FL Project #1

 FL Project #1

The first problem, after arriving at the Hawthorne double-wide, was a drip under the kitchen sink.  I had turned off the supply lines to the hot and cold water and to the dishwasher.  Once turned back on, the top one in the picture dripped.  Fearing the worst, I got a flashlight and my glasses and observed.  Fortunately, it appeared to be dripping out of the stem where it goes into the body.  

This set-up is old and is soft copper tubing braised together.  I can do this, but it is painful and the system has to be drained to heat the copper enough to melt the solder.  Also the pieces are short and heating them up can cause other leaks.

I tried first to tighten the flange. Sometimes there is packing like graphite string inside to keep water from working around the stem.  This one looks like teflon is used somehow.  Holding the body firmly, but not tightly enough to distort anything, I used two vice grips to give a little tightening to the nut.  It moved about a 1/16 of an inch.

Got lucky!  The drip stopped.

I worry about all this plumbing because it is soft copper under the home and to and from the water heater, which is old, old, old and a small mobile home unit.  When it goes, which could be any time, I plan to put a larger heater in the shed, but that will be a major plumbing project, because I would probably try and re-plumb with Pex, and I would have to get from the shed to the house.  Currently there is plumbing for the deep sink and clothes washer and 220 VAC for the clothes dryer in the shed, but it will not be simple to get more 220 VAC for the water heater and stay in code.  I would not try and pull permits, but do it clandestinely, since I have plumbed several houses.  

But that is a big problem for another time.