Hey guys, need to vent for a second...
I had spent the past few weeks dry fitting my plumbing, waiting for the last PVC pieces I needed to get in. They showed up in the mail today, and after my son was in bed, I began to cement everything in place. My wife was absolutely horrified with the smell (dunno what she thought would happen) and I tried to work as quickly as possible through things, rather than doing it over two days as I had originally planned.
Anyway, when everything was cemented in, there was only one last thing to do - put in place the little bit of flexible tubing I am using on my return. I consulted with a local plumbing supply store, and while I asked for a 3/4th hose barb, the barb on the bulkhead side seemed a little bit too roomy to me - like maybe he misunderstood me and thought I was looking for a hose with a 3/4 outer diameter and not inner diameter. Still, when I had dry fit it everything seemed to work - and it was just screwed/taped in, so I figured I would clamp it on tight and give it a wet test in 24 hours to see if the system held water. If it didn't work, I'd just unscrew it and find/order another fitting.
When tightening the clamp, I heard a crack. It was pretty dark in the sump, so I got a light. I overtightened the clamp and cracked the hose barb. My attempts to remove the hose barb just caused it to fall apart, which mean there was nothing left to grab onto, and the whole assembly (bushing to slip converter, reducer, etc) was shot.
Fortunately, I remembered to install unions, meaning I can just unscrew it and rebuild. Unfortunately, the parts are not easily available locally for some reason. I found a selection of parts on Amazon Prime which will basically do the same thing, but I'll need to reapply purple primer/cement again on at least two fittings, which will mean at earliest I'll be able to wet test the build now is on Thursday.
I had spent the past few weeks dry fitting my plumbing, waiting for the last PVC pieces I needed to get in. They showed up in the mail today, and after my son was in bed, I began to cement everything in place. My wife was absolutely horrified with the smell (dunno what she thought would happen) and I tried to work as quickly as possible through things, rather than doing it over two days as I had originally planned.
Anyway, when everything was cemented in, there was only one last thing to do - put in place the little bit of flexible tubing I am using on my return. I consulted with a local plumbing supply store, and while I asked for a 3/4th hose barb, the barb on the bulkhead side seemed a little bit too roomy to me - like maybe he misunderstood me and thought I was looking for a hose with a 3/4 outer diameter and not inner diameter. Still, when I had dry fit it everything seemed to work - and it was just screwed/taped in, so I figured I would clamp it on tight and give it a wet test in 24 hours to see if the system held water. If it didn't work, I'd just unscrew it and find/order another fitting.
When tightening the clamp, I heard a crack. It was pretty dark in the sump, so I got a light. I overtightened the clamp and cracked the hose barb. My attempts to remove the hose barb just caused it to fall apart, which mean there was nothing left to grab onto, and the whole assembly (bushing to slip converter, reducer, etc) was shot.
Fortunately, I remembered to install unions, meaning I can just unscrew it and rebuild. Unfortunately, the parts are not easily available locally for some reason. I found a selection of parts on Amazon Prime which will basically do the same thing, but I'll need to reapply purple primer/cement again on at least two fittings, which will mean at earliest I'll be able to wet test the build now is on Thursday.
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