Monday, October 17, 2016

Handyman Mson... Learning New Tricks!

Given the awesome job I did over the weekend, today I spent half the day calling in a plumber and asking how to turn off the water to the shower.  Finally finding one, the problem was quickly diagnosed and fixed.  Turns out I was pretty close to getting the plate replaced (and heck, at this point, the shower cartridge too).  The key part that caused half the shower cartridge to be stuck in the system was because it was left threaded.  Also, I guess I was pretty lucky that there was enough gunk that held that piece in place, so that water wasn't spouting out.

Also asked plumber to check out why the kitchen area stank.  After a quick look he recommended that I clean the garbarator.  Telling him that I had (with lemon peels, drano and such)... he told me to try again - only this time, dump ALOT of ice into it, not just a few cubes or any off the counter liquids.

So off I went and brought back 5 lbs of ice.  I forced it into the garbarator and at first, it didn't seem to do too much.  Then as I fed the more in, brown liquid started bubbling back up from the drain and I was like oh crap!!!  Did I just break the garabarator???

...Turns out it was a good thing.  The brown water eventually drained and then after a few more iterations of ice forcing, the garbarator smelled good again!!!  The brown water from what I can gather came about because as the garbarator spun and tossed the ice around, the ice chipped off the old gunk that was inside.  With enough ice all in the garbarator, not only did the hard to get to areas get hit, but also it started to build up a backlog of ice/water/slush.  With the ice in the way, the water started backing up (since during this time, cold tap water was constantly flowing into the garbarator)

All in all, new tricks learnt!  Place now good as new!

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