Joe The Plumber is a total amateur compared to me

[greatbear]

A couple of youse guys wanted to see what I was up to with the water heater project. I remembered to take some pictures during this project to share. There are a lot more and they will also get uploaded, but in the meantime, I put a select few in my Flickr account.

This should actually be called "Beware The Crazed, Obsessed Engineer When He Gets Started On A Normal Task, For It Will Take On Brobdingnagian Proportions". Or something like that.



More (and more to come) at the Flickr Photo Set page.

The user interface on the water heater is a delight. I call it H2OS X. :)

I figured out the issue with the SDHC cards. The PC refused to read them as long as I had a PCMCIA hard drive inserted in another reader. Yeah, strange.

Comments

[maxauburn.livejournal.com]

That is awesome!!!

You are good!

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

It may NOT be complicated, but it sure LOOKS it tho. :-)

Very sweet setup I'll say that and the quality of your work, who'd ask for anything less?

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

I can ID most everything except the tan tanks in the center, but the large tank makes me guess salt tank for water softener(s) which would be on the wall behind. You on a well or municipal supply?

The water geek (five yrs HS and college as a treatment operator) and engineer in me would love to see a flow schematic.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

From right to left - water storage tank (I have a well), then an iron removal filter that uses an air injector and 'permanent' media rather than the small unit I had previously which needed potassium permanganate in a feeder tank for rejuvenation every 8 days, then onto a water softener that uses a demand meter rather than a dumb timer for replenishment. After that, an activated carbon filter for taste. Then the water heater. All the filters are automatic backwash, the softener has a 300 lb capacity brine maker. Since the water itself is not excessively hard, the salt will last well over a year in normal use. The rusty looking cartridge filter above the well tank is there to filter sediment and particles from the water that is routed to all the outside hose bibbs. I had to do this because the air injector causes the iron to precipitate in the tank (this is a normal operation for this filter system, the precipitated iron gets trapped in the media and gets backflushed every 8 days) and the crusty particles and general sediment makes a mess of hose nozzles, especially the fine sprayer sort. There are two taps outside both in front and in the back that draw from the full filter set which I use to put through pressure washers and for general cleaning. The unfiltered water can leave spots of not wiped up. Now I have the added bonus of outside hot water. That faucet works like any modern pull for flow/turn for temp fixture.

I am going to make up a schematic in the not too distant future, as well as label all the valves and their normal operating positions. This is because Jeff looks at the stuff rather bewildered and worries that something might go wrong when I am not around and he'd be clueless which knob to turn. I also started color-coding the valve knobs (red = hot, blue = cold, yellow = adjustment and/or service only, etc) to make it a bit clearer what does what. Each filter has a H valving arrangement and unions which allow the filter to be completely bypassed and removed from the system for repair or replacement without interrupting the water supply, including the cartridge filter. Ditto the air injector, it can be removed as well. There is a tap off the filter team that takes water right after the iron removal filter for use in the humidifier to prevent white powdery residue from forming on the ductwork, and can also be used to get water without the added sodium the softener puts in during the ion exchange. There is also a Y-strainer right before the air injector (and just after the water enters the house) to get any large particles out of the flow to prevent the air injector from getting fouled. It's a passive injector that uses a venturi. About once a month or so I flip open a ball valve and the little bit of backflow cleans the screen. I have to post other pics with those components if you are interested.

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

LOL I love it. You have an in-home treatment plant, all you're lacking is is O₃ injection.

[restoman.livejournal.com]

A very neat and precise plumbing job!! I'll bet you wipe any excess solder off the joints too.
You say it's not complicated, but it is the most complex water system I have ever seen in a house.

I am guessing this is a well-water system?

[jacked01.livejournal.com]

So it looks like you can invite local apprentices over and give classes hell maybe even Journeymen

Good job super professional

[2stroker.livejournal.com]

Real nice work! You can work for me anytime man.Joe the plumber was an idiot .I seriously doubt he could do work that comes anywhere close to this. If he could he would have been too busy to be "Joe The Plumber"

[champdaddy.livejournal.com]

You always amaze me...

[uncle-dan-nyc.livejournal.com]

Did you ever know that you're my Hero?

[danlmarmot.livejournal.com]

It looks like a circuit board layout, not plumbing!

And no PEX yet? ;-)

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

I'll be flexing my PEX soon enough. I have some work to do on the trailer. And, no, it's not anywhere NEAR as involved. I want to add an accumulator (essentially the same thing as the pressurized well tank, but smaller than a 2L soda bottle) and a pair of outside faucets that will be used to drain the lines for winterizing, but also used to connect an outside wash tub to hot and cold water. It's just like what I did here, but in miniature!