Useless Conversation

[Fraeg]

I just went to talk to one of our undergraduate interns.   She is using a World of Warcraft: Cataclysm mouse pad.

While I think it is cool that someone as attractive as her plays WoW.  I can't begin to describe how bad of a move it was to bring something like that to our office.   How that mousepad will be interpreted by the powers that be in our office:  I stay up too late, I am a flake, and no you really don't want to offer me a job once I graduate.



*edited to include power tools*  - my brother went to the home depot to buy a cordless drill.   He went to the power tools section, found the drill he wanted on the "wall of tools", then found the corresponding big brown box and took it to the checkout.  He paid for one drill, got home, opened up the cardboard box to find it contained 4 smaller boxes each containing a drill.  4 for the price of 1.  I now have a nice shiny new cordless drill.   Thank you little brother for being so oblivious while shopping, and thank you home depot checkout person for not having a clue.

[Paelos]

I would ask if she plays a healer and if it's an elf. If not, I'm not hiring her.

[Trippy]

Then she probably doesn't want a regular job at your company.

Also, what is she studying? The company I work at is hiring

[MuffinMan]

Well, according to this article a while back job recruiters are being told to avoid WoW players.

[Fraeg]

dunno what she is studying, I assume it is geology or something in the natural sciences.  I will probably try and find a tactful way to tell her that her mousepad does not send a very good message to certain people.

[Fraeg]

Well, according to this article a while back job recruiters are being told to avoid WoW players.

oh not that all over again 

[Arthur_Parker]

It's a legitimate gripe and this thread is 365 pages long

I like to think of it as 635 pages.

[Ironwood]

Watching Sherlock Holmes.

God, it's utter tripe.

[ghost]

Watching Sherlock Holmes.

God, it's utter tripe.

The new one, with Downey?

[Cyrrex]

Watching Sherlock Holmes.

God, it's utter tripe.

I thought it was actually a little better than I expected, but then, my expectations were quite low.  Also, I just pretended it wasn't Sherlock Holmes.

So anyway, power tools.  They sure do spin around and create holes and whatnot.  Not to mention all the cutting and smoothing.

[Minvaren]

I could be convinced to post about toilet and faucet repair, the awesomeness of PEX, lightbulb-changing tools, and assorted.

Man, I'm a page behind...

I have heard a couple of local contractors say they are starting to use PEX, but I have heard other plumbers indicate skepticism due to it being a relatively recent thing.  I hear it's pretty slick and easy to install, though.  Care to share your experience?  I'm looking at a potential replumb (or pipe coating) within the next 10 years.

[Polysorbate80]

Plumbers did virtually all of my house with that stuff, except for a couple of spots like the master shower.  It's amazing how quick it goes in vs. cutting/soldering copper.

House is too new to speak in regards to any long-term issues, but I've got no complaints about the pipes so far.

[rattran]

I've got to replumb this house in spring, pex looks interesting, I'll have to muck about with some and see how it goes.

[bhodi]

Pex is awesome but be really careful. The stuff disintegrates under any UV, so you can't have it anywhere where even indirect sunlight would hit it. Make sure you use the right kind, some will also rust anything they are touching. And you have to use special fittings at either end because of this.

[NowhereMan]

I take it you aren't doing ordinary back squats (which you should be...other forms are a waste of time, assuming you have access to a rack).  Or rather, if you are, you are very definitely doing something wrong - no way your arms should be getting any stress.  Are you doing the ones (forget what they're called) where you press the bar overhead and then squat?

Yeah ordinary back squats, though I think I might have my arms a bit too close together and so there's some muscle stretching. But year, they really weren't under a lot of pressure which was why being in pain and unable to really hold things properly freaked me out a bit. I've been doing them for about 10 weeks now and this is the first time my arms have been stressed by them, seems to be better though. If they fall off this afternoon I'll make sure to have someone log on and mention it

[Paelos]

I saw a woman walking a fully black German Shepherd today. Those dogs are beautiful. And terrifying. I want one.

[Merusk]

It's heartbreaking when they get older and develop hip displasia, though.  My family had to put our childhood shepherd down because she couldn't even get up and was dragging her legs around.

If I ever get a dog it's going to be a mutt, all the purebreds seem to have genetic or personality problems from the years of inbreeding.

