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Post by naughtyfox on Apr 6, 2019 15:51:16 GMT
Bought new kitchen taps. Bristan, from Amazon. £14 for the pair. They are the same as in Plumbase who are selling them for £27. I have read that, even though they are a good name, Bristan may last for just 2 years. Anyway, seemed easier than trying to find 'inserts' for our old taps - and also, the nut on the taps for removing the inserts isn't going to come loose easily (I may bring them home after Summer and have a go, just out of curiosity). I also bought a tap wrench so I can get at the brass-coloured nut shown here: I'm thinking that might be another difficult customer, that nut, and would it be sensible to spray some WD-40 at it first, and leave it to soak in overnight? Does WD-40 react badly to PTFE tape? As you see, someone has put white PTFE tape around the thread. I have bought a small roll of PTFE tape in case I remove the original tape and want to replace it. I know nothing about plumbing, but it looks like all our pipes are old and fragile, so I might start replacing them one by one, probably starting with the main pipe from the water tank to the water pump. But first things first, those taps.
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Post by bodger on Apr 6, 2019 16:21:37 GMT
Not a plumber but have a bit of experience replacing taps.
The brass nut is unlikely to cause too much problem if just sealed with ptfe tape.
The plastic nut above that might be a bigger issue if someone has used some sort of glue to stop the tap swiveling. Biggest issue I've always found is that old stuff doesn't always match up with new threads/sizes.
exactly.
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Post by naughtyfox on Apr 6, 2019 17:16:36 GMT
The plastic nut above that might be a bigger issue if someone has used some sort of glue to stop the tap swiveling. Biggest issue I've always found is that old stuff doesn't always match up with new threads/sizes.
Nah - I think that plastic nut is no bother. The tap thread size I think is some kind of standard half-inch.
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Post by naughtyfox on Apr 6, 2019 17:58:24 GMT
We only turn the water pump on when we want water, for the shower, or for the kitchen sink.
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Post by Jim on Apr 7, 2019 6:20:31 GMT
We only turn the water pump on when we want water, for the shower, or for the kitchen sink. Eh! You mean you don't let the pressure switch do it's Job, but isolate it with the supply switch? You are over thinking this. Leave it switched on, just replace pressure switch once a day.
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Post by JohnV on Apr 7, 2019 6:30:48 GMT
We only turn the water pump on when we want water, for the shower, or for the kitchen sink. Eh! You mean you don't let the pressure switch do it's Job, but isolate it with the supply switch? You are over thinking this. Leave it switched on, just replace pressure switch once a day. can you get pressure switches with oil damping ..... that would have Ross in his element
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Post by naughtyfox on Apr 7, 2019 6:48:57 GMT
We only turn the water pump on when we want water, for the shower, or for the kitchen sink. Eh! You mean you don't let the pressure switch do it's Job, but isolate it with the supply switch? You are over thinking this. Leave it switched on, just replace pressure switch once a day. The control panel is close by the kitchen sink, why would we leave the water pump 'live'? We only turn it on when we want water. Makes sense to me. Same at home - we don't leave electric cables plugged in to wall sockets if the appliance is not going to be used for some time. When we've finished with the washing machine, we remove the electric plug and turn off the water supply to the washing machine (socket and tap just above washing machine). Generally the only control panel switch we have on in the boat is for the interior lights, and we leave that on at night in case there's an incident. Also we have battery torches in known positions so that in the dark we're not entirely clueless.
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Post by bodger on Apr 7, 2019 6:57:47 GMT
you should follow lady G's initiative and arrange to get a BIG SWITCH to cut off all potential electrical connections between your supply and your meter & distribution circuits.
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Post by Jim on Apr 7, 2019 8:21:42 GMT
Eh! You mean you don't let the pressure switch do it's Job, but isolate it with the supply switch? You are over thinking this. Leave it switched on, just replace pressure switch once a day. The control panel is close by the kitchen sink, why would we leave the water pump 'live'? We only turn it on when we want water. Makes sense to me. Same at home - we don't leave electric cables plugged in to wall sockets if the appliance is not going to be used for some time. When we've finished with the washing machine, we remove the electric plug and turn off the water supply to the washing machine (socket and tap just above washing machine). Generally the only control panel switch we have on in the boat is for the interior lights, and we leave that on at night in case there's an incident. Also we have battery torches in known positions so that in the dark we're not entirely clueless. The water pump is designed to be left Live. Turn tap, water comes out, simple. What could go wrong? what's the likelihood of it happening. You are in the wrong business, CRT Health and Safety officer would be your thing, imagining problems that aren't there and filling out forms in triplicate, with big red danger stickers to put everywhere, just to annoy the rest of us who just want to get on with the job.
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Post by naughtyfox on Apr 7, 2019 11:46:34 GMT
you should follow lady G's initiative and arrange to get a BIG SWITCH to cut off all potential electrical connections between your supply and your meter & distribution circuits. We've already got one. But are replacing it for a better quality type. (should have been done on Friday, 2 days ago).
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Post by naughtyfox on Apr 7, 2019 11:49:00 GMT
The control panel is close by the kitchen sink, why would we leave the water pump 'live'? We only turn it on when we want water. Makes sense to me. Same at home - we don't leave electric cables plugged in to wall sockets if the appliance is not going to be used for some time. When we've finished with the washing machine, we remove the electric plug and turn off the water supply to the washing machine (socket and tap just above washing machine). Generally the only control panel switch we have on in the boat is for the interior lights, and we leave that on at night in case there's an incident. Also we have battery torches in known positions so that in the dark we're not entirely clueless. The water pump is designed to be left Live. Turn tap, water comes out, simple. What could go wrong? Let's say a wasp flew into one of the kitchen taps when we were away from the boat, and when we got back we found the whole water tank was empty, or the water pump has got so hot trying to empty 850 litres of water and caught fire and the boat was a roaring bonfire when we got back to it? Anyway, taps these days are Made in China and unreliable.
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Post by patty on Apr 7, 2019 11:58:34 GMT
The water pump is designed to be left Live. Turn tap, water comes out, simple. What could go wrong? Let's say a wasp flew into one of the kitchen taps when we were away from the boat, and when we got back we found the whole water tank was empty, or the water pump has got so hot trying to empty 850 litres of water and caught fire and the boat was a roaring bonfire when we got back to it? Anyway, taps these days are Made in China and unreliable. Thats a fairly active imagination bubbling inside your mind..... Talk about worst possible scenarios....
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Post by naughtyfox on Apr 7, 2019 12:05:57 GMT
These things happen.
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Post by Jim on Apr 7, 2019 12:21:02 GMT
you need to take "likelihood" into account. As likely as the wasp drinking 850 litres of water. I agree, turn everything but the bilge pump off while away, but while you are living on the boat, nah! What does your log say about the life cycle of switches, how many on/offs have you logged to date? My water system developed a small, nay tiny, leak that was causing the pump to tick periodically. I did turn the pump feed off in this instance, but only till I got a round tuit.
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Post by JohnV on Apr 7, 2019 12:26:25 GMT
but only till I got a round tuit. yes indeed .... an essential bit of boat maintenance equipment
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