Drip, Drip, Drip, Woosh!
Apr. 8th, 2022 10:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
billroperI've been noticing that our water bills seemed a bit high for several months. It's not, as nearly as I can tell, due to any of the toilets misbehaving, which is always the first thing you think of. But I have everything in pretty good adjustment at the moment and have replaced any potentially errant flappers, so we're not hearing running water from them.
Still, Gretchen kept reporting running water sounds when there should be none, usually when using the downstairs bathroom. And I kept pointing out that this was directly over the furnace and attached whole-house humidifier which should be pulling water when it's running.
So two nights ago, we were on the way to bed and Gretchen insisted that there was running water somewhere. I checked the toilet in our bedroom, made a small adjustment, and determined that it wasn't the source of the sound (which I also heard, just to be clear). I checked the toilet in the back bathroom. It wasn't the problem, but the sound of running water seemed louder. I checked the toilet downstairs. Also not the problem, but the sound of running water was still louder.
Off to the basement. And I discovered that the humidifier had turned traitor and was pulling a continuous stream of as much water as it could get whether the furnace was running or not.
(Aside: this seems to be one of the hazards of living in a house that is now more than 25 years old. Something new -- or maybe old -- keeps finding a way to fail. This requires a certain degree of determination and disposable income. I wonder at my friends who live in houses that are more than 100 years old and how they manage to survive all this.)
The simple solution was to turn off the shutoff valve. Unfortunately, when I did this, the valve started rapidly leaking water onto the hot water heater. Not wanting to take a chance on damaging the hot water heater, I decided it was better to flush water down the drain than to find that I had to replace another bit of household apparatus. And off I went to bed.
Where I woke up at 4 AM and decided to go downstairs, grab an empty McDonald's cup, turn off the valve, put the cup in the path of the leak, and hope that it didn't overflow before morning, or if it did, that it would spill out past the edge of the hot water heater onto the floor. Then I went back to my computer, checked the online report on our water consumption, filed the tax return for my dad's trust (which I had forgotten to do earlier in the day), and finally crawled back into bed about an hour later. This, of course, meant I was in the best possible shape to go freeze at the Cubs game yesterday, but the Cubs won, the company was good, and I eventually thawed out.
While I was on the way to the game, I called our furnace guy and he said he'd come out and take a look at it this morning. He did and found that the valve in the unit was shot. By the time he managed to find and replace all of the necessary parts -- parts being in short supply due to supply chain issues -- it wouldn't be that much more to start over with a new unit. Assuming, of course, that he could find a new unit, but that would be easier than scrounging parts for a 25-year-old humidifier.
I agreed and the humidifier has now been safely replaced.
I wonder what will decide to break next.
Still, Gretchen kept reporting running water sounds when there should be none, usually when using the downstairs bathroom. And I kept pointing out that this was directly over the furnace and attached whole-house humidifier which should be pulling water when it's running.
So two nights ago, we were on the way to bed and Gretchen insisted that there was running water somewhere. I checked the toilet in our bedroom, made a small adjustment, and determined that it wasn't the source of the sound (which I also heard, just to be clear). I checked the toilet in the back bathroom. It wasn't the problem, but the sound of running water seemed louder. I checked the toilet downstairs. Also not the problem, but the sound of running water was still louder.
Off to the basement. And I discovered that the humidifier had turned traitor and was pulling a continuous stream of as much water as it could get whether the furnace was running or not.
(Aside: this seems to be one of the hazards of living in a house that is now more than 25 years old. Something new -- or maybe old -- keeps finding a way to fail. This requires a certain degree of determination and disposable income. I wonder at my friends who live in houses that are more than 100 years old and how they manage to survive all this.)
The simple solution was to turn off the shutoff valve. Unfortunately, when I did this, the valve started rapidly leaking water onto the hot water heater. Not wanting to take a chance on damaging the hot water heater, I decided it was better to flush water down the drain than to find that I had to replace another bit of household apparatus. And off I went to bed.
Where I woke up at 4 AM and decided to go downstairs, grab an empty McDonald's cup, turn off the valve, put the cup in the path of the leak, and hope that it didn't overflow before morning, or if it did, that it would spill out past the edge of the hot water heater onto the floor. Then I went back to my computer, checked the online report on our water consumption, filed the tax return for my dad's trust (which I had forgotten to do earlier in the day), and finally crawled back into bed about an hour later. This, of course, meant I was in the best possible shape to go freeze at the Cubs game yesterday, but the Cubs won, the company was good, and I eventually thawed out.
While I was on the way to the game, I called our furnace guy and he said he'd come out and take a look at it this morning. He did and found that the valve in the unit was shot. By the time he managed to find and replace all of the necessary parts -- parts being in short supply due to supply chain issues -- it wouldn't be that much more to start over with a new unit. Assuming, of course, that he could find a new unit, but that would be easier than scrounging parts for a 25-year-old humidifier.
I agreed and the humidifier has now been safely replaced.
I wonder what will decide to break next.