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I installed an acid neutralizing tank in my well system several years ago to bring my water pH up (it does). My water is otherwise without issues which is great. This tank has the manual two handle Clack valve on top with no backwashing facility. The problem is that periodic cleaning of the...

I'm looking for a recommendation for a small sediment filter to take some rust out of my hydronic heating system. I just lost a circulator and think it's because of sediment buildup from a previous leak (now repaired) that caused too much makeup water and resulting rust. Thanks. John

I'm going to be replacing both of my 30 year old Temptrol shower valves while doing some other work, and was wondering about the "service" ports. My existing shower valves have them and I've never used them because I'm afraid they might leak if I twiddle with them, so I always turn off the...

For the second time in about 4 years, I need to change the ball valve that shuts off the water before my acid tank. The failure for both valves was the same - the shaft that turns the ball corrodes so the valve can't be completely shut off, and once an attempt has been made, it won't turn full...

On this YouTube video, an experience repiper said he doesn't use copper stubouts anymore in PEX repipe jobs because they last as little as 8 years. Youtube Anyone else experience this? Is he talking about just the stubouts or is he talking about copper in general, or is he full of beans? John

Hi all, I'm replacing my heating oil tank this weekend, and was looking at different options for installing the firomatic valve. The new tank has a 1/2" NPT on the bottom, and my plan was to buy this and thread the new filter housing directly into it: This has the 1/2" NPT for the tank and...

I'm replacing my 275 gallon oil tank because it's just starting to "sweat" beads of oil on its belly, no real drips yet. Since black iron pipe and I don't get along, I was thinking about cutting the pipe in the middle and using a compression dresser coupler on the fill pipe (the vent already...

I'm going to add an indirect to my boiler's DHW coil in the spring, and want to check some options. Hookup ease is one consideration but the biggest is durability. I know it's tough to weed through internet chaff but I've seen whispers of the current generation of Boilermate not being as...

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, I replaced the kitchen faucet because it was leaking externally (Moen single handle). Tired of constantly fixing it, I bought a Delta single side handle with the pull out sprayer that the wife liked. The cold water barely dribbled out while the hot flowed...

I was at mom's yesterday to replace the flapper on her 15 year old or so American Standard bowl. Last week, I had cleaned the seat with a scrunge to stop phantom flushes and it worked. The old flapper looked shot so I brought a new Korky one. After replacing it, it was reflushing about every...

Beckett recommends first setting the air shutter for a trace of smoke (after verifying or setting the draft) but not zero smoke before testing for baseline CO2 or O2. On a typical Bacharach spot smoke tester, would that be a"2", "1" or somewhere between a "1" and the zero dot? I mean, a trace...

I installed a new Slant/Fin Intrepid TR-30 1.10gph boiler this past weekend. When I fired it up, it ran beautifully for about 5 minutes when it started rumbling and flapping the damper. When I opened the sight door, it improved and the damper stopped flapping, but I could feel hot air puffing...

I am going to be working with black iron NPT pipe when installing a boiler (all water connections) next weekend and will have about 10 connections in all, and I just know something will go wrong leak-wise. I've read the sticky at the top of this forum several times and anything else I can find...

Is there any disadvantage for installing a new boiler on blocks, maybe 4 inches high? My concrete basement floor is perfectly flat and dry, but the new boiler has an inlet close to the floor, and as long as I'm going to change it, it might be easier to work on if it was up in the air a bit...

My hot water comes from a tankless coil on my boiler, and the coil is currently directly outputted to the hot water line, so I want to add a mixing valve. If it matters, my showers are Simmons Temptrols and the rest of the fixtures are conventional. There are a lot of name brands like Watts...

I've always had professionals set up any oil burner I've ever installed, repaired, or replaced, but I'll be experimenting with replacing nozzles in my new boiler. Instead of paying a pro for every nozzle I experiment with, I've been kicking around the idea of picking up an analyzer. For cost...

Now that the weather's warm, I'm going to install the new boiler I bought three years ago.. My original boiler is a Thermodynamics that has two circulators and are on the low or return side. The Slant/Fin manual shows a drawing of the TR-30 boiler as having the circulator on top or the feed...

A friend has a two story Colonial that has some pinhole issues (on a well like I am) and needs to repipe. We haven't opened his kitchen ceiling yet but what we do know is that there are two 3/4" copper pipes running from the basement to the second floor to service two full baths (one with two...

I built my house in 1993, and it has (if you can believe this), three original toilet fill valves. Two of the three are starting to leak a bit, and it's time to replace them all.. or should I? I know Fluidmaster is the common replacement fill valve these days, but at my shop I've been...

I had a company out to pump my septic tank this morning (no problems, just routine), and the guy said the tank was too dry and had my wife turn on all the faucets in the house and flush the toilets repeatedly. Well, that killed my pump (another guy is here changing the pump right now), but the...