Recent content by Hobiecatter

Sorry, let me clarify... When I say our local building inspector told me this, I mean our city's Only inspector. Small town, he is the inspector that needs to come out and do the inspection to pass for the permit. So I guess they have passed this requirement when he took over. So thanks, I...

Had a water softener installed by a plumber. And a permit was pulled afterwards, (plumber failed to tell me that a permit was needed) the local building inspector for our small town is saying we need to have an RPZ before the water softener. The place I went to buy this $200 part is saying that...

thanks for your help. I just placed an order for the Hach 5B. Why not, I've already invested this much... might as well not skimp on the testing.

Hey Gary, I'm not ure if yor mixing me up w/ someone else but we haven't talked about my softener size or programming....yet Once I get the hard facts on my hardness I'll post some questions on programming. But good info though. This is also why I want to be able to do multiple tests. So I...

thanks dittohead! Is the Hach kits something that can be purchased at any stores you know of? would prefer to get locally and not have to pay for shipping and wait. I already checked the big box stores and they don't have anything that is as good as this. Where I live there are plenty of...

Where is the best place to get a tet kit that will show me exactly what my water hardness is? Are the strips test kits more/less accurate than the drops? I took my water to Sears to try and find out exactly what the hardness is and he used the drops method. The results were "moderately...

oh I see. Yeah on the p-trap I agree with you. That was just the plumbers work. I did ask him what happens when that p-trap freezes and he wrapped it up. Like I said, I am not a plumber and have learned quite a lot about it in the last few months. Thanks for exlpaining. It is rare that it...

I'm no plumber and my plumber installed that, but isn't that what pipe insulation is supposed to do? prevent from freezing? of course it doesn't creat heat, but would it not protect against freezing to a certain degree? If not, what is pipe insulation invented for? Maybe in Canada you guys...

What happens if the drain line freezes? Will it damage my softener when it tries to regenerate? or will it just not do it? Thanks!!

Thanks for your help Chad. I'll look into it a little more and ask those guys. I think from searching more it's called "wet venting" which is defined as "a waste pipe that also serves as a vent pipe." Apparently is it allowed in some areas and not others. I'll just have to check with my...

The pipe insulation where? on the bottom of the p-trap? This is in the attic, so it's prevention for the water in the p-trap to keep from freezing. The plumber put insulation all around the p-trap to prevent it from freezing as this SHOULD be the only place that the water would collect.

Thanks Chad. I understand what you are saying. Sorry I know there are just do many different ways to do the same thing. It's just frustrating to me because I find a lot of contradictions on this site sometimes. One thing that I have searched to death is this air gap situation and I cannot...

Understandable. Thanks. I was aware of the physical water contamination but wasn't thinking of the gases. So since my design would cause the trap to siphon out and be useless, if I were to put a proper air gap there instead and still have it drain into the vent pipe, I would be "legal"?

Now for where the drain exits into the vent stack... I just had this plumber do this whole install a couple of weeks ago and I was talked into the air break instead of an air gap so I need to get that part figured out so I can have them come out and fix it to code. I want it right because when...

Ok, I have included some more pictures for clarification. As for the softener drain using the PEX 1/2 ID (5/8 OD) it goes up from the softener about 6 feet, but then as you can see in the pictures it doesn't really go down hill the entire way, especially at the end where it goes up the elbow...