Damn Interesting

Houston, we have a problem here

Screeches, whistles, bangs and clanks caused by the plumbing in your home can be a cause for concern and a nuisance, however, the type of noise generated by your pipes can a be a good indication of what the problem is.

So before you go out and buy some Beats Headphones, let’s look at some common causes and how to fix them.

Water Hammer

Perhaps the most unsettling sound that your pipes will ever make is a loud bang when the flow is turned off. This is commonly known as water hammer.

Water rushing through the pipe and out the faucet moves fast and with force. At the point when you shut off the faucet, the water stream is brought to a sudden stop. But that energy has to go somewhere. Normally in the wall behind each faucet is an air chamber in the pipe.

In older houses, the chamber used to be a small section of vertical pipe. When the surging water is halted it pushes up the vertical pipe and hits a cushion of air. This prevents the force of the water from causing the pipes to clatter and hammer.

Water hammering can develop because over time, the air in the chambers is lost and they fill with water, hence the cushioning effect is lost.

Nowadays, there are more effective commercial air cushions or spring-loaded hammer arrestors that are connected to the pipe in the same place. Unlike air chambers, modern arrestors do the same job but never become waterlogged.

You can get rid of water hammering by shutting off the main supply water, opening all faucets and then draining the whole house from the lowest faucet. When you turn the water back on, air will again be restored into the risers designed to prevent water hammer.

Loose Pipes

Another cause of noisy water pipes is a loose pipe under your house. Draining water moving quickly and in large volumes can cause a pipe to rock, setting up a rattling effect.

Drain pipes are usually suspended from the joists under the house and a little stabilisation may be all that’s required. You should be able to find the source by crawling under the house and listening while someone flushes the toilet above.

Worn Out Washer

A worn-out washer in a faucet or valve can often cause whistling or squeaky pipes. If a faucet’s washer is worn or the valve seat is worn it causes water to be forced through a small opening setting up the noisy pipes.

To fix the squealing replace worn or cracked washers or reseat worn faucets.

Main Shut-Off Valve

Another source of noisy water pipes, particularly when it seems to resonate throughout the whole house, can be either the main shut-off valve for the house or the water pressure.

It’s best to hire a professional plumber to repair or replace the main house valve, or look at your water pressure and repair or replace your water pressure regulator.

Toilets

Yet another loud noise problem can come from the toilet. After flushing, if you hear a banging or rattling at the end of the filling cycle, then it is likely to be a worn-out ballcock assembly, which controls the filling process.

Depending on the ballcock style and assembly, you might be able to repair it, otherwise, replace it with a better one.

Loud water pipes aren’t only annoying, but plumbing problems can develop. Fortunately, most of the problems above can be fixed on your own, but as always, if you need help get in touch with Watersmith Plumbing.

Celebrating Mario’s 35th anniversary — how did a moustached plumber in bib-overalls gain such huge popularity?

In 1981 the world was introduced to one of the most iconic characters in computer game history, a carpenter called Jumpman attempting to spare his better half from an overgrown gorilla named Donkey Kong.

Donkey Kong was an instant arcade hit and brought in $180 million in its first year alone.

By the time the ‘90s came around, Jumpman had not only rescued his girl from her mammoth kidnapper, he’d taken on plumbing lessons, was renamed to Mario, and had become the face of Nintendo itself. 

The pudgy Italian plumber has now starred in over 200 video games, gen­erating profits in the billions. Mario has become a global pop culture icon, even to people who don’t play video games. He’s appeared in cartoons, on TV, in movies, has a Theme Park, and pops-up as fancy-dress and on merchandise all around the world. 

With its precise controls, Super Mario Bros. is frequently praised as one of the greatest video games of all time. The Mario Bros. series has sold more than 240 million units worldwide.

The Mario character was conceived in Japan by Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, although the design was based on the comic strip Popeye. Workers at Nintendo in the U.S. called the character “Mario” in light of the fact that he looked like the property’s landlord, Mario Segale. 

On July 15, 1983, Nintendo jumped out of the arcade and into millions of homes for the first time, with the release of the console Family Computer. The system came bundled with the game Super Mario Bros. So if you bought the console, you got the game as well. This helped drive massive sales. Video games and Mario soon became a household phenomenon. 

Riding the wave of success, Nintendo deliberately programmed Mario into a multitude of innovative video games. In many cases, he wasn’t even the central plot. Quite simply, Nintendo made Mario their quality symbol. If Mario put his approval stamp on the game, you knew it was a goodie.

This year as part of its anniversary commemorations, Nintendo has unveiled plans to re-release most of Super Mario’s 35-year back catalogue, remastered for Nintendo Switch.

Here’s to celebrating the short chubby plumber named Mario, who millions of us grew up with during the 80s and 90s.

More info: 
The best Super Mario games
Super Mario
Mario
Super Nintendo World theme park

Sustainability and Water Efficiently with some of the World’s Most Powerful Drainage Pumps

The Marina Barrage is a dam that spans across the 350 metre wide Marina Channel in Singapore. The barrage offers three benefits; Water Supply, Flood Control, and Lifestyle Attraction.

By damming up the Marina Channel, the barrage forms Singapore’s first reservoir in the city; Marina Reservoir. The reservoir collects water from five major waterways; Singapore River Stanford Canal, Rochor Canal, Kalyan River, and the Geylang River.

