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.
I’ve seen that (and a slightly clogged aerator can definitely whack the flow!), but in this case, from my original post: “Taking the aerator off doesn’t change the flow rate much.”
So, I suspect EPA made the mfgrs. limit flow elsewhere, as removing an aerator is very easy.
No disagreement there!
Well, no problem with our shower (which has a shower head about 18 years old).
‘Dat funny!
Yeah, I’m thinking a lot of the restriction may be in the tubes that run over from the hot and cold controls to the faucet stem and diverter... Frictional and perhaps turbulence effects at the “corners”.
No swelling visible (phone or batteries). I’ve seen that elsewhere, however! I chuck lithiums at the 1st sign of anything like that.
I think you are talking about the aerator? The diverter in my faucet is in the stem / base, says the drawing / parts list. No screen, just a device that kicks water away from the faucet when the spray hose is used.
Replacement battery will only charge to 41% in 10 hours. It did just now go up to 41% from the 40% it was at, but I don’t know how long that 1% took, exactly. I’m thinking this replacement battery was defective from the start.
That’s serious business right there.
And I’ve designed and stamped some reasonably serious plumbing work, including some commercial kitchens.
Holey Cr...!
I’d be happy with 4 - 5 GPM (at 45 psi).
Not that I wouldn’t mind being able to afford something like that...
They do seem to be a little overkill.
Here is a Moen 4gpm
https://www.amazon.com/Moen-Chrome-Pulldown-Laundry-4736/dp/B0C29BCXS2
#6 Amazon won’t ship aerators to California that exceed 1.8 gallons per minute.
I either remove the restrictor or use a nail to make the holes bigger.
_____________________________
In 2015, the California Energy Commission adopted new kitchen and lavatory faucet standards, setting the maximum flow rate for kitchen faucets and aerators at 1.8 gallons per minute (gpm) with optional temporary flow of 2.2 gpm at 60 pounds per square inch (psi). California also set the maximum flow rate for private lavatory faucets at 1.2 gpm and the maximum flow rate for public lavatory faucets at 0.5 gpm. The standards went into effect in January 2016.
https://appliance-standards.org/product/faucets
#6 I am in California. This is what I see when I go to the link you posted.
This item cannot be shipped to your selected delivery location. Please choose a different delivery location.
Just damn.
You know, I wasn’t inclined to carry on his conversation, you seemed to be coming in with a tone that seemed hotter than conversational, as it seemed in the thread.
Then I realized after reading some of your other posts, it is apparent you are either a plumber or in the business, and were viewing it from a professional perspective, which explained to me why I had the perception you came in hotter than the thread required, that there was something more than the conversational banter on this thread.
I didn’t see that it was possible you were speaking from a professional experience (I presume) which makes you more critical of a plumbing professional who wouldn’t have gone out of his way to illustrate this thing to a customer as you might well have in a display of good customer service, and you regarded the attitude of that plumber with some disdain.
I understand that, if I read it correctly.
In reality, I noticed this some days after the installation that the water was cooler. I suppose when I called the office to discuss it, they simply were putting me off because they didn’t want to send someone back out. I endured it for a while, until I drilled down online to see how to take the flow controller apart, because I figured there was a set screw of some kind to adjust.
I tried a few times, but didn’t realize I had to pop off a chrome cap on the very tip of the handle to reach the Allen screw to begin disassembly. In that discovery, I saw how to adjust the temperature, so I learned how that way.
But it wasn’t evident how to begin the disassembly.
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