This was originally called ‘Plumbing Sucks’ but apparently I’ve already used that title so here is the current one. On account of it being the festive season it’s a lot less sweary than I wanted it to be originally.

ANYWAY

I ordered a new water pump as my old one was starting to sound like a whale giving birth (and this isn’t a small baby by the sounds of it) and I wanted to replace it before it died horribly. I got a higher pressure one as well as the water pressure I have isn’t great, and isn’t good enough to run the shower well enough. The old one would be kept as a spare.

So it arrived, and I went to switch it out. Except…. while it’s out, why not clean the lines, right?! And I may as well change the filters out, it’s been a while. And since the filters are out, why not properly through bolt the straps that hold the fridge in place on, instead of just using screws? And I need to replace the shower controls with the spinny ones as I keep accidently activating the lever ones while I’m sat on the loo, leading to water spraying everywhere.

So I started by filling the tanks, adding bleach, sloshing it all around and then leaving it for a few hours. I then had to drain, refill, drain again and then (hopefully) the bleach would have gone. Except it takes a couple hours with my pump to pump out all the water (making dying manatee noises the whole time) and I started late, so wasn’t able to finish it that night. So no running water, hooray…

While I was waiting to pump out I moved my fridge is preparation to redo the mounting brackets. First time it’s been moved for over two years and it is hella gross back there

YUK. Probably have to clean behind there more often

On the plus side I found all this good stuff behind there including Emma’s ridiculously priced sunglasses that she lost during the round-island trip

I managed to do most of the brackets with throughbolts (using the ‘tape a spanner to the nut and the wall’ technique) except for two, which I couldn’t reach the back of, so had to screw back in. Hopefully that won’t be back to bite me in the bum!

The next day I finished draining and refilling the tank and it was time to replace the filters! The undersink one went in ok, but the main one turned out to take proprietary filters! That were only sold from West Marine! Who are now out of business in Canada! SHIT

So I went and bought a new filter housing, ditching the old one at the front of the dock and went to connect it all in

Except it didn’t come with FITTINGS. ARGHBARGLE. By this time it was too late to go back to the shops, so another evening without running water. ARGH.

The next day I picked up the fittings and vowed to finish this job. I installed the fittings in the new filter housing

and installed it. Next it was time to install the pump! This took a little while but was finally DONE.

Then it was time for a test! Which was immediately greeted with a PSSSHHHH noise and a cartoon-style jet of water, seen below.

So I stopped THAT obvious leak, but then had to track down and fix 4 more – either because the new pumps slightly higher pressure caused them or they were just there and I’d been ignoring them. Not sure which.

Once it FINALLY was all done, I went to switch the shower controls, caught the top of my head on the cupboard latch and immediately gave up. I’ll do it another time.

The good news is, the new pump is a lot quieter and the water flow is a lot better – even the shower!

 

Now hopefully I don’t have to do any more plumbing for a LONG time. Also the ‘while I’m there’ syndrome is the WORST

 

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