What home improvement work did you do today?

2025 projects are
Windows
More blown in insulation
Maybe new toilets, but that will lead into bathroom reno's which IDK if I'm ready for.

 

I'd love to flush our water heater, but I'm not sure how wise it would be to do so. Current water heater is 52 years old (yes, you read that correctly) and it works great right now, no leaks. I've not tried seriously to flush it (haven't opened the valve at the bottom) and am almost scared to do so. If it breaks opening the thing, then I HAVE to get a new one. LOL

 

We woke up this morning to the lovely smell of my house full of propane. I don't know why at this point but we got everyone out and the tank shut off and windows open. They should be at our house to inspect things shortly.

 

The outside outlet should be Ground Fault circuit imo by the hot tub. It should be off a GFCI breaker or tapped off a GFCI outlet from the house.
Breakers can go bad or just be bad from the factory. I had a breaker that was tripping on a coffee pot, ended up replacing it and solved the coffee pot issue. Note: I thought it was the coffee pot but after replacing the pot it still tripped.
Good luck, be safe.

 

That’s scary. Keep us updated.

 

Crazy part its not tripping the breaker at the panel. Only tripping the GFCI cord. And I agree the outlet needs to be GFCI.

 

From what I read you have a GFCI Cord plugged into a standard breaker. You have a ground fault, but not an over current fault.

 

Yep. I checked the outlet and it appears to be grounded, but I'm just a guy with a multimeter and YouTube. Dangerous combo. LOL. Waiting for him to reply.

 

We had a solar panel system with a 10KWh backup battery. The backup battery is just a partial house backup. Our tankless water heater circuit is one of the circuits backed up with the system. I decided to put the fridge and small freezer in the garage on the same circuit. I did some power measurements and did a month test with extension cords to see if the breaker would be tripped. It worked fine. So I proceeded to add a couple outlets off the water tank circuits also. I used 12 gauge solid copper wire THNN Type in 3/4 inch conduit. A lot of ladder moving and body contortion for the install. It’s been doing running ok for a couple nights so far.

Outlet by ladder to be tapped.


Conduit installed.

 

The extension cord might be the culprit.

 

In the words of Andy Dwyer of Parks & Rec:
"You can just light a match to get rid of that smell"

 

I thought that too. Plugged it into the other outlet outside and it works fine. Granted now I have to use an extension cord. I

 

Hope any leaks got buttoned up.

 

A little worn out today, but the fun is just gettin started....

Got all the trees out, now setting up for the fire removal and then... leveling for the barn... some major seat time is in my future:

Before:



After:



During:

 

You’ll need it drained down to get enough heat in there to desolder.
Shut the isolation valves on both sides, put a pile of towels around the pipe on top the water heater, then use a tube cutter to cut the lower cut first at the place you want to put in the lower union. The water will drain out and you’ll mop it up with the towels.

Then make a cut at a spot above the pump for the upper union - leaving enough room for your new pump and a decent piece of tube out both ends of it.

Clean up the tube ends then sweat on the union halves to the existing tube that is staying. Then make up the new section between the two unions with the pump in it. I personally would use new tube instead of fucking around with desoldering the old pump body…it never goes back together clean anyway. You should be able to buy a short piece of Type L copper at the box store (or all the maintenance guys at work - bet they have some).

 

Yikes!

 

Great advice, as always

I'm excited to tackle this and gain a new skill. I've soldered a lot of wire connections before so at least I have that background.

 

Yikes. Not exactly what you want when things are dry as hell and fires kicking up. Hope non of y'all are being impacted by Palisades. (I realize you're farther north, Chris)

 

ok, real fear here...

any update?

 

Ok. Sorry for the delayed update. It turned out to not be a leak, thankfully, but more our inexperience with propane. We've always had natural gas everywhere we have lived before this house. Apparently, when your propane tank gets low enough you can get a gas smell inside the house. And that's all it was. Which was definitely concerning when you wake up to it and don't know it's a thing. The propane company did apologize to us as we are on a plan where they monitor our tank and it's never supposed to get below 30%. But their customer service and response to our problem has been nothing but outstanding.

Up where we live in Norcal it has been pretty wet and no real concern about fires right now. This week is the first week in a long while where there is no rain.

 

Best case scenario.... good to hear! Glad the family is safe and good to know since we just added propane and didnt know this was a thing.

 

Might be worth it to get one of these to put in a hallway near the bedrooms.

$63 Kidde Carbon Monoxide Detector, Propane, Natural, Methane, & Explosive Gas Alarm, Plug-In Wall with 9-Volt Battery Backup, Digital LED Display

https://www.amazon.com/Nighthawk-Mo...8-3-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&th=1

 

We actually have that exact unit but it's on the other side of the house. Maybe one on the bedroom side wouldn't be a bad idea at all.

 

I remember reading your post and thinking "I wonder if his tank's just getting low.....NAAAH it can't be that simple" and forgot to mention it.



My apologies for not saying squat. That's totally a propane thing - only time I noticed it was when the local propane company screwed up and forgot to deliver stuff. In response I just got used to checking the tank gauge every month or so and notifying them whenever it got around 40%.

 

*Quietly goes outside and looks at his gauge because he has never done that and didnt know this was a thing......

 

Got my butt kicked today and about to have several days of it... getting out of shape sucks and getting back in to shape hurts, but I am actually enjoying this... I may or may not make some social media videos.. If i do I will let yall know...

anyway, all the trees have been felled in my yard. Two from the hurricanes that were called a widow maker. The tree came out at its roots and fell into another tree, snapped it and killed it, but they both were suspended in the air... that one was scary...

Three in a bunch blocking the access to my new building, two in a bunch sitting in the corner of the building and then three more in a bunch blocking the back corner of the building. Now I have a massive sand pit which is being organized into sections. Wood for the burn pile, stacked and crushed down by the tractor. Wood for small wood. And wood that will be cut and split into fire wood.

Luckily, I found a guy who is going to take all the split wood in trade of a truckload for me. the rest is his to sell. No splitting in my future, which I just dont have the time or patience for right now anway... but the work to prep it all... fun times...

 

Called that a drip leg all my working life, wonder if it's one of those regional things

 

I’ve heard both. Also mud leg and dirt leg.

 

I happened to check my propane level just the other day, I was at 40%. I do not use much propane as I have heat pumps…unless it gets below 37, the big furnace switches to the propane. I’m getting a connection to my propane tank, so I can use a generator with the big propane supply, for emergency power outages that last more then 12 hours. Anyways, he literally called me while reading this post. I asked him about the low propane level gas thing… he said yes but normally at 15% or lower.. Good to know.

 

58 YO house and the basement ceiling has never been insulated, I have been here for just 5 years and the Nat gas isn't going down in price, just like everything eles.
Soooo tomorrow will be a busy day 35 rolls of un faced R30.