Recent content by McconnellPlumbing

At the bottom of your casing string is a vertical section of slits for the water to enter the inside of the well pipe. Around here a little "specific sized" pebbles are dropped down the well bore. Then the casing string is lowered into the well bore and tags bottom. Then more pebbles are...

Why not replace, redrill, or deepen the well itself if a new pump only brings in 1 gpm instead of the original 8 gpm?

Sometimes there is a p-trap whose water eventually evaporates from non-use and that allows the sewer gas to come up from the drain, think of an unused shower, unused floor drain, unused tub drain. Sometimes a dead animal in the attic can cause an amorphous odor which is spread through parts of...

In Oklahoma type M (thin wall) is only code approve for above the slab/accessible purposes. Most plumbers use type L throughout a house if they use copper at all. K copper is usually spec'd for commercial jobs.

There is a difference between what is called PEX pipe. Uponor/Aquapex is different and superior, IMHO, to Vanpex, Zurnpex and a host of other PEX type water pipes and fittings. There have been some PEX tubing with an aluminum layer in the tubing.

It appears your drain line is backing up due to a partial clog. The washing machine puts out too much water too fast and the water can't get past the partial clog fast enough and it backs up in the (lower level) floor drain. Run a snake down the floor drain to get to the clog or go down the...

If your hot water flow rate through the shower is close to the minimum flow rate (usually about .5 gpm) required by the Navien, it can cause the unit to overheat before it shuts down and throws an error code. That could explain why when a lav is running concurrently with the shower it doesn't...

We've put in hundreds of tankless water heaters. Great in some ways and not so much in others. I tell my customers its like a 60 year old man marrying a 20 year old woman. Wonderful most of the time, but there are drawbacks. We also service tankless water heaters and they require a higher...

1. If the shower valve will not allow enough hot water to flow (above .5 - .75 gpm), the tankless water heater will not fire up and it will allow cold water to go through the unit. Given the static flow rate of the shower, it will take a lower flow rate (gpm) of hot water at 130 degrees (less...

1. If your cartridges were not fully seated into the faucet body when the retaining nuts were tightened, the seats might not be making full contact with the bottom of the cartridge. I'm assuming the tabs on the cartridges were lined up with the slots in the valve body. If not, the...

A normal water softener will physically remove the hard water particles. Its an ionic exchange. Some salt will be left in the medium but is not noticeable unless you are on a low sodium diet. Salt has to added periodically to the brine tank. Good units regenerate/backflush according to...

Thanks, I wish all plumbers would read this thread and quit using silicone and silicone based adhesives to caulk around the base of the stools. I do have a question if any old plumbers read this. Do you find yourself getting more cantankerous as you get older about sloppy and incompetent plumbers?

I use the same type you have pictured above. And I use the same small strokes you talk about. The stool I had to use the towel on had a very pronounced "throat chute" to the bottom of the bowl, Not only elliptical but the throat closest to the front had a trough to it.

I've used a towel around the base of the plunger to help seal the eliptical shape of the bowl and force the water through. One hand pushing the towel and one for the plunger.

The DAP ALEX window and door caulk contains silicone. So do some of the others.