Posted on 02/02/2024 5:54:25 AM PST by Paul R.
Faucets: Has anyone modified a modern faucet for higher flow? Cell Phone Battery: A possible fix for not taking a charge.
I'll ask about the faucet first. Has anyone modified one of these new fangled / EPA limited flow rate kitchen faucet for higher flow rate? These damm things are just too slow, especially off a well system where you only have 40-45 psi water pressure to begin with, and that's after the pump just ran. At best you get close to 1/2 gallon per minute. Heck, us old types don't have a full minute to wait around while filling a big pot (etc.) with water for any of a number of things. We recently had our Delta kitchen faucet go bad and I replaced it with a Tuscany "Marianna" faucet. We really like the big high arc (those big pots and pans get under it easier) but the flow stinks. Looking at the faucet "exploded" diagram, it's really difficult to tell where the biggest restriction is. If it's at the diverter, not much can be done, that I can see. Ditto the lines that run horizontally from the hot and cold feeds to the stem / diverter. The stem above the diverter seems to hold an unusually large amount of water, so I'm guessing the ID is largish and not a factor. Taking the aerator off doesn't change the flow rate much. (I tested it.) Maybe I'm "hosed"? (Pun intended.)
As for the cell phone battery, after several years of use, the battery was not charging well, or holding charge well. (It may be that it charged to full voltage, as it would charge to "100%" fairly quickly per the charge indicator on the phone, but, holding the charge or using it for calls was a different matter. Not so good!) One day after it ran low it began to not even want to charge much at all. I have several chargers, and none did better. I purchased a replacement battery and to my dismay it was worse. After several hours of charging with the phone off, booting the phone up it would get fully turned on, but showed low battery level -- and then shut down within a few seconds!
At that point I thought maybe something in the phone itself such as the charge regulater was toast. But... I recalled an old trick from Ni-Cad battery days: "Zap" the battery with a charged capacitor. This seemed pretty darn dicey with a lithium battery, but, I have a 4x in parallel 18650 battery bank pulled from a laptop supply (back when laptops had pretty bulky battery packs!) So... my cell phone's original battery was still out: Put on eye protection, work in area with no flammables nearby. Clip leads to the old battery pack, and gingerly contact + and - on the cell phone battery for a second. I observed no spark, no bulging, no heating of the source or destination (cell phone battery). Hmmm... Try it for 2 seconds. Same result. 5 seconds. Same result. 4 x 5 second contacts with 10 seconds break between contacts. Ditto. Was the cell phone battery a hair warmer, or was that because I was holding on to it? Hmmm... Repeat the 4x sequence again. Same result. So, I reinstalled the old battery into the phone, leaving the battery cover off, and, voila, it seems to be charging normally, maybe a bit slow, but definitely taking charge according to the battery level indicator. I give it a couple hours - gee, it's up to 40% says the indicator. I badly needed to make a brief call and send a couple texts, so I did so. No problem. Go back to charging, leave it on charge overnight, I wake up to 100% charge on the phone this morning. I'll be damned. I'd also "zapped" the replacement battery (same procedure) before I retired to bed last night. Swap it in -- now IT seems to be taking a charge. That was only a little while ago, so it's only up to 27%. But I did just now compose and send a couple brief texts, and the phone didn't crash.
I'll be darned. Sometimes (sometimes!) a car (lead acid) battery will respond to "reconditioning"" to squeeze a bit more life out of it. And there were those NiCads I mentioned. That seemed to work maybe 50% of the time, if a battery was not too far gone or allowed to set a long time.
I've NOT yet used the cell phone with either battery pack, for an extended period, much less see if the charge will hold up with light to no conversations / texting for at least a day. So, this experiment is "in progress". But at least it appears I can keep the cell phone on long enough to receive security code texts and such, which was my biggest concern, as I'll have multiple need to do that in the next few days.
When Moen ran the apology Home Depot was the store at the time, today everything everywhere just about is junk.
If people can afford it, find a plumber who will look after you and who will know which industry products you should buy from him.
If someone can’t afford the luxury of paying expensive service people to do everything then just do your research before you buy.
As far as the faucets go, just remove the plastic inserts installed in the faucet head. Same goes for the shower head. Don’t know about phone batteries. Was forced into buying an APPLE iPhone!!! No thanks to the bride pushing me to get one!
