Thread: changing tap washers on hot water taps

As I said One flash and your ash.

Mick,

If we keep this up we'll be in HOT WATER (just a reference to add relevance to the thread!)

Now....to keep all this off topic aesthetic stuff away from talk of plumbing, I hope you dont' mind but I've copied your reply to start a new thread hopefully on the why's and wherefores of aestheticism vs w@nking!

If you do mind...well I guess I lose the debate!

See thread titled "Death to the Blithering Idiots".
(coming soon!)
Cheers,

P

Guys,Guys!! please stop it hurts, Here in Oz as anywhere else if you are sure you can do the job as good or better than someone you will have to pay THEN DO IT.
AS for the water system not having a stop cock, put an inline tap in yourself, if the loo needs a new O ring then go and get one and put it in.
Changing a power point is different from rewiring new ones, its like changing a light bulb, you are not technically supposed to do even that but I doubt you would find anyone that hasn't done it.
I guess the answer is work within your capabilities and you should be ok.
If you wait for someone to tell you it's ok then you will never do it.

Go for it, stuff the bureaucrats they are only there to help themselves and make life complicated.

Taffy

That's a bit unfair, they were just using up all the offcuts from other projects thereby conserving materials.
Anyway, how about that monstrosity at the end of the bridge on Swanston/St Kilda Rd, I think it's gone now.
Looked like a scaffolders apprentices nightmare.

What was the original question? Something about changing a tap washer, wasn't it?

Did turning off the water at the mains work?

My two cents worth ...

plumbing - any new work underground generally needs to be inspected (in NSW at least) and must be done by a licensed plumber. Fair enough - keeps the council records up to date and eliminates delays if someone else wants to buy your house. And it should eliminate the possibility of explosions of built up gas. You can save yourself money if you dig the trenches yourself and fill in later.

Tap washers, tap replacement, toilet pans, putting in another garden tap - doesn't need inspecting. If you mess up, you clean up the mess.

plumbing/gas - wouldn't touch it. Get in a licensed plumber.

roofing - most plumbers seem to extend their training to get a roofing certificate. However, after having had bad experiences with work done by these professionals, it has now entered the personal DIY realm. I don't have to pay me to cock up. Why pay someone else.

at prophesised by one of the earlier posts turning off the stop cock and then running the hot taps didn't empty the whole tank ... it took about 15 mins as it dribbled out but the result was about 1/3 of a bath of hot water.

Kitchen tap washer was a breeze so overcome with enthusiasm I dismantled one of the laundry taps ( a bizarre combined sink/washing machine tap assembly which requires gorilla like force to turn the taps off). I took digital photos as I dismantled it ... just in case I forgot which of the many bits went where but it wasn't that difficult a process just completely perplexing. I decided at that point that my knowledge of Australian tap anatomy was insufficient to do the job. The only thing that looked like a tap washer was resolutely attached to something else and I didn't dare prize it out in case it wasn't meant to be prized. Back it all went, assembly the reverse of disassembly.

Turned the water back on again and there was a rush of water somewhere up above ( presumably to the header tank ). Waited for the rush of water to stop and turned the hot taps on - zilch, nada, nothing, not out of any of them, not even cold water. After about 1.5 hours was getting a dribble out of the bath taps. I turned the power off to the hot water service off just to make sure that I wasn't going to be trying to heat air ( belt and braces - you should see the software I write ) )

Woke up this morning full service resumed.

a bizarre combined sink/washing machine tap assembly which requires gorilla like force to turn the taps off

What, don't you have those in the UK either? Honestly, it makes me wonder how you guys ever ruled the world

jackiew you were almost there, but when you turned the water back on, and as you have a low pressure unit you should have left all the hot taps turned on.
As the header tank, heater and then pipework filled the air would have been expelled through the taps.
What you actually had was an 'airlock' that luckily cleared itself.
Jack:

hey silentc .. we mostly don't even have laundries in our houses .. only if you're very posh or very fortunate will you have a "utility room". The front loading washing machine goes under the worktop in the kitchen and the plumbing for it is an add on extra ). Fortunately the ability to install complicated tapwork isn't a required skill when you set out to dominate the world

Ta for the advice on leaving the taps on - I will add this to my notes for the next tap washer change

The Romans were pretty big on plumbing, but then look what happened to them

If you need to replace tap washers and can't find the stopcock/there isn't one/it's corroded and inoperable, it is still possible to change washers. It works better if you don't have really high pressure town water but, you just turn every tap on full bore, remove the spindle/bonnet assembly (having somebody there to deflect all the water into the sink with a tray or cutting board helps) replace washer and reassemble. I've had to do this quite a few times and with practice it's pretty quick and not too messy. If you need to do it on your hot water taps you may need to do it just after everyone has had a hot shower or turn the power off for half a day in order to prevent scalding. And yes, of course it's better to actually repair/replace/fit a stopcock (or better still get a plumber to do so) but it's not always an option.

Mick

Had to change the tap body on a water meter stopcock once - that was fun. We used a baby bath to redirect the water. You still get very wet! Certainly adds a bit of excitement to an otherwise mundane job

If you have access to liquid nitrogen you can apparently freeze the water in the pipe before the stopcock. Hopefully you can get the job done before you run out of liquid nitrogen...

Heard this from a friend renovating his house (in the the UK!) which was affectionately known as The Rot. He got excited when he heard I worked in a research lab, but we never got round to trying it.

Carsten

PS Regarding the safety of DIY electrical work, I agree that there are people who who should not be tempted to carry out their own wiring. However, the law seems to be very selective. What's to stop me buying auto brake pads from Repco, fitting them incorrectly and killing the next pedestrian who walks out in front of my car. You can even buy workshop manuals for any car to encourage you. Do car mechanics just have less influential unions?

Ques: Whats black and shriveled and hangs from the ceiling.



Ans: A DIY electrician