Sunday, February 14, 2021

Titusville - Water leak and a trip to the local hardware store

The source of all hardware in Titusville - a really great place!

Ann noticed the house water pump was not turning off. Upon investigating at 10:00 pm yesterday night, I found a leak in one of the connections. Tightening the connection produced nothing more than more of a leak. This was a job for the super leak repairer! 

Some may think Florida is not as strict as New York for 
wearing masks - but you can't prove it here. No mask = stay out!

The faulty connection was an old water hose screw-on knob. It seemed like a good idea at the time to use a garden hose connection in the house water - it was never a good idea. A garden hose connector is designed to seal in only one direction, the direction of water flow - the water pressure provides the force to seal the joint. If you try to use the same connector in the reverse direction, it is prone to leaking, that's what I was trying to do. 

So I thought I would swap out the old garden hose joint with a new brass fitting, problem solved, I thought. Well, it seems that what the hose connected to was not exactly a hose type thread which required two trips to the hardware store to discover. All attempts resulted in a leaking joint. 

In frustration, I search through my collection of spare hose connections and discovered an unused plastic female screw-on connector. I had wanted to use brass for strength but I tried out the plastic just to see if the leaks could be stopped. Behold, it worked! There has to be a better way to fix a leak than spending four hours back and forth between the boat and the local hardware store for parts. I would make a terrible repairman. Who would pay me the going rate for four hours of work just to fix one small leak? At least it does appear to be fixed, for now. 

We had our Sunday donuts, very nice and the weather remains in the low 80s, not bad. Maybe I'll learn how to repair leaks better in the future. 

2 comments:

captainwjm said...

Your observation is correct; outside of tourist and rural areas, mask wearing is fairly commonplace in south Florida, despite the aggressively anti-enforcement of CDC guidelines posture of he Death-Santis administration.

Changes in L'Attitudes said...

Did you use the Ace west on Garden St, or south down 1 ... I used both while on the hard in Westland Boat Yard. Found both to be good places with good people. I was so spoiled, we had a great Ace about four miles from home - family run place - that closed a little less than a year ago. Now the closest one is 13 miles away.