 How
To Fix a Leaky Hose Bib Without Burning Up Your
Water Heater
By Contractor Mike
Continued
from page 1
Let’s back up again. Use your wrenches in
opposition to unscrew the valve handle from the
body of the hose bib. Unscrew the Philips/slot-head
screw at the center of the washer, remove it, and
stick it in your pocket – the one with your
keys! Put that screw back into the valve stem a
few threads so you don’t lose it. Now, hide
the wrenches in the bushes and sneak off to the
hardware store in your car. Pick out the same diameter
beveled washer (they last longer) and proceed to
the checkout counter.
You arrive back at the job and find a huge puddle
of water around your hose pipe, but the water in
the line has slowed to a trickle. Replace the stem
washer and valve handle, but make sure the handle
is in the fully open position so as not to damage
the washer when you cinch it down tight. Then,
wrap the male nipple with the Teflon tape (clockwise)
with the threads and, using both pipe wrenches
again (opposite directions, opposite force), snug
and plumb up the new hose bib. Make sure the bib
is turned off and head up the driveway with your
wrenches. Turn on the main gate valve slowly and
wait a minute. If nothing explodes down there,
you’re done.
But wait! How come there’s no hot water?
It’s called the siphon effect. Someone decided
to put a hose bib at the foot of the driveway but
connected the supply line not to your landscaping
pipes (where the anti-siphon valves protect against
backflow into your potable water) but directly
to the house line—which runs to your water
heater. Because the hose bib is lower than the
top of the water heater, the initial suction of
the water already in the hose bib supply line generated
a siphon when the water ran out the end and made
that puddle.
You have just drained your entire 30-50 gallon
water heater while you were at the hardware store
buying a 50-cent neoprene washer!
The gas flame doesn’t care if there’s
water in the tank, but the overheated metal does.
Plan on about $600 for a plumber to replace the
water heater. Ouch!
That is why you never work on the plumbing pipes
without first shutting off the inlet valve to the
water heater. Just in case!
Back
to page 1
Contractor Mike was a General Building
Contractor for nearly twenty years in Los Angeles
and is now a produced playwright. |
