Wait...why is this ALL WET?!
A part of many of my ice cream recipes is making custard. A part of making custard is the part where the custard is done and it needs to be rapidly taken from a cooking temperature to a cooling temperature. Often this is done by pouring it into a bowl which is in an ice-water bath and stirring like crazy. I don't do exactly that, because there's no way for me to have that much ice on hand. What I do is run the kitchen faucet good and cold and float the bowl in a larger vessel that has cold water flowing through it. And stir like crazy.
Yesterday morning I ran the dishwasher, then made two batches of custard, and then ran the dishwasher again. A lot of water went down the kitchen drain. As the dishwasher was finishing up, I went down into the basement for something and why are my feet wet? I'm getting dripped on...
Several years ago, I installed a garbage disposal. As a part of that project, I installed this nifty thing: It was a standard drain trap, but the bend part had a clear plastic part, held on with a couple of clips. The idea was that you could a: see what was going on in there, and b: get whatever you dropped down the sink out again by popping off the clips. It came with two different mesh plastic screens to stop valuable objects from passing.
The thing never really worked right. The screens were the first to go. Even the larger-mesh one (with 1/4" holes) was prone to generating clogs; I'm sure the designers never envisioned the thing being installed downstream of a garbage disposal. I did away with the screens.
So then it was just a trap with a clear bit. This was actually useful on more than one occasion. But over time the whole thing got gross, and then one of the plastic clips broke. It still held water though, because it still had the one clip and it was all held together and sealed by it's own cruft.
As they were cleaning up the last of their dishes before departing back to China, my Chinese room mates washed a heck of a lot of rice down the drain. It clogged up, of course. In dealing with that clog, I popped off the clips and removed the clear bit. That's when I discovered the broken clip. But I got the clog dealt with, and replaced the clear part, and the one clip, and put the other clip back on as best as I could, and ran some water through and it seemed fine.
It was not fine.
So when all that hot then cold then hot water ran through it yesterday morning, it started leaking. A lot. But I didn't notice until it was all done and I was down in the basement, where all that water ran to.
It could have been much worse. Only a small percentage of my clean laundry will have to be redone, and the repair was less than $5 for a new more normal trap. My deadbeat room mate was inconvenienced all evening until I got back with the parts after going to a party, but I frankly don't care.
I really wish I knew what water spirit cursed this house.
(originally posted on dreamwidth. I'd like to keep all my comments in one place, so please comment there by creating an openID cross-site login.)
Yesterday morning I ran the dishwasher, then made two batches of custard, and then ran the dishwasher again. A lot of water went down the kitchen drain. As the dishwasher was finishing up, I went down into the basement for something and why are my feet wet? I'm getting dripped on...
Several years ago, I installed a garbage disposal. As a part of that project, I installed this nifty thing: It was a standard drain trap, but the bend part had a clear plastic part, held on with a couple of clips. The idea was that you could a: see what was going on in there, and b: get whatever you dropped down the sink out again by popping off the clips. It came with two different mesh plastic screens to stop valuable objects from passing.
The thing never really worked right. The screens were the first to go. Even the larger-mesh one (with 1/4" holes) was prone to generating clogs; I'm sure the designers never envisioned the thing being installed downstream of a garbage disposal. I did away with the screens.
So then it was just a trap with a clear bit. This was actually useful on more than one occasion. But over time the whole thing got gross, and then one of the plastic clips broke. It still held water though, because it still had the one clip and it was all held together and sealed by it's own cruft.
As they were cleaning up the last of their dishes before departing back to China, my Chinese room mates washed a heck of a lot of rice down the drain. It clogged up, of course. In dealing with that clog, I popped off the clips and removed the clear bit. That's when I discovered the broken clip. But I got the clog dealt with, and replaced the clear part, and the one clip, and put the other clip back on as best as I could, and ran some water through and it seemed fine.
It was not fine.
So when all that hot then cold then hot water ran through it yesterday morning, it started leaking. A lot. But I didn't notice until it was all done and I was down in the basement, where all that water ran to.
It could have been much worse. Only a small percentage of my clean laundry will have to be redone, and the repair was less than $5 for a new more normal trap. My deadbeat room mate was inconvenienced all evening until I got back with the parts after going to a party, but I frankly don't care.
I really wish I knew what water spirit cursed this house.
(originally posted on dreamwidth. I'd like to keep all my comments in one place, so please comment there by creating an openID cross-site login.)