[Sky]

What I've heard about PEX has mostly been good. The earlier generations were a bit fussier about crushing and kinking, I think the newer stuff is integrating a sheath to help with those problems. Can't beat the price when you account for installation, assuming you have an installer familiar with the product. If I could plumb my house however I wanted, I'd go tankless with PEX, radiant floors. Still not out of the question if the economy here recovers, I can pay for most of it just selling the copper currently in the house :p

[Merusk]

My former company did their first pex house back in August.  Everyone loved it and when I asked about cost they said it was a wash with the copper prices being what they were.

The hard part is getting the cities to buy into it as they were all skeptical so we can only do it in a few municipalities without a lot of headaches and additional paperwork.  God I love building in Cincinnati.. 20 years behind and stubbornly refusing to admit there might be a better way.

[Paelos]

It's heartbreaking when they get older and develop hip displasia, though.  My family had to put our childhood shepherd down because she couldn't even get up and was dragging her legs around.

If I ever get a dog it's going to be a mutt, all the purebreds seem to have genetic or personality problems from the years of inbreeding.

Labs have a similar issue, but so far I've had good luck with their hips and the new joint meds. They hate getting in the car though.

[Yegolev]

God I love building in Cincinnati.. 20 years behind and stubbornly refusing to admit there might be a better way.

Fucking LeBron!

[Yegolev]

I have heard a couple of local contractors say they are starting to use PEX, but I have heard other plumbers indicate skepticism due to it being a relatively recent thing.  I hear it's pretty slick and easy to install, though.  Care to share your experience?  I'm looking at a potential replumb (or pipe coating) within the next 10 years.

My experience with PEX is that the connections are so easy that it outweighs the other issues, if they can even be called issues.  It's important to remember that it's only a little bendy so don't treat it like a hose.  Use joints like everything else, but of course joining PEX is easier than copper.  Otherwise my experience and knowledge is basically what I read in my handyman magazines.

As for Sherlock Holmes, what is actually tripe are the radio shows.  I'm fine with Guy Ritchie making the Van Helsing of Holmes movies.

[Merusk]

God I love building in Cincinnati.. 20 years behind and stubbornly refusing to admit there might be a better way.

Fucking LeBron!

   Cinci doesn't care about b-ball.  We can't even keep a minor league team around. Too many of "those people," you know.  We've got 2 hockey teams, though!

[Polysorbate80]

If I could plumb my house however I wanted, I'd go tankless with PEX, radiant floors.

The one downside to tankless is the power requirements, you'll almost certainly have to get some wiring done to support it.

[Oban]

I just had a bathroom redone last month and I really wanted to put in a tankless water, but all five of the contractors that gave bids told me that tankless heaters have a lot of issues and strongly suggested I stick with the existing solution.  Apparently the number one complaint they hear is that it takes too long for the water to heat up.  Which is odd, because I thought that was the main reason, after energy savings, for using tankless water heaters.

[Sky]

I'd wonder how long is too long. I really hate the archaic tank of heated water that hangs out in my basement (though it's not even two years old so I'm stuck with it for a while).

[bhodi]

What, really? I thought that tankless water heaters "heat up" in seconds as well. That's very strange. I, too, find the huge tank annoying, though I tweaked it as much as possible for energy savings. The only thing I really use hot water for are showers, so I simply slowly decreased the temperature until it's only slightly hotter than the hottest shower I'd ever want to take. Then I only use a tiny bit of cold water. t's way below the "recommended temperature" and I like to think it's saved me a ton of money, though I have never gone back to check.

[RhyssaFireheart]

Well, anecdotal info ahead for the tankless water heater -

My mom's house has one and it was in the basement in the typical place - underneath the kitchen/laundry room area upstairs.  Which works fine for those rooms, but not too great for the bathrooms at the other "end" of the house (ranch w/ full basement).  Problem was the water in the showers would take forever to warm up and never truly became hot.  You need a certain amount of water pressure before the heating elements kick in for a hot water request and if the tankless WH wasn't getting that, the water never really heated up.  So after dealing with a jerkarsed repairman talking to us like we were idiots (seriously, female =/= can't understand plumbing) the end result is that mom runs her shower full blast for the few moments it takes her to get ready to step under the water and adjusts down accordingly.  A bit of a waste, IMO, but necessary in order to get the tankless WH to kick in.  At least with a regular tank WH, you'd have lukewarm water once the cold stuff sitting in the pipes is out of the way.

[Minvaren]

From what I understand, you can install a water recirculator on a timer just after the water heater to have better heat-up times for relatively cheap.

My house is currently plumbed with steel, so it's only $20 to replace the 6' section and elbow that I need to do.  The only real downside is driving to the Home Depot to get the pipe threaded after it's cut to length.  Debating replacing the other 6' between this section and the water heater (it's sprung a leak before as well) and insulating the length while I'm at it for energy savings.

