|
the video linked in one of the posts on the first page here was a fine show of which 'plumbing' water line systems held up best to freezing temps/water in the lines, which is a big topic for the RVing world. Pex seems to do just great, but even the 'old fashion' cpvc white and beige water lines, too.
I was also interested in the 'shark bite' and similar push-on type connectors, and how they would hold up, especially as to which type of water line they were used on.
It looks like the 'ol copper is not showing so well! I'm sure we all knew that....and,
The shark bite type connectors also don't have the same ability to 'dig in' to the copper line, and therefore don't work well in freezing scenarios.
He mentions near the end that these tests are really good to know for those of us with 'secondary' homes or mountain cabins(and even RVs, of course) - it fits my situation to a tee, as our mountain cabin we purchased last year was able to be 'winterized'(drained), and yet the previous owner(s) had not a single wrap of insulation around ANY of the exposed copper water lines in the crawl space! Wow. Such an easy task, and yet they spent money on several other 'protections', and not this simple one.
I easily installed the 'noodle' type wraps only all the copper lines, with the idea that 'one day' all these would be replaced with pex.
During our initially inspection, it was found that there was an 'instant' water heater installed in the sink cabinet of the bathroom in the 'loft cabin', a separate living area, detached, next door(maybe formerly a carport).
We wondered, though, we it's 30amp plug was not plugged into the 30amp outlet under the cabinet, and then also realized that there was actually no 'plumbing' going to or from it. Strange.
This 'house' was on a slab, and had a sump-pump to move the waste water up to the main house's septic tank, and received water thru water lines coming from the main house, but there was really no 'place' for a typical water heater, at least not a great need since there was only the sink, and not a shower, so I suppose the reason for a small 'tankless' instant heater.
I decided during a remodel soon thereafter to make use of this water heater, since it was there, and the electricity had been run to it. I wanted to 'test' it, though, to make sure the heating element was working, so I ran an outside spigot hose to the inlet, plugged the unit into the 30amp outlet, and turned on the water, with a bucket below the outlet side of the water heater.
I immediately had water coming out of the unit, but not from the outlet, from within the unit's body - not good.
I took it outside to inspect it more closely and found that the internal copper 'tube', which snakes around within the unit, had a huge 'split' on the backside of the lower end - hard to see when the unit is mounted, as it had been.
Now I know why they didn't continue using it. Not draining the water heater, at least the residual water left in the copper tube, apparently can be an issue... I can only imagine that one day they returned for a spring stay, turned on the water, and found to their delight a great 'leak' coming from the bathroom cabinet! They didn't replace it, they just 'unplumbed' it.... ; /
__________________
The Turners...
'07 Rockwood Signature Ultralight...
two Campers and two Electric cars : )
|
Linear Mode
