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Real Life Plumbing Advice for People Who Don't Want To Call A Plumber

How To Choose The Right Emergency Water Shut-Off Valve

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So in this video I go over how to choose the right emergency water shut-off valve. I’ll show you a couple of different options.

Everyone should have these near their kitchen and bathroom sinks as well as by their toilets. They are your only safeguard in a true water emergency so I highly recommend you test them and if they don’t hold, REPLACE THEM!

The most popular ones I use are the I.P.S and copper versions which are available in straight, angle and dual port versions. They’re available with washers or as 1/4 turn ball type valves. They have a compression version which could come in handy, for instance, when working on copper pipe and you can’t get a 100% shut down of the water.

In this case you wouldn’t be able to solder but you can pop one of these on tighten it up with your adjustable wrench and you’re good to go.

They’re available in P.E.X and push type (SharkBite) versions which I don’t show in the video only because here in New York they’re not currently code approved.

All of them are available as straight, angle, dual port, washer type and ball type so you have many choices. The dual port valves are pretty cool because you can control two appliances with one valve.

On the other hand if you have to shut down one of them, you’re going to have two appliances out of service.

Check out the video and if you have questions, as always info@bobsplumbingvideos.com.

HAPPY PLUMBING!

How To Cut Out a Rotted Waste Nipple & Remove Old Galvanized Pipe

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In this video we’ll be cutting out a rotted waste nipple and remove old galvanized pipe.

So you reach under the kitchen sink to grab some paper towels or some dish soap and everything is soaking wet. You open up the doors to take a closer look and you notice a rust stain running down from where the waste pipe exits the cabinet.

Upon further investigation, you realize that the bottom of that nipple is all rotted out and has probably been leaking for some time. Welcome to my world guys!

You think to yourself “all I have to do is get under the sink with my trusty pipe wrench, remove and replace the offending piece of pipe, right?” Not so fast my friends…the pipe may be rotten where it connects to the “P” trap but inside the wall it’s fully intact so there is no way that piece is going to screw out. If you don’t believe me I’ll hang out a bit and wait for you to prove me wrong….

How’d it go?

I know. The reason it rotted out under the cabinet is because the nipple is galvanized iron and the trap is made of brass thus creating something called electrolysis which happens when you join two dissimilar metals together.

Over time, the iron nipple will just rot and always end up leaking.

If the piece inside the wall is screwed into a galvanized fitting, it’s fully intact and short of placing a two foot wrench on it, I can pretty much guarantee it’s not going to move.

Enough talk, watch the video as I take you step by step on how to remove offending piece.

FYI, I referenced the Sawzall blade in the video to be 18 TPI (teeth per inch) and realized after the shoot that it was in fact 10 TPI .

They’ll both work but if this is your first attempt at this I’d go with the 18. If after watching the video you still have questions you know how to reach me, info@bobsplumbingvideos.com.

HAPPY PLUMBING!

How To Replace a Kitchen Spray Diverter or Hose

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In this video, we’ll cover how to replace a kitchen spray diverter also known as a kitchen spray hose.

Picture this… you’re preparing to clean the dishes after a splendid meal, you soaped up the dinner plates and it’s time for a quick rinse. You hit the button on the sprayer head and nothing happens, you hit it again and now the water stops coming out of the nozzle, one more time and you hear what sounds like a machine gun spraying bullets.

What’s going on?

Relax folks; this is a fairly common problem on faucets equipped with a hose and spray attachment.

The spray diverter is the likely cause of the problem and it’s a relatively easy fix.

Just as the name implies, its function is to divert the water from the nozzle out through the sprayer head when you hit the button on the back of the head.

This generally happens on older faucets (five years or older), but I’ve seen it happen on faucets that were in service less than a year.

As a general rule, the diverter is located at the base of the nozzle and you have to remove the nozzle to get to it. You would simply unscrew it and as I always recommend, take it with you to the plumbing supply or home center to match it up.

Once the new one is in place, simply replace the nozzle, hit the spray head and you should be good to go.

Now over the years I’ve run across manufacturers who have located the diverter inside the aerator where the water flows from, but the last one I saw like that was many years ago from the Valley faucet Company which no longer exists.

If you’re having such a problem with your faucet, I would recommend removing the nozzle and my bet is that the diverter will be right there sitting in the base of the faucet.

Check out the video, and if you still have questions, drop me a line at info@bobsplumbingvideos.com.

HAPPY PLUMBING!

Which Tubular Nuts, Tubular Pipes and Washers To Use and When

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In this video i show you different types of tubular nuts, tubular pipes and washers and explain when you use them. From connecting your kitchen sink strainer, sink trap or even toilet popup assembly, you’ll learn the best parts to use to get the job done right.

The method used for connecting a kitchen sink strainer or a lavatory pop-up assembly to a sink trap can be accomplished by using a variety of light weight tubular pipe. I’ve seen it made of plastic in other parts of the country but here In N.Y.City the most popular material is light weight brass tubing which can be anywhere from 20 to 22 gauge in weight.

The nuts and washers used to assemble them come in a variety of materials and depending on the application you may decide to use one over the other.

When you purchase these tubular fittings they come with brass plated zinc coupling nuts which are not the best choice because in as little as six months time they then tend to bond to the threads of the tubing and the only way to remove them is by cutting them off.

The alternative would be to purchase premium fittings which are a heavy 17 gauge weight and come with solid brass coupling nuts. The only down side of course is that they’re super expensive and honestly they’re not easy to find. So with this in mind I’d like you to check out my video on how I go about putting the tubing together.

I personally like to use the beveled nylon washers over the rubber ones, but the truth is either will work. The key here is to lubricate the threads of the fittings with plumbers water proof silicone grease so the nuts will glide right onto the threads. Do this in conjunction with the beveled nylon washer or rubber and you’ll get a leak proof joint 99% of the time.

If you can’t find or don’t have silicone grease, use pipe joint compound it’ll get the job done. If you get stuck or are unsure about something in this video, drop me a line at info@bobsplumbingvideos.com.

HAPPY PLUMBING!

Cool tool from Ridgid – Faucet and Sink Wrench

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Buy Now – Ridgid Offset Wrench Tool

I first discovered this tool while browsing around the plumbing department at Home Depot.

Although I am a tool geek, I thought to myself “just another ridiculous product” for the weekend plumber. “Real” plumbers use basin wrenches so why would I even entertain making a purchase like this?

Well, slowly but surely, more and more faucet manufacturers were replacing metal locknuts with plastic ones. My basin wrench was getting the job done but I started to find that when I attempted to drive the locknuts home, I would break the tabs off them. This was really annoying because once that happened I was unable to tighten them any further. Well, I broke down, swallowed my pride and purchased the Ridgid faucet and sink installer and to my surprise,

I found that this is a really a cool tool! It comes with a variety of useful inserts on either end which makes life under a sink much more effective. I won’t go into all of its uses in this article but will only to say that a picture (in this case, a video) is worth a thousand words.

I encourage you to watch the video where I explain in detail exactly how I use it and how it can make faucet installation a breeze. The strainer wrench and handy emergency water shut off valve wrench is worth the price of the tool alone.

It’s ergonomically designed so you can tork up the locknuts and basin nuts without using any other tools, enough said. Check out the video and if you still have questions you can always reach me at info@bobsplumbingvideos.com.

Find Out More About This Ridgid Offset Wrench Tool

HAPPY PLUMBING!