My wife had a simple request today: Could you install the kitchen boiler? I've been too scared to start this project because I don't have any experience yet with DIY plumbing. She helped me by making a diagram. What needs to happen is that the cold water line must be diverted to the boiler with a T split. Then the hot water line from the central heating needs to be plugged, and the hot water for the tap comes from the boiler. Finally, the boiler needs to be connected to the drain. Now, while I don't have experience with plumbing, I do know project management. And if you start by cutting the cold water, hot water, and drainage, you'll end up with none of them functional at the end of the day. So I focused on cold water only. And it was still an epic fail.
It's day two, and we're taking no prisoners. Instead of trying to negotiate with the stupid 16mm pipes, I'm replacing them with 15mm copper wherever possible. The only 16mm connection should be at the bottom, but we'll get to that. I ripped out the board holding up the pipes and built a new one from scratch, using the old board as a template. I then traced where the hardware should sit and built what I can only refer to as a Contraption.
I bought proper spacers for 15mm pipers to hopefully transfer some of the enormous weight of the Contraption (seriously, it's like three kgs without water in the pipes!) to the board instead of putting it all on the connection at the bottom. I was smart and brought the old connector for the tap to the hardware store, which turned out to be a 3/8" connection. That's right; I needed a 15mm to inches connector in a country that has never used imperial measurements. Luckily, the store carries those.
Unfortunately, I was also dumb. While I tested if the connection works (it does), I bought a male connector instead of a female one. Instead of going back to the hardware store for a fifth time this week, I reused the old hardware and connected an angled 15mm connector to a 15mm to 16mm converter to an angled 16mm to 3/8" female connector. I realize that's entirely stupid, but it works, and I'll replace it when it's time to tackle the hot water connection.
The advantage of building an entirely separate Contraption is that I can test it before mounting it in the kitchen cupboard. I double-checked every connection before hooking it up to the garden hose. I held my breath when I opened the tap, but it actually worked on the first try! Water only came out of the holes it was supposed to.
After dinner, I turned off the water main and installed the contraption. It appeared to go swimmingly; the copper tube actually aligned with the 16mm pipe from the house on the first try! But when my wife turned the water main back on, small leaks were everywhere on the Contraption. These sprung up because the whole system was now under pressure. I was able to fix these quickly by turning the offending connections tighter, but my wife noted that the water meter was still ticking up. I looked under the cupboard where a veritable waterfall was going into the crawlspace, originating from the convertor to 15mm. This connection is an awkward place, and it was extremely difficult to tighten. After spending another two hours on it, my wife reminded me again that throwing in the towel is okay.
I pulled out the Contraption and once again put on the watertight seal. Day two of being unable to use the kitchen sink ends in bitter defeat as well.
