BrklynArch
New member
Just venting......
So I've had the bean animal drain set up for almost 4 years now and I love it.
I made sure to plumb all my connections with as many unions as I could in case I ever needed to swap something out or disassemble anything for maintenance.
I also incorporated a gate valve on the main siphon drain in order to fine tune the flow.
A few nights ago the tank started to make sounds indicative to air being trapped in the drain. I go over to fiddle with the drain and come to find out that the stem of the gate valve has a slow drip. As I apply a little pressure I can hear the air start and stop and now the leak gets faster. I quickly close the valve all the way and have the secondary drain take over duty for the time being.
Being that gate valve was plumbed in on both ends with unions I figure should be an easy fix....right?
Long story short, get a replacement gate valve, so I go to work plumbing that up with new unions so I can complete the swap. Remove the old leaky gate valve and go to swap.
The new 1.5" unions don't fit the existing 1.5" union. The existing union is somehow smaller even though it's the same 1.5" size.
No idea how that's possible. And because the unions don't match need to cut out the entire drain assembly at the bulkhead and replace the entire thing including the bulkhead.
Next morning I wake up to my return pump sucking air. I investigate further and turns out my Tunze Osmolator decided to call it quits after 4 plus years of pretty reliable service. I contact Tunze and explain the abnormal sequence of yellow lights blinking and whatnot and come to find out it's a highly unusual way for the unit to fail and needs to be sent in for repairs.
As I'm checking out the problems with my ATO I notice a small puddle at the foot of the tank. One of my return bulkheads has cracked and is leaking saltwater all down the back of the tank. Quickly shut off the return on the left side of the tank and hit the computer to order a replacement 1.5" gate valve and a few replacement return bulkheads from BRS.
Good thing I ordered extra return bulkheads because shortly after cleaning up the mess from the morning's leak I see the right return line has also developed a small leak. Turns out I must have bumped the return line trying to get my ATO out of the sump and in doing so caused both return to leak.
In the short matter of 12 hours I had 3 separate, unrelated "disasters" (I use that term loosely because we all know what a real tank disaster can be). Good times!
What's up with mismatching unions of the same size??? I thought all unions were created equal!
:headwalls:
So I've had the bean animal drain set up for almost 4 years now and I love it.
I made sure to plumb all my connections with as many unions as I could in case I ever needed to swap something out or disassemble anything for maintenance.
I also incorporated a gate valve on the main siphon drain in order to fine tune the flow.
A few nights ago the tank started to make sounds indicative to air being trapped in the drain. I go over to fiddle with the drain and come to find out that the stem of the gate valve has a slow drip. As I apply a little pressure I can hear the air start and stop and now the leak gets faster. I quickly close the valve all the way and have the secondary drain take over duty for the time being.
Being that gate valve was plumbed in on both ends with unions I figure should be an easy fix....right?
Long story short, get a replacement gate valve, so I go to work plumbing that up with new unions so I can complete the swap. Remove the old leaky gate valve and go to swap.
The new 1.5" unions don't fit the existing 1.5" union. The existing union is somehow smaller even though it's the same 1.5" size.
No idea how that's possible. And because the unions don't match need to cut out the entire drain assembly at the bulkhead and replace the entire thing including the bulkhead.
Next morning I wake up to my return pump sucking air. I investigate further and turns out my Tunze Osmolator decided to call it quits after 4 plus years of pretty reliable service. I contact Tunze and explain the abnormal sequence of yellow lights blinking and whatnot and come to find out it's a highly unusual way for the unit to fail and needs to be sent in for repairs.
As I'm checking out the problems with my ATO I notice a small puddle at the foot of the tank. One of my return bulkheads has cracked and is leaking saltwater all down the back of the tank. Quickly shut off the return on the left side of the tank and hit the computer to order a replacement 1.5" gate valve and a few replacement return bulkheads from BRS.
Good thing I ordered extra return bulkheads because shortly after cleaning up the mess from the morning's leak I see the right return line has also developed a small leak. Turns out I must have bumped the return line trying to get my ATO out of the sump and in doing so caused both return to leak.
In the short matter of 12 hours I had 3 separate, unrelated "disasters" (I use that term loosely because we all know what a real tank disaster can be). Good times!
What's up with mismatching unions of the same size??? I thought all unions were created equal!
:headwalls:
