Comments

Episode-457- Putting Your House Hold in Order — 9 Comments

  1. Careful with the backflow preventer on your hot water tank. If you just stick a 1 way valve in there you’ll probably get pipe bursting problems. When you use the hot water, cold water fills the tank. Then as the water heats up, it expands. It has to have somewhere to go or the pressure inside the hot water system will rise and cause failures. A plumber would know this but anyone else might not. Anyway you’ll need an accumulator in the system to give the expanding water somewhere to go. They sell them at the hardware store.

  2. Jack must be taking a superman pill or eating a-lot of spinach, because these last few podcast’s have been super or better. The show is always great, but lately WOW. 3 cheers.

  3. I never get tired of hearing the Grasshopper and Ant story. I was just reading my 3 week old son the story “The little Red hen” (its probably a knock off). In case that you haven’t read it before… The hen ask for help and the other animals are too busy playing. At the end of the story, the hen decides to eat her own food and to hell with the other animals that were too busy playing.

  4. Jack, I don’t know how many times your podcast has been exactly in line with where I am at. I just came home from the hardware store with a car full of shelving to sort out the garage. Now it looks like I’ll be listening to “Putting Your House Hold in Order” while I set ’em up!

  5. If you have a backflow preventer on your water heater an expansion tank would also alleviate high water pressure.

    Another source of water (in the summer) would be to drain your hot water furnace system. With cast iron radiators you would have an immense source of water, that is also quite clean as it is not exposed to air.

  6. yeah, it drops to 9f, or -40f, -25f, or other crazy temps in Montana during the winter, and sometimes in the spring and fall. A tornado ripped through Billing, Montana and it would have been great day to collect rain water. Like a flash flood in the desert, if you a couple thousand gallon tank(s)to collect rain water, they would have been filled yesterday in ten minutes.

  7. I was listening to this with my two daughters and they LOVED the Ant and the Grasshopper story.
    So now they are going around saying “What happened to the grasshopper??” “HE DIED!!!!” (that last part is said quite loudly in a Jack kinda way).
    That story will have a lasting effect on them I’m sure!!

  8. Great podcast. Never tire of these topics.

    Is the backflow preventer for hotwater heater something to be done by a professional? I am handy around the house, but not confident with plumbing.

    I will google it, but is there a favorite resource for this procedure? Thanks, Matt