[Sky]

You know what's fun? A call from the fiancee who is at my house on her day off saying "You know that back wall of the kitchen? There's a leak." "How bad, I'll be home for lunch in an hour." "Do you have a bucket I can use?" 

I wasn't going to rip out another wall this year. Goddammit. Hopefully I can fix the leak since it's probably just the confluence of a roof valley over a (ugly, stupid) steel awning that's pulled away and probably rotted the wood (like the other ones have).

Ah, home ownership, full of surprises. Hey, at least it will be single digits to below zero to perform the work!

[murdoc]

Is this where I can say it's my birthday today?

It's my birthday today.

[Merusk]

Yes, tankless are supposed to be instant heat.  I don't have much info on them since we don't get much call for them around here (20 years behind, remember.)  but I do know that the new trend is to simply put smaller, localized heaters within a few feet of the demand source because of the complaint that "it takes too long to heat up."  

Complaints about 'takes too long' wouldn't be remedied by any different solution though because, hey, the water still has to travel from the tank to the tap.  The water standing in your pipes will be the same temp with a tank or a tankless.  I suspect most people think tankless = insta-hot and "damnit it should be hot RIGHT NOW."  Nope, the real purpose is to avoid having the kettle on 24/7 when you only need it on 40mins or so a day, so it's energy savings not insta-hot water.


Rhyssa, I think you meant flow not pressure, but there's mins for both.  Flow has to be .66gpm, which should be attainable by any shower head, even water conserving ones.  Pressure has to be between 60 and 80 psi, but if you're below that you'd notice it elsewhere, like washing your hands and dishes or watering the garden. Plus if it's below that you've got problems the city needs to address, I'd think. Around here the city service mandate is 65psi min.

If it never really gets hot enough, I'd almost suspect they just installed a unit that's too small for the pipes & water flow.  That's what the "Degree rise" is on the fixtures..  So if you're getting incoming water at 55 degrees (ground temp) and it needs to be 120 degrees that's a 64 degree rise.  Units typically have a 77 and 45 degree rise listed, along with the max GPM they can sustain at that rise.  If your shower is going at 4gpm but can only sustain 3.3 at 77* then you're going to get cold water.  Of course, the pro should have known this but who knows.

[Musashi]

Watching Sherlock Holmes.

God, it's utter tripe.

The actor who plays Sherlock sucks donkey balls.  He's the epitome of poncy British twatitude.  I want to stab him in the eyes.  The writing is far from Doyle.  And the leaps in logic that the supposed 'genius' asks you to suspend disbelief for when he makes his elementary deductions are many and cumbersome.  That said, the third episode is decent.  And I thought the dude who plays Watson was actually fairly good.  If you just pretend the show is about him, it's bearable.  And really, it could be.

[Polysorbate80]

Yes, tankless are supposed to be instant heat.  I don't have much info on them since we don't get much call for them around here (20 years behind, remember.)  but I do know that the new trend is to simply put smaller, localized heaters within a few feet of the demand source because of the complaint that "it takes too long to heat up."  

Yeah, this is the way to go with it.  You have to wire for it though, nobody I know has their bathrooms wired for 220 (except for one guy with the hot water tank *in* his bathroom)

We wanted this for the new house to ease the demands being made on a single hot water tank for a large home, but the contractor forgot (and then claimed we hadn't told him) and it was going to cost too much money to remedy.  So instead we went with a second hot water tank pre-heated from the geothermal system.

[Yegolev]

Is this where I can say it's my birthday today?

It's my birthday today.

Yay!

I'm interested in a tankless water heater because the 40 gallon unit I have now doesn't supply enough hot water.  It also has a convection flow going so that I get rather warm water right away in the master bath, which eventually becomes hot and then later just warm and finally cold.  My plan is to install a propane-driven tankless unit directly below the master bath, which will solve three problems.  Faster hot water, less energy use, and unlimited supply.  Actually doing this is, for some reason, an ongoing political battle.

I will mention that after about six years of constantly-circulating water, the anode in a typical water heater is going to be completely corroded.  This will cause frequent failure of the heating elements, if electric.  Unsure of the consequences with a gas unit.

Unrelated: Alton Brown will be doing a presentation at my son's school on Feb 12.  $35 for GA and $125 for a limited-seating luncheon with him before the show.  I'm on the fence since I keep thinking I'll just run into the bastard one day, but it might be cool.  If anyone else is in the general Marietta, GA area and wants it, I can post a link.

He says his name is pronounced "owl-ton".