I guess this weekend was the one I chose to take care of all my chores. I got up super early to take Wife's car to Discount Tire to fix a flat, then when I got back I decided it was time to attack the shower in our bathroom. I noticed over the last few months we were getting less and less water flow, never mind that the heat was barely there. The boys have complained that there is weak pressure in the 2nd bath upstairs, but compared to ours, the 2nd bath shower could rip your skin off compared to our shower which this weekend felt like an old man dribbling on you, I mean barely any flow.
I looked at some you tube videos and was skeptical on some of their fixes. One guy suggested blowing pressurized air through the pipes to remove stuff attached to the pipes. I went to Lowe's and asked the older guy working in the plumbing section and he was hemming and hawing, saying it sounded like a difficult problem. At this point, as if on cue, a "master" plumber as he called himself about 7 times in a two minute conversation, he explained how badly his parents pipes were that he had to replace the whole houses pipes. I said "shit, that sounds expensive, I'm not ready to have a master plumber take over. I want to see if I can figure it out." I don't know if they hire these guys to hang around, but he disappeared as quickly as I said "no, thanks."
I was at Lowe's because I already had the idea of changing the water splitter that feeds the shower head. I knew it was a Delta head and a 1400 series, but of course, there were two 1400 series to choose from. It would require me to remove the original and bring it back to the store. I decided to go for it, but the reality was quite challenging. Everything seemed frozen and stuck, nothing was coming loose and I was leaning my 400 pounds into it. We all start out listening to directions but when pushed to a corner, we go animal style. I grabbed some pliers and started pulling and pinching aggressively, finally some of the plastic material broke and I was able to pull the whole thing out. I could not believe how much calcium had grown all around the part. I poked at it with a screwdriver and little chunks and pieces started breaking off. Either I did not clean the calcium enough out or the new part I bought was defective, but after installing it, I was pretty proud of myself, except that after I showered, I noticed it was now leaking at a pretty good drip drip drip rate. I decided to take it out and reinstall it, as it had been very hard to push in. Every time I took it off, I broke up more of the calcium (I say calcium because it is white and looks like chalky stone, like limestone). I tried maybe four times Saturday but eventually I gave up.
After Wife left Sunday, we ate and went to Target, so I really wanted a nap, but I knew if I didn't attempt to finish this, it would sit all week, so I went and got another water splitter thing, thinking maybe the first one was defective, and maybe because on the first install, it worked. It feels pretty good to figure out a problem that seems like a big deal, but actually becomes very easy when you think about it and break it down. I might have believed the "master" plumber about having whole house issues, but all the other water sources are pretty strong.
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