ater heat and cast iron radiators, > and I have never had to redo a radiator connection. I've never had a > leak, and most of these systems were old when I bought the house. > > If you have straight pipe threads going into radiators, there is an > installer who should be made to re-do the job. Maybe he was an > out-of-work electrician, and used rigid electrical conduit for pipe. Sorry, but the European radiators, manifolds, fittings and valves that are coming into the US for use in hydronic heating systems are all straight pipe thread with O-rings and jamb nuts, and that is the reason for my mentioning of that fact. They are exactly as I described them. > > Straight threads and O rings are seen only in hydraulic systems, not > domestic water or heating systems, and the mating parts have correctly > designed pockets to hold the O-rings. And they do not use jam nuts. One > screws them together until they bottom. I understand that, tell that to the European heating manufacturers. Time to get back to time. -Chuck Harris

g here for gas or water in domestic installations. > > When fitted properly, and they're very easily fitted, these shouldn't leak > at all. We use them here in the US, for small water fittings... such as refrigerator ice makers, and toilet tank fills. They work just fine. I always put a little non hardening pipe compound under the ring to prevent seepage that can occur on poorly made tubing that has mandrel marks left over from drawing the tubing... I never used to have to do that, but the Chinese and Mexican manufactured toilet fill tubes we get these days are awful. ... > I have also never seen an O-ring with jamb nut in a domestic heating > system and don't think steel pipe has been used here in regular domestic heating > systems since "central heating" took off in the 1960s/70s. Good! The UK must be using more sane methods. I haven't been talking about steel pipe, I have been talking of straight pipe thread on fittings, such as shut-off valves on radiators, and fittings on manifolds. > Steel pipe, often it seems referred to as "gas barrel" even if not being > used for gas, is still common in industrial situations but copper is the > norm for gas and water in domestic situations with pipe sizes varying to suit > flow and equipment fittings. Steel pipe is mandated for gas systems in many areas of the US. I am in one such area. It works fine, and is 100% reliable. Copper tubing is only used by propane installers, and they form their own codes. Compression fittings seem to be universally outlawed for gas, though. Formed flare fittings are the norm on copper gas tubing. ... > As compression fittings are very much the norm here I'm surprised that you > don't seem to have encountered them in the US. As I said earlier, I have encountered plenty compression fittings. They are not what I have been discussing. > Is it possible that what is being supplied to the US from Europe is more > dictated by US plumbing practices and regulations than by what we'd normally > prefer to use ourselves?:-) No, these are bog-standard parts ordered directly from the manufacturer's catalogs, and imported directly into the US. There was no US code interference in these transactions. The work was done as directed by the manufacturers. You see, I happened to think the Europeans are the masters of the universe when it comes to hydronic heat. It is rare to find hydronic heating in the US because our climate requires both heating and cooling in most areas, and it is much cheaper to install a single forced air system that does both the heating and cooling than it is to install two separate systems. In the US, hot water and steam heating systems are generally found only in houses that were built before central air conditioning was common. It's been fun, but we have probably taken a long enough vacation from time and frequency issues. I think it is past time to wind this subject down. -Chuck Harris

ipe sizes varying to > suit flow and equipment fittings. [snip]

I don't want to drop $600 on the Norcold to have it > die > in 4 yrs.

All Hands, I've been waiting for these discussions to die down, as most threads will. However, that doesn't seem to be happening. I think (and would bet most of the list membership would agree) that these subjects have been thoroughly discussed and it is time to take further discussion on these topics private.

found the following diesel prices in our area: Beaufort SC $4.40 + 7% tax at the City Marina B & B Seafood in Mosquito Creek (mm 513.5 ) $4.00 cash/check or $4.10 credit card, price includes tax Charleston Maritime Center/Marina $4.29 including tax Brenda & Todd Lanning M/V Life's2Short 40' Oceania Currently in Charleston, SC waiting on the wind to die

* Impact * All IGN access will be unavailable during the change window * They have stated the actual work can take between 30 minutes and 1 hour * Reason for Change * Cisco announced a defect in their ISR routers where one of the processors would die and the device would be unrecoverable.

Occasionally ducks die in the trap and I don't know why. Apparently there are other duck traps around the state. it's just that from the windows of the Audubon building I can see this trap, so I report the findings about the marsh.

The dieing-down of the cattails on the wetland has revealed more than 15 Muskrat "push-ups", each being cattail pyramid-shaped mounds. They can all be seen from the south path platform. Jim Fairchild called out "3 Rusties" in a tall tree nearby, at 1030am. The Fox Sparrow numbers are falling off-indeed, I saw only one over a 3-hour period today.

HR-667 was referred to a sub committee on March 1, 1999, and there it will die. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d106:4:./temp/~bdd9Ox:: ________________________________________________________________ Jack Haring WhoopeeWagen