StarCrawler: Blog

From Anonymous:

"If you capped both ends of the circulation going under your porch, you may have interrupted the flow of hot water everywhere else. Hot water heating usually runs the water in a large circle - in newer homes like mine, anyway. Joining the cut ends may be a better idea."

That's a good point, but like the porch itself, the heater must have been added later on. The pipes came out of the main heating pipe inches apart, one from the top and over, the other from the side and over, creating a miniloop. If I was really ambitious, I could have replaced the junction with straight pipe. I think I'll wait til summer for that.

Thanks for reading.

Several of you had suggested I checked the pipes for leaks. I did. Twice. No visible leaks.

Two days the water supply to the boiler was running. I was running out of ideas when it snowed again. While out shoveling that mess, I heard running water, like a brook. Looking around, I find a brook running out of my house!

Back to the basement. No water anywhere. I finally found two pipes leading out under the front porch. Why!? There's no radiators out there. Um, whoops. Yes there is.

I cut the feeds and capped them. Suddenly the pressure builds at the boiler. Hurray! At five psi, the relief valve pops. Thump. <that was me> Water everywhere. Agh!

I run to the plumbing supply house, get a new relief valve. And away we go. I might even light the burner ... but I'm afraid to.

I live on the northeast coast of the US and have been experiencing that cold blast of arctic air just like everyone else around these parts. This morning I awoke to find my breath fogging the air in front of my face.

So, into the basement I go, only to find that the basement was warm! I go to my boiler, and it reads 140°F, just as I would expect it to. I started checking the lead out pipes and they're all hot. Seriously puzzled, I go back up and find that all but one of the radiators are cold! (Hot water heat, cast iron radiators)

The fact that the pipes were hot told me the circulating pump was working. I had pressure at the kitchen sink, so the supply lines were working, and hot water came out.

Scratching my head, I thought the only thing it could be was the pump. Now, you would think with it being Superbowl Weekend, the DIYs would be home getting ready to party. Not so! They were all at the supply house getting bathroom fixtures and massive quantities of pipe fittings! When it was finally my turn, I told the counter guy I needed a Taco pump, and because I was flying on caffeine, I told him why. And he started asking questions.

Now, I'm a man (go figure) and I began to resent his apparent disregard for my manly skills of troubleshooting.

Then he said, "Is there water flow through the pressure reducing valve?" I guess he could tell from the dumb look on my face that I had no idea what he was talking about. And trust me, I felt very dumb at that point.

Did you know that there is a control valve for the water supply to the boiler? And that it doesn't have to be anywhere near the boiler to work? Makes sense in retrospect, but I had no clue.

He convinced me to buy the valve for less than a third of what the pump would have cost me and told me they were open 'til four on Saturdays. He instructed me on how to test the valve, saying the surest sign of trouble was the lack of the sound of running water at the boiler. I got home and found the blasted valve nestled in the floor joists overhead. I tested the valve, done simply by disconnecting the copper pipe from the outflow of the valve and looking for water. {Sigh} A bare trickle of water. And the bypass bail didn't change it.

It took me thirty minutes to change the valve, remembering to use teflon tape on the threads of the connectors. It's gonna take me all day to bleed the air out of the system. Rats.

Oh yeah, the one thing he asked me that really frosted my biscuit was what the pressure at the boiler was, and I didn't know: I hadn't checked. He told me it should read twelve psi. The purpose of the pressure reducing valve is to reduce the common house pressure of fifty-five psi to twelve. When I got home and looked ... one psi. Oh man.

I can still see my breath, and it's gonna be a while before I can turn the boiler on again. It's been four hours now and the system is still filling. I'm going to take a cold shower now. I feel grungy.

I'd really like to know where all the missing water went.

I have a muse, as most authors do, but mine is a real person. And she gives me ideas and encourages me. That's a good thing, but...

It's your comments that fuel my desire to actually write. Uncle Draggi sends me detailed comments about what he likes and dislikes about the story. That's great and helps me write better.

I do not, can not, expect that from everybody.

The rest of the day's comments were short. I got a "woo-hoo" and a "God bless". I also got a "pure dross". To me, they are all the sound of applause. That inspires me to write: to dig the words out of my skull and write them down and offer them up to you.

Take the time to comment, even if it's only one word.

Thank you for reading.

I've always felt that story codes should represent major elements of a story, not just a passing event. If there is something you feel should be coded, let me know about it and tell me why.

If I agree, I'll add the code.

The one that comes to mind is "tears". I won't code it unless I get mail saying I should. I'm not writing a tear-jerker, but if you feel so moved, let me know.

My favorite story for that is "The Last Wish Blues" by Lubrican. There is one part where you will feel moved, so "tears" is appropriate there. I haven't written anything that would so move me, but that's just me.