Recent content by Gravity

As an update, in case anyone came here looking for answers, I was able to remove this last weekend. Just had to run a utility knife under the sink top to break up the caulking and shimmy it around, I think it pulled forward and I lifted up. Didn't weight more than 75 pounds which was nice. The...

Hi all, Does anyone have any past experience removing one of these beasts? Does the countertop detach from the metal base cabinets? That's really my biggest concern. If so, how? I have a guy who wants this for his retro kitchen project so I'd rather not take a sledge to it. Any advice is much...

Thanks guys. I'll just spin on a new top as Terry suggested. I am actually just in the planning stages of a small kitchen renno and the 1/2" cold and hot water pipe under the sink is brass so I was just wondering if I could just cut the pipe back with a Sawsall and get new shutoffs with 1/2"...

Excellent, thank you Terry! Best, Mike

Thanks for the response, Terry. As a hypothetical, what if I cut back existing brass pipe with a sawsall and there was no threaded end left? Could you use compression on that? Thanks again.

Hi, I was going to install shutoff valves on existing 1/2" brass cold and hot water lines. Can I use valves with 1/2" compression inlets? Do they play nice with brass pipe? Or should I use 1/2" sweat connection? If I sweat it, is there any need to modify my copper pipe soldering technique...

Just as an update, I was able to successfully bleed the air out of my system by using that thumb screw on the PRV. It was a cinch after I figured that part out. The pressure relief valve didn't end up dumping any water either (I placed a bucket under it just in case). The radiators on the top...

The higher the temperature difference between the supply and return air streams, the greater the heat loss. If it's only a few feet you could probably live with it but it's a total hack job and I would never do it myself. I would be most concerned about messing up the sizing of your return duct...

Well that's an interesting question. TECHNICALLY this would be the same as running any branch line through a return air plenum above, say, the ceiling tiles of an office space. The code does require a minimum insulation value for all supply ducts anyway, so you would still need to insulate your...

I agree entirely. My boiler is in the basement. I may not have been entirely clear when I wrote my first post but the drain-down I performed was for the expansion tank (also in the basement) while isolated from the rest of the system. I was never bleeding air from a low point in the system...

Believe me, if I had the money I would have 2 dual fuel heat pump/nat. gas furnace forced air systems - one for each floor. For now I'm stuck with what is there. I don't even have insulation in my walls so I'm going to start with that improvement first! Home is circa 1870, balloon framed...

I'm sorry, I meant to say John, not Tombstone in my reply. Also, I'll instruct the person engaging the fast fill thumb screw to go easy and place a bucket under the pressure relief to catch any spillage.

Other than the pressure gauge at the boiler I do not know the internal pressure of the closed loop system. All I can tell you that the boiler pressure was 15lbs at 130F before I started then dropped to 5lbs after I let all the air out - at the boiler. The pressure at the top of the radiator...

So I just re-read some literature about my PRV (and paid attention this time). It's a Thrush model 10F and features a "fast fill thumb screw" which you are supposed to turn to essentially bypass normal PRV operation and allow water to flow through freely (eliminating the need for a PRV bypass)...

Not to hijack the first question in this thread but my question is regarding the same topic, but different type of issue. I have an old gravity hydronic system in a house I just recently bought. I noticed all radiators on the second floor would only be hot from their centers down. I took this to...