More than a decade ago, I had a couple of really bad days when we lived in Chandler Arizona. We had a leaking faucet in our master bathroom, so I needed to change the cartridge on the hot water valve.
Easy peasy. It was a Delta faucet, so a trip to the local Home Depot yielded a drop in cartridge. Cost about $4.
Back home, I go to turn off the hot water feed under the sink.
Fuck, it doesn’t close (cheap ass fitting by the budget cut-rate contractor.)
No big deal, I can shut it off at the water heater. But when I tried to turn the valve to close it, it broke off. Apparently, it was the wrong type of valve, not supposed to be used for that application.
Anyhow, back to H-D for a new high-quality stopcock.
Ok, out to the side of the house to shut the water off at the house. But the contractor used a crappy guillotine style valve for the house shut-off.
I ended up having to shut it down at the street, then replace all those valves, before I could do the 10 minute job of dropping in a new cartridge.
I swore at that moment I would not ever do plumbing again.
Today, I broke that vow.
The Reverse Osmosis Filter Replacement
We live in south San Jose, and our water comes from Great Oaks Water. It is ludicrously hard water, so when we moved in, I installed a 5 stage Reverse Osmosis system (Ordered from the Reverse Osmosis Superstore – highly recommended).
In it, there are three cartridge filters, two carbon, and one particulate, one membrane to remove the salts, and then a polishing filter, and finally a calcite cartridge that adds back in some minerals that greatly improve the taste of the water.
Changing the filters is an ordeal. I have to shut off the water to it, empty all the cleaners and other goodies under the sink, and then finagle the filters, using a capful of bleach to sanitize the system.
The problem
Alas, the system is plumbed with 1/4” and 3/8” polyethylene macroline, with fittings and adaptors.
These are very reliable … until they aren’t.
And today, when I turned off the water to the system, I jarred it just enough that it began to leak. And then it wouldn’t re-seal.
So, back to Loews, and I had to buy a new three-way adaptor for the splitter off to the R-O system.
And then I got to mop up all the water that leaked.
Oh, and one of the cartridge filters was damaged in shipment, so even had I not had to deal with the leaky fittings, it would have been impossible to replace the filters today.
Fuck my life.
There goes my Fourth weekend
Alas, the replacement filter will be here in time for me to swap the filters next weekend over the Fourth of July weekend. Yay. Between that and consoling my dogs for the fireworks that freak them out.
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