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Found 137 results for the keyword ‘Plumbing’

  • What temperature should a house be when you are gone for the winter?

    Jim from London, Ontario is wondering what temperature he should leave his thermostat while he migrates south for the winter. The short answer is 55 degrees F, or about 12 degrees C. That should keep the pipes from freezing, keep the humidity under control, keep the furniture from going through ...
  • Installing a garbage disposal unit

    David from Richmand Hill, Ontario has installed a garbage disposal unit himself and has some questions about the electrical hook-up. We took advantage of the fact that David has a video telephone connected through his internet connection, which allowed us to see David, but more importantly, both ...
  • Getting hot water to a remote sink -- fast

    Here is one that I answered one year , and found a better answer a year later.   GETTING THE HEATER CLOSER TO THE FAUCET In 2003 a viewer asked me about how to get hot water to that back bedroom because they have to run the water for two or three minutes before the hot water arrives from the b...
  • PAN FAN - an air filter for toilets

    Over the years I have seen and tested a large number of gadgets designed to get rid of toilet odours, from double walled ceramic toilets that had an exhaust pipe to the outdoors, to exhaust ducts that fitted under the tank and various carbon filters situated under the seat. Finally an New Zealand...
  • Stopping Plumbing Floods & Flood Alarms

    I like to look at history and tell stories, but if you are not the type that likes to read a lot and all you want is to control your water flow – jump down to the best plumbing flow control systems to date:  my experience with AquaTrip (from Australia and no longer available in Canada) and the ne...
  • The low flush toilet controversy & MaP toilet testing

    (This is a real good example of a living history. I wrote the first part of this entry in 2001. With a book you would have to wait for the next edition for developments. With a bulletin board you would have to read a lot of old entries. What I love about my web site is that I can change, adapt an...
  • Does your soldering job leak? Why is lead-free solder hard to work with? And new products to make life easier.

    They took the lead out... Several years ago, throughout North America lead was removed from the solder used for making joints in copper pipes intended for carrying drinking water, just as before that we had removed lead from paint. Lead based solder is still available in stores for other tasks, ...
  • How do you solder copper pipes?

    There are three key steps to making leak proof copper pipe joints.     Clean off both the inside of the elbow and the outside of the pipe with steel wool or a special cleaner tool.     Apply a soldering flux to both cleaned surfaces. The cleaning gets rid of contaminates and oxidation o...
  • Plastic supply water pipe law suits : Poly-B, Kitec, PEX fittings...

      Copper is a trusted and proven piping for residential water systems.  For years people have been interested in one form or another of more flexible plastic or mixed metal/plastic pipes that could be snaked through a house with fewer joints and easier installation.  Unfortunately there have bee...
  • Copper versus PEX plumbing pipes.

    Copper is a trusted and proven piping for residential water systems.  For years people have been interested in one form or another of more flexible plastic or mixed metal/plastic pipes that could be snaked through a house with fewer joints and easier installation.  Unfortunately there have been m...