The Water Hammer

It happens when you do nothing more than quickly shut off a faucet.

BANG! Water hammer. It sounds like a shock wave just went through your pipes!

Well, in fact one just did. Water hammer can damage your plumbing system. The shock wave that created the water hammer is traveling at thousands of feet per second and exerts pressures at hundreds of pounds per inch. So just what is water hammer?

Water Hammer (hydraulic shock) is by far the loudest and most common plumbing noise problem in the home. You hear it in a home having high water flow rates (around 10 feet per second) when a faucet or water valve is shut off quickly.

Older homes have (or should have) what is called an "air chamber" located on each hot and cold water line at or near each faucet or water inlet valve. The purpose of the air chamber is to act like a shock absorber for water when it is flowing at high speed under pressure. Since air compresses (it's a vapor) and water doesn't, the air chamber allows the water a place to temporarily expand into and softens the blow of the water shock wave when the faucet is turned off quickly.

Air chambers are often fabricated on-site by the plumber and installed at the faucet's water supply. They typically consist of a vertical length of capped pipe about 12" long or longer and are the same diameter as the water supply pipe. The problem with these things is that they are sometimes made too short and undersized and eventually fill up with water and you have no more shock absorber. The result? Water hammer!. If you have a water filled air chamber it can be easily fixed by draining and recharging the plumbing system.

A better solution to alleviate the problem is to have a mechanical or engineered water hammer arrestor installed. These mechanical plumbing devices are charged with air or gas and will not fail like typical air chambers.

BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK – Birthday wishes and thoughts this week to Jason Alexander (52), Mark Hamill (60), Cheryl Hines (46), Guy LaFleur (60), Tommy Lasorda (84), Bill Murray (61), Ronaldo (35), Mickey Rooney (91), Bruce Springsteen (62), Ava Suffredini …the prettiest niece, Trisha Yearwood (47).

FEAR GROWS IN SAN DIEGO THAT CHARGERS WILL MOVE TO L.A . -- L.A. Times second front, "Afraid they'll charge north: In San Diego, there are still no plans for a new football stadium -- and L.A. beckons," by Tony Perry: "A decade after the Chargers' ownership suggested that the franchise needs a new stadium if it is to remain in San Diego, there is no plan on the table. ... City Council members have busied themselves with projects of immediate concern to their constituents: potholes, library hours, lifeguard staffing and fire protection. The business and political establishment that once could cut a deal over lunch is no more. ... Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, two competing proposals to build a stadium and lure an NFL team seem to be racing along. ... The top target appears to be the Chargers. ...

"San Diego retains two enormous advantages. First, there is no indication the Spanos family wants to sell controlling interest in the Chargers, which would seemingly be a requirement for any stadium builder. And, second, the family has repeatedly said it prefers to remain in San Diego if a replacement for aging Qualcomm Stadium in Mission Valley can be had. Last week, the Spanos family's spokesman, La Jolla attorney Mark Fabiani, emailed an unequivocal denial to a blogger who wrote that a secret deal had been made to have the Chargers move next year to Los Angeles and shift control to AEG's Philip Anschutz."

DOUBLE DIP RECESSION? - N.Y. Times col. 1, "Rising Fears of Recession: Data on Jobs May Point To Renewed Downturn," News Analysis by David Leonhardt: "If history is a guide, the odds that the American economy is falling into a double-dip recession have risen sharply in recent weeks and may even have reached 50 percent. ... Job growth has slowed to a pace that typically signals the start of a recession. Over the last 50 years, every time that job growth has been as meager as it has been over the last four months, the economy has been headed toward recession, in a recession or in the immediate aftermath of one."

BIG APPLE KING - Congrats to Mariano Rivera, greatest closer in baseball history, who picked up save number 600 in Seattle last week.

WHAT RECESSION - Apple Inc.- CUPERTINO, California—Apple® announced financial results for its fiscal 2011 third quarter ended June 25, 2011. The Company posted record quarterly revenue of $28.57 billion and record quarterly net profit of $7.31 billion, or $7.79 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $15.70 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.25 billion, or $3.51 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 41.7 percent compared to 39.1 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 62 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

The Company sold 20.34 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 142 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 9.25 million iPads during the quarter, a 183 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 3.95 million Macs during the quarter, a 14 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 7.54 million iPods, a 20 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

INSIDE THE LOST DECADE - WSJ's Conor Dougherty on pg. A1: "The income of the typical American family ... has dropped for the third year in a row and is now roughly where it was in 1996 when adjusted for inflation. The income of a household considered to be at the statistical middle fell 2.3% to an inflation-adjusted $49,445 in 2010, which is 7.1% below its 1999 peak, the Census Bureau said. The poverty rate clicked up again this year. ...

"For a huge swath of American families, the gains of the boom of the 2000s have been wiped out. Earnings of the typical man who works full-time year round fell, and are lower-adjusted for inflation-than in 1978. ... The fraction of Americans living in poverty clicked up to 15.1% of the population, and 22% of children are now living below the poverty line, the biggest percentage since 1993."

COLLEGE FOOTBALL PICK OF THE WEEK – Saturday 9/24, a border war this Saturday: #7 ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys (3-0) visit the #8 Texas A&M Aggies (2-0), 3:30 PM ET, ABC. A&M is giving three points in this one, take the points and go with The Cowboys.
Season to date (2-1).

SMALL COLLEGE PICK OF THE WEEK – Saturday 9/24, a huge American Southwest Conference matchup in Abilene, Texas; #3 ranked Mary Hardin-Baylor Crusaders (2-0) visit #8 ranked Hardin-Simmons Cowboys (2-1), 2:00 PM ET, HGTV. The Crusaders are a perennial power in South Texas, go with the purple, gold and white from Belton, Texas..
Season to date (2-1).

NFL PICK OF THE WEEK – Sunday 9/25, a Norris Division matchup, (2-0) Green Bay Packers visit Soldier Field to take on the (1-1) Chicago Bears, 4:15 PM ET, Fox. The Packers are giving 3.5 points in this one, a tough call but we pick The Cheese Heads to win in Chicago.
Season to date (2-0).

WORDS OF THE MONTH –

odoriferous \oh-duh-RIF-er-uhs\, adjective:
Yielding or diffusing an odor.
“Wherever I go, I leave behind an odoriferous wake.”

simpatizar, verb
to get on well, to hit it off; to be sympathetic to, to sympathize with
You’ll know the word simpático means that someone is nice. A related word is simpatizar, which you use when people get on well.
“Simpatizamos desde el principio.”
We hit if off or We liked each other from the outset.

Next week, Jack Ass of the Month.

Until next Monday, Adios.

Claremont, CA
September 19, 2011

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