As winter approaches people are asking how to get more heat out of those very old hot water radiators. A few tips.
Bleed the air out anytime they don't feel hot enough. This will usually be only one or two that have problems while the rest are hot. If they all are cold you may need to check the ...
For various reasons, hot water heating systems can accumulate pockets of air in the top of the radiators. When there is too much air, the water doesn't flow any more and the heat slows down and stops. For that reason most people have to "bleed" the radiators regularly: open a little valve in the ...
It may surprise you, but more accidents happen in the shower when the shower suddenly goes cold, than when it suddenly goes hot. It seems that we just jump higher. But neither shock is agreeable, or safe.
That's why all new plumbing installations require something called a "Pressure Balancing va...
Dan from Toronto, Ontario writes: "I saw your show about installing the Moen Positemp shower system. We had two installed, one upstairs and one in our basement shower. Both work fine for controlling the "shock" factor, but we can't seem to get enough hot water out of the upstairs one. Is there a ...
INSPECT, MAINTAIN OR INSTALL BACKFLOW DAMPERS UNDER THE BASEMENT FLOOR BEFORE DOING ANY RENOVATION WORK IN A BASEMENT.
Installing a backflow valve between you and the city requires cutting into the concrete floor. With our changing weather, this valve is almost always necssary and generally cod...
When air gets into hot water radiators, either from new water in the system or even from problems with seals, it can make noise and reduce the heating effectiveness of the system. That running water noise is actually caused by a big air bubble at the top of a radiator and the water falls through ...
One morning the oil furnace and boiler companies woke up to discover they were the Canadian bad guys -- everybody was condemning oil burning heating and the government was even paying people to scrap them. The oil furnace and boiler companies had to admit that they had been pretty contented and l...
Putting a sink in an island in the middle of the kitchen presents some plumbing challenges. Generally the venting for a sink goes upward in the wall while the drain water flows downward towards the floor – but in an island, going up is not an option.
To have a large sink that drains properly y...
There is no reason to spill gas on a hot motor or the ground while filling the tank as there are more and more modern gas cans that give you control over the pour while meeting all kinds of tight regulations related to gasoline safety. The old, no-longer legal cans, had an air relief cap that yo...
David writes that he recently installed a double sink but it gurgles and backs up. It is 10 feet away from the plumbing stack and goes through a garbarator. What did he do wrong?
When you attach a large double sink on a long horizontal run, the drain pipe will tend to fill up with water ...
