Advice The Home Improvement/Automation Thread

fuuuuck me.

about 6pm last night I went into the basement and shut the whole house valve so I could do some quick maintenance, like a 10 minute job.

I shut it off, and on the well side of the pressure tank, a fitting bursts and hits me in the chest with a fire hose of water. I shut off the valve before the burst, and it just keeps coming at me, a 50 gallon pressure tank worth of water. Run over and turn off the well pump breaker, soaking wet, and then run outside and turn on every spigot to try to relieve the pressure as fast as possible

Strangest thing, the whole well tank and fittings are only about 7 years old. and the whole well-side was just corroded to nothing. What ruptured was a 1 inch brass ball valve. In some ways im glad it happened when i was there cause that thing was a ticking time bomb, i could crush the threaded portion in my hands. When i was taking it all apart, two more fittings dissolved on me.

Looks like galvanic corrosion.... but everything was brass on brass. Im wondering if the pressure tank tee is some funky variety of brass that is corroding away anything i screw into it.

Thankfully i had enough parts on hand to jury rig it back together, put as much pvc as i could to avoid the same thing happening again.
 
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fuuuuck me.

about 6pm last night I went into the basement and shut the whole house valve so I could do some quick maintenance, like a 10 minute job.

I shut it off, and on the well side of the pressure tank, a fitting bursts and hits me in the chest with a fire hose of water. I shut off the valve before the burst, and it just keeps coming at me, a 50 gallon pressure tank worth of water. Run over and turn off the well pump breaker, soaking wet, and then run outside and turn on every spigot to try to relieve the pressure as fast as possible

Strangest thing, the whole well tank and fittings are only about 7 years old. and the whole well-side was just corroded to nothing. What ruptured was a 1 inch brass ball valve. In some ways im glad it happened when i was there cause that thing was a ticking time bomb, i could crush the threaded portion in my hands. When i was taking it all apart, two more fittings dissolved on me.

Looks like galvanic corrosion.... but everything was brass on brass. Im wondering if the pressure tank tee is some funky variety of brass that is corroding away anything i screw into it.

Thankfully i had enough parts on hand to jury rig it back together, put as much pvc as i could to avoid the same thing happening again.
That sucks. A few different things can cause the galvanic corrosion, not a bad read ... https://www.balkanplumbing.com/galvanic-corrosion-pipes-plumbing-copper/
 
fuuuuck me.

about 6pm last night I went into the basement and shut the whole house valve so I could do some quick maintenance, like a 10 minute job.

I shut it off, and on the well side of the pressure tank, a fitting bursts and hits me in the chest with a fire hose of water. I shut off the valve before the burst, and it just keeps coming at me, a 50 gallon pressure tank worth of water. Run over and turn off the well pump breaker, soaking wet, and then run outside and turn on every spigot to try to relieve the pressure as fast as possible

Strangest thing, the whole well tank and fittings are only about 7 years old. and the whole well-side was just corroded to nothing. What ruptured was a 1 inch brass ball valve. In some ways im glad it happened when i was there cause that thing was a ticking time bomb, i could crush the threaded portion in my hands. When i was taking it all apart, two more fittings dissolved on me.

Looks like galvanic corrosion.... but everything was brass on brass. Im wondering if the pressure tank tee is some funky variety of brass that is corroding away anything i screw into it.

Thankfully i had enough parts on hand to jury rig it back together, put as much pvc as i could to avoid the same thing happening again.
I hate dealing with plumbing. Every job that I've ever touched turned into a disaster.
 
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A friend of ours just had their water softener burst into the lines into the house. The fallout from that is enough of a nightmare that I'm moving replacing our water softener waaay up the todo list.
 
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A friend of ours just had their water softener burst into the lines into the house. The fallout from that is enough of a nightmare that I'm moving replacing our water softener waaay up the todo list.
IF you use a lot of salt there(2+ bags a week) , consider spending the extra $100-300 for a metered system(based on water use) over a timed cycle. It will pay for itself in a year or two and a hella lot less salt lugging. Sounds like your friends had salty brine dump into their plumbing - major suck.. Hope they realized it before watering any housepolants. Dead AF..
 
IF you use a lot of salt there(2+ bags a week) , consider spending the extra $100-300 for a metered system(based on water use) over a timed cycle. It will pay for itself in a year or two and a hella lot less salt lugging. Sounds like your friends had salty brine dump into their plumbing - major suck.. Hope they realized it before watering any housepolants. Dead AF..
No, it wasn't the brine that was the issue. It dumped all the resin into the house lines. Waaay worse.

And two bags a week? Is that a thing? A couple of bags lasts us months.
 
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No, it wasn't the brine that was the issue. It dumped all the resin into the house lines. Waaay worse.

And two bags a week? Is that a thing? A couple of bags lasts us months.
Oh shit major head failure.
2 bags a week - salt use is directly tied to on your water hardness (and whether it's metered or timed cycles). I'm a 10 grains/million so I use maybe 1/2 bag a week, depending on amount of water used. My previous house was 45 parts so 2-2.5 bags a week. Some people are over 100 part. THose poor pricks use almost a bag a day.
 
are water softeners even worth it
Definitely if you need it. Some people and businesses even soften city water. At 10 part I barely need to, many municipal waters are close to that or slightly above. "Polishing" that with some potassium chloride salt and removing some calcium and magnesium makes for cleaner baths and better drinks. And adds potassium back - most of us could use more of that. And fuck those water stains.
 
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Nice to have. Great to shower with. Less scale on shit.

But if I didn't have one, I don't think I'd really care.
WHen we bought this house the softner was a rental and I let them take it. Then we went several months without. SOunds like you, like us, lucked out with better water.