The marina catchment is the most urbanised and the largest catchment at 10,000 hectares — that’s about one-sixth the size of Singapore.

Before the construction of Marina Barrage low-lying areas of the city were prone to flooding. The barrage helps alleviate flooding in these low-lying areas. It controls the water level in Marina Reservoir by making it free from tidal influence.

The flood control operations consist of nine crest gates and seven drainage pumps. During low tide and heavy storms, the crest gates will be lowered to release excess stormwater into the sea. This is to prevent flooding in the areas upstream. During high tide, the crest gates cannot be lowered. In such situations, the seven giant pumps will be activated to pump excess stormwater from the reservoir into the sea. Each of the pumps is capable of emptying an Olympic sized swimming pool of water per minute.

As the water in the marina basin is unaffected by the tides it is ideal for different kinds of water activities such as boating, windsurfing, kayaking and dragon boating. The green roof of the Visitor Center is also a popular site for recreational activities.

With its three-in-one benefit, the marina barrage has truly become one of Singapore’s unique showcase and efforts to sustainable development.

More info: 
Singapore’s National Water Agency
Marine Barrage — Green Roofs

The Pipe Dream of a Mad Dog

One of the greatest undertakings that Libya’s ex-president Muammar Gaddafi attempted amid his 42-year rule was the Great Man-Made River (GMR).

Gaddafi, a man of many visions, dreamed of seeing an abundance of fresh water in Libya – enough to turn the desert green and make Libya self-sufficient in food production.

To make the fantasy a reality, Gaddafi commissioned a huge engineering project consisting of a system of underground pipes that would bring fresh water from ancient underground sandstone aquifers deep in the Sahara to drought enduring Libyan cities.

The GMR is the world’s largest irrigation project. A plumbing feat spanning nearly 3,000 kilometres, it’s the largest underground network of pipes and aqueducts in the world.  Consisting of more than 1,300 wells, most more than 500 metres deep, and supplying 6,500,000 cubic metres of fresh water per day to areas without water, the GMR is often dubbed the Eighth Wonder of the World.

More info: 
The Great Man-Made River of Gaddafi
GMR (Great Man-Made River) Water Supply Project

Did a Monkey Invent the Monkey Wrench?

Like the saying, ‘cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey’, no one has actually been able to track down the entire history. For this reason there’s a number of misconceptions about the Monkey Wench.

The biggest fallacy is that the Monkey Wrench isn’t actually a plumbers favourite tool. A plumber’s tool is more commonly known as a Pipe Wrench. There’s a slight difference between the two. A Pipe Wrench has grooved teeth so it grips better. A Monkey Wrench doesn’t have teeth, its jaws are smooth.

We know the first wrench was patented in 1842 by Solymon Merrick. After Merrick’s innovation, other inventors followed suit and made similar inventions. The Monkey Wrench (or Gas Grips as they’re known by in the UK), Pipe Wrench, Ratchet Wrench, Torque Wrench, Alligator Wrench, Allen Wrench, Socket Wrench, Adjustable Wrench were all patented afterwards. A spanner is also a type of wrench, the main difference being the original spanner was non-adjustable.

In the early days, the wrench was made out of wrought iron. Nowadays wrenches are made out of metal.

Wrenches were common in the railroad industry around the 19th century but they have been noted by historians as far back as the 15th century with applications for suits of armour. However, archaeologists have discovered stone artefacts in Kenya carbon-dating back over three million years ago, making them the oldest tools discovered. The tools, a crude wrench included, predate the earliest known humans. So the big question is, which species of primate created them? Was it the monkey?

Monkey Wrench Myths — True or False

Jack Johnson (former African-American Heavy Weight boxer) Invented the Monkey Wrench and it was so named as a racial slur.
False. Jack Johnson did patent a wrench but that was in the 1920s. It was a 2015 internet meme that claimed the term “monkey wrench” was used as a derogatory term.

Charles Moncky, a mechanic in Baltimore invented the Monkey Wrench and it’s named using a purposeful misspelling of his name.
False. This story was refuted by historical research because Moncky was was born after the term, “monkey wrench”, first appeared in print in an English tool catalogue issued by Timmins & Sons.

The screamy bridge of the song Monkey Wrench by the Foo Fighters was done in one breath.
True. The bridge on the CD was yelled all in one breath but is almost impossible to sing live. During many of Foo Fighters concerts, Grohl coerces the crowd scream the bridge out. If he does sing the bridge, there are usually a couple of breaths that can be heard in between.

To “Throw a monkey wrench in the works” means to sabotage or obstruct plans.
True. It dates back to the industrial revolution. If a wrench were to fall into the gears of the large factory machine, it would make everything stop. More recently, it was a famous quote in the movie Die Hard (1988). When asked who he was, John McClane taunts Hans over the CB radio that he’s the fly in the ointment, the monkey in the wrench, the pain in the ass.

A Monkey Wrench is a cocktail.
True. Pour 2-shots of White Rum or Vodka into an almost filled glass of ice cubes and top with grapefruit juice and a dash of bitters.

The Monkey Wrench was named after the wrench’s appearance.
Maybe. Twisting the tail (or handle) to adjust the mouth feature, could have easily inspire the image of a monkey. However, it’s more likely to be the mechanism of the movable “monkey” that climbs up and down along the shaft — like a monkey climbing a tree — or a “monkey on a stick”.