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.
Disclaimer: Lithium batteries present significant hazards. Use due caution when working with them!! And, I'm not recommending anything at this point (besides caution!)
As for the faucets:
That "Lifetime Warranty" Delta faucet developed a leak right through the side of the stem, a few inches up! In just under 10 years. Definitely underwhelming. IIRC it was about $70, new. So, not pricey, but not a no-name cheapy. Std. "chrome" finish.
With a lot of work I could probably cobble in a cold only 2nd faucet. Some of those still have much higher flow rates. Easier but would look pretty darn crude would be, essentially, a "garden hose" sort of feed for fast cold water. We really don't need high flow hot water, I think.
Note: I’m in an area that does not have water table level problems, other than it being too high about half the year!
It's like the dishwasher thing...Governemtn wants you to use less water...'cept they don't figure in that almost all of us wash off our dishes before they go in the dish washer. The thought of putting dishes laced with sauce, oil, debris in the dishwasher is disgusting. We use the dishwasher to sterilize the dishes....and nothing else.
I buy the cheapy shower head and then pull the rubber restrictor out with needle nose pliers. Best shower stream in my opinion.
Haven’t bought a faucet for a couple years, so my comment may be off base. Try replacing the aerator. That’s how flow used to be controlled. Don’t know about newer faucets. They may control flow with some mechanism inside faucet.
Typically the flow restriction is at the aerator. Unscrew the aerator from the end of the spout, replace with a higher-flow aerator. I’ve done it to the two kitchen sink faucets I can see across the room from where I’m sitting.
I initially did a 4.75 GPM, but actually went back and bought a 2.2 for the main sink, still have a 4.75 in the prep sink for when I really want to fill something fast.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07C1SGPTR
Make sure yours uses standard aerators.
Whoops sorry. Didn’t see that you tested the aerator. My bad.
Until you try those batteries in a new phone, you probably won’t know why they aren’t working. The two most reasonable explanations for your phone issues are, (1) phone is malfunctioning or (2) both batteries are going bad, including the new one.
I’ve had spotty luck with $11 replacement batteries for my iPhone. I’m still using my iPhones 6 and 7.
And just for the record, when it comes to these government regulators, as with the ones who inflicted modern gas cans spouts on us, and who are trying to eliminate ICE-powered cars - if I could get away with kicking them in the gonads, I would. They deserve it.
Back when flow restrictors were first available, it was a simple thing to remove them and drill the hole bigger. I haven’t had to worry about it in a while but I figured the companies were probably forced to make them tamper proof.
When it comes to shower heads, they seem to have figured out a way to take lower flow and pressurize it.
I do about 150 hotel nights a year for my job so I’ve been in lots of different showers. Some are just awful but others, (including a brand called Speakman) have great flow and pressure. I’d think hotels would be all about saving cost and reducing water usage is a big one.
Moen was a great faucet until Home Depot, they lasted decades plumbers have gone from repairing or replacing 25 and 35-year-old faucets to dealing with throwaway brands and models.
In the early 1990s as Home Depot and homeowners doing repairs became a thing, Moen published full-page ads in the plumbing trade magazines apologizing to the industry for the fact that they had to introduce lower-quality lines at the insistence of Home Depot or the store would not carry its brand.
My issue with water was, in my state, not the pressure, but the temperature.
At some point we had our bathroom upgraded, and when I began using it, I couldn’t get the water hot enough. I am one of those people who, if my skin doesn’t approach the color of a cooked lobster, the water isn’t hot enough.
Apparently to be up to code in my nanny-state, there has to be a mixing valve that automatically mixes cold water in to reduce the temperature. I didn’t know this, and even tried turning up the temperature of our hot water tank to compensate...it didn’t help because the mixing valve would negate it.
The only result was that the hot water at the kitchen sink would nearly scald you.
In the shower, temperature-wise, it was a little warmer than simply being spat upon.
I suffered for a couple of years, then found out that I could subvert the mixing valve by disassembling the controller and repositioning some simple plastic part and...voila! Steaming hot water.
When my wife and I go anywhere to stay, the first question the morning after we arrive is: “What is your shower assessment?”
