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So someone stays in our B&B last night. They come and say they can't get the bath to empty.
It's a "pop up" waste, The knob turns, but the waste doesn't pop up. So I'm tasked with fixing it.
Problem 1. Can't undo the grub screw to remove the knob. It's seized solid. It's a slotted screw and trying to undo it sheers half the slot off, so nothing to get a purchase on. After much huffing and puffing I get the mechanism off, but broken into pieces.
So what's "wrong" with it? why wouldn't it pop up?
Well the "problem" is that it's been "designed" by someone with a 0% understanding of basic mechanical principles.
It uses a simple bowden cable to link between the actuator, and the actual waste. Bearing in mind to pop up the waste with the bath full of water has to push against a considerable weight of water, I would have designed it so that you PULL on the bowden cable to pop up the waste (a simple lever and a pivot)
But no, the "designer" of this piece of plumbing garbage, decided it would be a good idea to make it so that you PUSH on the end of the bowden cable to pop up the waste. And yes, what's happened is very predictable, the end of the cable has kinked over so instead of pushing the waste up, the cable just loops out sideways in a kink. Thankfully this "designer" has never tried designing a pushbike, otherwise he would probably design bike brakes that push on the cable to stop you. come to think of it, he can't have ever ridden a bike as a kid, or ever have fixed one, otherwise he would have known.
So I'm off to town to get a replacement. I wonder if the next one will be a similar POS or will I be lucky enough to find one designed by someone with at least a small understanding of basic mechanical principles?
I sometimes truly despair when I see things like this that are just built so wrong. And it's not a cost thing, it would have cost no more to make it work so that it pulls instead of pushes.
It's a "pop up" waste, The knob turns, but the waste doesn't pop up. So I'm tasked with fixing it.
Problem 1. Can't undo the grub screw to remove the knob. It's seized solid. It's a slotted screw and trying to undo it sheers half the slot off, so nothing to get a purchase on. After much huffing and puffing I get the mechanism off, but broken into pieces.
So what's "wrong" with it? why wouldn't it pop up?
Well the "problem" is that it's been "designed" by someone with a 0% understanding of basic mechanical principles.
It uses a simple bowden cable to link between the actuator, and the actual waste. Bearing in mind to pop up the waste with the bath full of water has to push against a considerable weight of water, I would have designed it so that you PULL on the bowden cable to pop up the waste (a simple lever and a pivot)
But no, the "designer" of this piece of plumbing garbage, decided it would be a good idea to make it so that you PUSH on the end of the bowden cable to pop up the waste. And yes, what's happened is very predictable, the end of the cable has kinked over so instead of pushing the waste up, the cable just loops out sideways in a kink. Thankfully this "designer" has never tried designing a pushbike, otherwise he would probably design bike brakes that push on the cable to stop you. come to think of it, he can't have ever ridden a bike as a kid, or ever have fixed one, otherwise he would have known.
So I'm off to town to get a replacement. I wonder if the next one will be a similar POS or will I be lucky enough to find one designed by someone with at least a small understanding of basic mechanical principles?
I sometimes truly despair when I see things like this that are just built so wrong. And it's not a cost thing, it would have cost no more to make it work so that it pulls instead of pushes.
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