When I bought this house, the previous owners handed me a water filter cartridge and said, "If your water pressure gets low, you'll need to change the filter." I promptly forgot about that until recently, when the water pressure dropped so much that the sprinklers were failing to hit the middle of the lawn and showering was much less satisfying.I marched down to the basement with filter in hand. And discovered I couldn't get the housing off. Thinking there might be some trick to it, I googled around and found that this model has been discontinued, and dismantling the thing requires brute force.
Now, why is the filter there in the first place? Denver's tap water is just fine, and even if it weren't, why filter every drop of water in the house? Baths, dishwasher, sprinkler system ...
Rather than risk breaking the damn thing and being without water entirely, then paying through the nose for emergency repairs, I got Larry from Belmont Plumbing to come out today and remove it entirely.It was a fairly simple matter for him to take it off and solder in a new pipe.
Once he was done, I ran upstairs and tried the shower. Wow! What a difference!
While he was here he fixed a leaky tap, too (it was barely dripping and I probably could have put in a new washer myself, but it didn't cost any more to have him do it. With plumbers you pay for an hour of labor no matter what.)
Sometimes it's a good thing to be under a lot of pressure.
Ugh! So sorry to hear about your plumbing trouble! Our house was built in the 60's and it's wearing down, including the plumbing.
ReplyDeleteWe're not looking forward to the plumbing problems that the future hold for us....I'm actually kinda scared!
i'd love to have a whole house filter in my house. but not a discontinued one. :)
ReplyDeleteWe used to have a whole house filter in our townhome but my husband did some plumbing so that only the kitchen got filtered water. Here, I have one under my kitchen sink. Our tap water is rated pretty darned high so a whole house filter makes no sense. In fact there is some company that wants to bottle and sell Louisville's water. I am not sure if I am happy about that!
ReplyDeleteThat kind of pressure is definitely a good one isn't it Kitt? Not the ones the drive people crazy!!
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you now have good pressure again!
I used to do Belmont Plumbing's accounting... small world! That was decades ago, and it probably has new owners by now. They were great people, and did really good work.
ReplyDeleteSmall world indeed, Dani! They are a good company.
ReplyDeleteBlue, that's for sure. Good pressure.
Manisha, really? What are they going to claim it is?
tk, you really only need a filter on the water you drink, don't you think? Supposedly I should've been changing the filter on this thing every three months. But why filter sprinkler water?
Diane, it wasn't too bad. I knew what the problem was, at least, and could schedule the visit at my convenience. This house is 114 years old! I suspect 40-year-old plumbing's a little easier to find parts for.