I judge on three things: Temperature, Pressure, and Volume.
Is it hot enough, is it powerful enough, and does it last long enough. If any one of them is wanting, the grade goes down.
This is a holdover from my old Navy days, where I vowed, when I get out of the Navy, I am never, ever taking a Navy Shower again. (They had people who, if you stayed in the shower more than a minute, would pound on the side of the shower stall.
Now, I can take a twenty minute shower, and am happy to pay the money to do it.
That adjustment you made is the normal adjustment setting that anyone is supposed to be able to change.
All the RESTRICTOR shower heads and faucets have a thin metal round plate in them with roughly a 3-4MM hole in the center of it. You simply on screw the head with a channel lock and take the plate out.
My dishwasher takes close to five hours to clean rinsed dishes.
Thinking about ripping it out and installing cabinets.
Toilet takes two or three flushes.
1200 ref fridge lasted 8 years.
The one before that lasted 50+.
“the fact that they had to introduce lower-quality lines at the insistence of Home Depot or the store would not carry its brand.”
This crap goes on all over the place. Home Depot is not my favorite place to buy anything.
Regarding lumber, I go to a local lumber yard whose primary product is lumber, and it’s a good quality. The first board off the pile is usually ten times better than the one you find at places like Menards or Home Depot after digging through their twisted warped knot and crack filled boards.
We’ve bought water heaters at those big box places too. They do not last as long. Our last purchase was from a real plumber that sold top of the line products that cannot be found at Menards, Lowes or Home Depot. We paid dearly, but are very happy with it.
You pay for what you get. I’ve learned it’s best to do it right the first time by paying more for quality. Fewer headaches. Costs less in the long run.
I have put Grohe faucets in all bathrooms and kitchens in my last two houses. I have been in my current house for almost 13 years. So, all four faucets(three baths and kitchen)were installed 11-12 years ago. No issues so far.
I replaced both shower heads with adjustable spray models made by Seimens. They are also both about 11-12 years old. No issues. I have hard water too(calcium and some iron).
I also replaced all three toilets with American Standard 1.6 gallon comfort height elongated bowls. One is their Cadet model. The one they show flushing the bucket of golf balls at trade shows. This toilet works incredibly well. It has a different flushing method than the standard flapper. IMHO, it works great.
The situation: Over time my 18 batteries get out of sync with each other. They're on one electrical bus (circuit). So when my inverters/charge controllers send DC power to them to charge them during the day, all 18 batteries are getting charged equally. Likewise when my charge controllers pull power from the batteries. You'd think that at any time all of the batteries would be at the same SOC (strength of charge). So if I look at one battery and see that it's 68% charged, you'd think I'd see the same SOC on all of the others. But it doesn't work like that. They can get off by 10% or even 20%.
The problem: This means that my charge controllers can't push a heavy charge to charge the lower charged batteries without also heavily charging the higher charged batteries. If the higher charged batteries are charged at about 80%, my charge controllers have to tone down the charge amount, which means the lower charged batteries won't be charged all the way. Even more so if some of the higher charged batteries are 90% charged or more. If some of the batteries are 100% charged, my charge controllers are just trickle charging the batteries at that point, meaning the lower charged batteries aren't being charged up. Repeat that for the other direction. When draining the batteries my charge controllers won't let the batteries get below 30% SOC (configurable). So having lower charged batteries prevents me from getting use of the high charged batteries.
The solution: Every now and then I go out to the battery bank and look at each battery's charge level during the morning. I turn off the ones that are higher charged, thus directing all charging to the lower charged batteries to catch them up to the higher charged batteries. If you think of each battery as a cell on the bus, that allows each battery to get the charge needed to balance the bus. Eventually I have all of the batteries at the same charge level, turn on all batteries, and they're all charged to 100% by the end of the day (on a sunny day). Doing that "resets" the individual cells within each battery (each battery has 16 cells, times 18 batteries = 288 total cells) so that each battery operates more efficiently. Doing that for all 18 batteries at the same time makes the overall battery bus work efficiently.
I have an iPhone SE 1st gen and it only charges when turned off , it has a new battery and new charging insides ,LOL
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