Sunday, February 8, 2015

Home Repair: It always breaks on a Sunday

Isn't it always the way? You're relaxing on a Sunday afternoon when you discover a critical part of your home has broken and few stores are open and repair people charge triple. In this case, I heard water running when I was doing laundry. I thought I might have had a burst outdoor faucet. The shutoff for that is in my furnace room. Upon turning on the light, I see water all over the floor and my expansion tank hanging down instead of pointing up.


Fortunately, Home Depot was open and had exactly what I needed. This is what $33 will buy you:

It's a fairly simple fix. You spin off the now full 4.7 gallon steel tank. A couple wraps of teflon tape go around the threaded end of the tank. For good measure, I removed the elbow and put more tape on that part. It was a good idea because there was no tape on the threads which were engaged. The new tank spins on and then is adjusted for position. It took about 10 minutes plus another 20 to go to Home Depot. It's good to be handy. 

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