Almost everything sold at Home Depot, Lowes or any other mass merchandising store is made to sell at a certain price point.
So, the manufacturer will cheapen the quality so they can sell each unit to HD at $49. Whereas a similar looking faucet of the same brand may sell at a plumber supply house for 50% more. With faucets it comes down to the weight of the casting and metal vs plastic internal parts.
Moen faucets stopped being good quality when they close the casting factories in Elyria, OH and moved production to CHINA.
Delta is the only faucet, the last time I checked, still made in the USA.
As my previous post stated, GROEHE were my choice 10+ years ago.
I also bought them from an online faucet retailer build.com
As a consumer, I had no knowledge of this, and when I complained, the plumber said he was not allowed to change it due to code restrictions.
Grohe is a good German brand, I don’t know if they kept with it but years ago they were reaching out to the repair industry and trying to build a system for parts to be available for repairs, something that Kohler thought was beneath them. Kohler snubbed the repair industry and so their high-end consumers suffered for it.
What a crummy plumber, he was probably a construction/remodel type plumber who didn’t care about the customer and just wanted to go in and do whatever mechanical chore he had to do and leave.
He should have asked you into the bathroom, showed you how it works, and then you and he played with it until it was where you wanted it, and then left the directions from the box with you
My house was built in 1972.
My shower stall valves are the old style. NOT a mixing valve which became code sometime AFTER 1972.
When I moved in 13 years ago I replace the handles. Went right down to the local Home Depot and bought new Chrome handles to replace the original ugly plastic handles.
A few years ago I had to replace the valve. Again back to the local HD and bought a replacement valve. The funny thing is I realized that the previous home owner had bought the wrong valve for the right side handle. Meaning it turned counter clockwise to open it up. Whereas the right hand(cold) valve should turn clockwise to open up.
I am sure it was the previous homeowner that did this because there were multiple things he did that were absolutely wrong when it came to repairs around the house.
That’s funny. LOL
The nice thing about that American Standard Cadet is that you only need to flush ONCE.
My 4-year old cell phone battery was not holding a charge. Went to the Batteries Plus store to see if they had a replacement. For a Blackberry? Yes, for a Blackberry. They checked, couldn’t get one. One clerk says to the other, “He should check with Abdul.”
Abdul in the cellphone repair shop in the strip mall down the street ordered the battery on a Thursday afternoon, installed it in five minutes next Monday afternoon, good as new. Total cost, $40. Been working like it did when it was new, and that was over 3 months ago.
They've now reduced the diameter of the tube within the faucet.
Gone are the days when you could remove the rubber flow restricter.
If that old valve was a Moen, you can just take off the handle and turn the cartridge to get the hot and cold on the correct side. The cartridge can be put in upside down and often is.
And for shower fixtures?
Yeah, lots of knock-offs out there, of questionable origin. I bought one for a Samsung, and though the actual capacity was about 80% of the original, it has held up amazingly well for over 3 years on an old phone I only use at home as a WiFi terminal. It's roll of the dice.
“”””And for shower fixtures?””””
Do as my customer did, he wanted me to install his $4,000 overhead rainfall shower head and paid me the $2200 or so to run larger water pipes for it and to hang it.
About all you can do for a showerhead is look online for reviews and comments about the flow.
How bad is yours?
My moms house had that same Pepto Bismal pink wall tile in the bathroom too. With the plastic towel bar in between the parts that are mortared to the wall. Making them impossible to change short of sledge hammering them off.
Your door casing is also the exact same.
Moms house was in WNY, built in 1967.
I recall reading that there should be a little grease and debris on the dishes, because dishwasher detergents are designed to work with that.
Costco was/is selling a Kohler “LIR” kitchen sink faucet that is supposed to have a lifetime warranty. About $179.00. If you run across one of these, run away as fast as possible. The flow rate is miserably slow. If anyone knows how this POS can be fixed, please let me know.
This ain't what you're asking for but still, that might be a good place to start. Get a bigger well pump and improve your PSI and flow rate on the whole house, especially if you're trying to wash dishes at the same time you're running the washer or whatever.
Well, you asked. :)
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