Arizona Chickens

[LadyKotaDoria]

Chris, so sorry to hear of your losses this week. Mckenzy also very sad news about your first chick and egg layer. On a brighter note, here is a picture of this afternoon's beet harvest during halftime. The girls love all the broken leaves I toss them from pulling these out of the ground! Yummy treat for them.

I love beets, and beet leaves. It is hard for me to share the leaves with my girls. Flower has a recipe for beets I am going to have to get. It is a sweet and sour, the sour was a vinegar bass.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

Does anyone know of a reliable, reasonably priced plumber?  

yes, family business. Very reasonable, my mother has used him sense '82, I have him sense '87. My nephew used some one else, said it would coast less then Greg, then charged more then Greg. Greg told him it sounded like xxxxxxxx and if it was it would be $$$.$$. When the other guy got there and got the thing apart said the same thing Greg said and charged him more. He is a believer now. Greg also told us to extend the life of your water heater, you need to drain it once a year. Flush out calcium build up. They do not tell you to do this because it will hurt sails.
Greg Singletary
Faucet Doctor Plumbing
(623) 214-7161

 

[Demosthine]

Does anyone know of a reliable, reasonably priced plumber?

Hopefully, you're not in the same boat as we are. Our hot water started leaking all of a sudden and flooded the area beneath our stairs where our surplus canned goods are, plus started creeping up all the drywall. It made quite the mess. We're going on day four without hot water because we are upgrading to the tankless water system and the parts won't be in to finish until Saturday or Sunday. It's a lot more work and money right now, but it should pay off well in the long run. Fortunately, my Uncle and his son (I think that makes him my nephew?) are commercial plumbers and can help really easily. It'll save me about $1500 in installation costs, thank God! I can ask if he's interested in side work, but he has been extremely busy lately. His current contract has him working about 70 hours a week. How urgent do you need someone?

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

I am interested in tankless. Tell me about it. Is that the same thing as at source water heating system? You set the temp you want? I put one in a new custom home when they first came out.

Greg our plumber, said that flushing out the water take at lest once a year will help to prevent. I have not flushed mine in the past 2 years. I guess I better take my own advice. Turn off the heater, connect a hose and drain.

 

[City farm]

Does anyone know of a reliable, reasonably priced plumber?  

I suspect he is still in business.. It has been a few years..He was extremely helpful.. Steve Schuman (602)820-4700
Oh, had to add him and his wife had chickens.. He loved the farm fresh eggs from our girls...
Hope this helps..

 

[roostereggs]

Well...now I have bad news. One of my 3 week old BCMs is not doing well. It has always been the smallest and not quite as vigorous as the other 18. She can't walk or hold her head up... it goes sideways. I tried vitamins and pushing fluids but I may have to cull her today.

 

[WestSideChicken]

I have a 4 month old Cochin bantam that I almost.wish I could breed when she is older. I decided to try and start taking my two 4 week old chicks outside during the nice weather to acclimate just during the day time. Instead of fighting in the outdoor brooder while I figured out how to split everyone up and away from the adult bullies. she decided she was mama and scooped them under her wings and kept them there! So I let them stay together the last couple days. Never have I had different age birds get along so quickly.

 

[Demosthine]

I am interested in tankless. Tell me about it. Is that the same thing as at source water heating system? You set the temp you want? I put one in a new custom home when they first came out.

Greg our plumber, said that flushing out the water take at lest once a year will help to prevent. I have not flushed mine in the past 2 years. I guess I better take my own advice. Turn off the heater, connect a hose and drain.

A tankless system at at-source system are similar concepts, but implemented differently. The tankless system uses an extremely high-efficiency, high-heat source to heat water from your main line to supply to your entire house. It basically replaces exactly where your tank water heater would go. The new styles have a fancy concentric vent, meaning it is a double wall vent where one pipe sits inside a larger pipe the entire length of the system. The hot exhaust air is forced out the center pipe, while the cooler intake air is sucked in from the surrounding ring of space. This fulfills several requirements. Firstly, it warms the incoming air so that it is more suitable for burning and is especially important in cold or freezing climates. Secondly, the incoming air cools the hot exhaust air so that it is roughly ambient temperature by the time it exists the exhaust system. This is one of the biggest expenses in putting a new system in. And because that vent is larger than a standard water heater vent, it tends to require modifications to the house or an alternate vent location. My 31-foot exhaust vent is costing as much as the actual tankless heater. Because of the extreme heat requirements, it also requires significantly more gas to operate, requiring a larger supply line. A standard water heater will operate at approximately 40,000btu (a unit of heat measurement), while the tankless systems operate at 150,000 to 199,000btu depending on the system. An at-source water heater is similar in design, except on a much smaller scale. It is designed to be installed only at sinks and operates at very low flow rates. Meanwhile, the tankless system we are installing is supposed to allow three showers to run simultaneously without any decrease in water temperature.

Our system has a digital control panel and you can set the exact temperature you want it to run at. There is also a cool remote control panel that you can install at your bathroom that allows you to set a "bath temperature" and the volume you want dispensed. It will fill that exact volume at that temperature and then turn off. We never take baths, so we aren't installing it, but it's an awesome option.

 

[kevs-chickadees]

Does anyone know of a reliable, reasonably priced plumber?

Wish I knew how to do multiple quotes. I can answer most any question you have and will even be able to tell you if your being quoted a reasonable price. We have been slammed silly for over the past six months so if it was an emergency type thing I would be of little help.

Draining your water heater (meaning shutting the water, gas/electric off and letting all the water out) is old news and very wasteful. It is quicker and better to simply hook up the hose to the drain valve and open it up. Let it run full blast for about 2-3 minutes. The pressure will force all the sediment and garbage that can fit through the opening out; it's all sitting on the bottom anyway. I've changed out dozens upon dozens and after draining them the sediment is still sitting there in the bottom. One problem one might encounter is that the valve will then not completely seal back so be prepared to install a cap. Most w/h drains are plastic and even with the brass ones on quality w/hs only one brand comes with a 1/4 turn ball valve type. This of course is not needed if your house is equipped with a water softner

Tankless w/h can be great and can save you money depending on how the hot water is used. I have no experience with electric ones because I've never heard a good thing about them. You would need a lot of free space in your electrical panel and it makes your electric meeter spin like a top! Gas ones have a good chance of working with the current gas pipe size but if you were to run all your gas appliances at one time there is a good chance you would "starve" the w/h. Usually you would want to upsize the gas system which then makes it not that affordable. A good home inspector would catch this at a time of sale too. Well I've said to much.......

 

[AZKat]

Thankfully, the things I need done are not an emergency, so if you could ask your relative about side work, Demo, that would be great.

What I need done is to have a toilet that is leaking around the base fixed, and get a new drain clearout installed and get the kitchen drain cleared. Kev, if you could give me a ballpark number for that, i'd appriciate it. Or if you might be able to get someone out in a month or so.