in an old flex pipe line.

Will the madness never end?

Argh! Well I called up Mr. Plumber Man and asked him (kindly) what kind of job is it where you leave the job site with a leaking pipe? Admittedly, the pipe was ripe for a leak being as it’s old and corroded, but how about a phone call asking if I’d like to pay the 50 dollars to fix it instead of just leaving it for a customer to come home to! He told me that his guy hadn’t mentioned it to him, but that the guy only took an hour and a half to install the pump, and replace the drain valve that was stuck so he was sending me a $55 refund check.

Well that was all well and good but here I was with a significant leak in my system which was going to prevent me from getting enough pressure in my system to heat my home. According to Steve (My HVAC guy) I didn’t need this line that was leaking. It was just a bypass line to transfer water from the drain to the intake. Most systems, he told me, have this line turned off. So I decided to take one final trip to the Home Depot to get a couple of 1/2” pipe plugs. I picked them up for 77 cents each and brought them home to close off the lines and seal my system once again.

To get things started I drained the tank again. This time I had the luxury of using the drain valve that the plumber so kindly installed for me. The flex line kind of broke in two as I unscrewed each end. It really was a decroded piece of crap, to quote my good friend Napoleon.

A new working pump is a nice thing to come home to!

A leaking flex pipe is a terrible thing to come home to!!!

Not so bad though, a quick trip to Home Depot for a couple of plugs and that problem is solved.

What good is a broken pipe? No good at all!

So anyway, did the madness ever end? Was my family ever reunited?

Yes. Yes we were. (Though it’s still pretty cold in here. These pipes take a while to heat up this big old house!)

Merry Christmas Everybody! Or something.