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So last weekend I helped a friend install a replacement water heater. I hate plumbing (mostly working with copper and PVC). He's like no hassle I just use sharkbite.

Yes it was like $80 in fittings but damn that was super easy and probably eliminated the need for a dumb $600+ install fee. What's the catch.
 
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Kobayashi

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So last weekend I helped a friend install a replacement water heater. I hate plumbing (mostly working with copper and PVC). He's like no hassle I just use sharkbite.

Yes it was like $80 in fittings but damn that was super easy and probably eliminated the need for a dumb $600+ install fee. What's the catch.
Outside of the aforementioned price, they're pretty awesome. The only downsides I've heard of is you need to be pretty vigilant to make a good, even cut and deburr. That and the o ring could degrade from UV. Basically the stuff they warn you about in the instructions.
 

lurkingdirk

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So last weekend I helped a friend install a replacement water heater. I hate plumbing (mostly working with copper and PVC). He's like no hassle I just use sharkbite.

Yes it was like $80 in fittings but damn that was super easy and probably eliminated the need for a dumb $600+ install fee. What's the catch.

I've installed a bunch of water heaters using the compression fittings. Never a problem, super easy, no need to sweat pipes, it's all good. What's not to love?
 

BrutulTM

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Yeah besides the price, shark bite fittings are awesome. You can even use them to transition from pex, to copper, to pvc, and back again. They say not to seal them up inside the wall because if the o-ring dries out and cracks it will leak but I have some that have been in there for 15 years now and none have leaked. You wouldn't do your whole house with them, but they are great for a quick repair if you don't have tools.
 
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BrutulTM

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how to say you don't have experience with tumbleweeds without saying it. Now I'm going to have to find a lot and take pictures.....
Tumbleweeds.jpg


When I moved to Arizona I thought of the desert sort of like they showed it in Bugs Bunny cartoons with nothing but sand and the occasional cactus. In reality there's shit loads of plants. They're just dry and have very few leaves and every damn one of them has thorns. You can't really walk a straight line anywhere and god help you if you're not wearing good boots or you fall down somewhere.

The worst is the cholla cactus or some people call it "jumping cactus" because the little balls of thorns will break off and stick in you so easily it seems like they jumped onto you. I got one stuck in the wood stock on my shotgun once when I was out trying to hunt quail.

IMG_6942.3.jpg
 
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Control

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Tumbleweeds.jpg


When I moved to Arizona I thought of the desert sort of like they showed it in Bugs Bunny cartoons with nothing but sand and the occasional cactus. In reality there's shit loads of plants. They're just dry and have very few leaves and every damn one of them has thorns. You can't really walk a straight line anywhere and god help you if you're not wearing good boots or you fall down somewhere.

The worst is the cholla cactus or some people call it "jumping cactus" because the little balls of thorns will break off and stick in you so easily it seems like they jumped onto you. I got one stuck in the wood stock on my shotgun once when I was out trying to hunt quail.

IMG_6942.3.jpg
Yeah, it's amazing how fast shit can grow in the desert once some rain hits. Entire barren landscapes can turn green and fluffy overnight. I neglected a field one spring and these little things that looked like turbo-clover popped up everywhere. Before I got them dealt with, they were 4-5ft tall and had all interwoven themselves into giant walls. And the yard would get covered with crazy vine/runner things that were almost impossible to kill.

Artistic rendition of me trying to fix the shit:
1695135866327.png
 
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Kajiimagi

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My 1st full year here I had zero experience and everything was 2 years dead anyway so I did nothing yard wise. We were also trying to get the house renovated as I bought this place from Freddie Mack as-is. Anyhow we started getting all these weird bugs outside and I found out they thrived in the dead vegetation.
 

Kajiimagi

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lurkingdirk lurkingdirk so imagine before they all died and blew on top of each other, those were a lush green but thorny. I do not know what they are called but that is exactly the bush I was trying (poorly) to describe.

Tumbleweeds.jpg
 
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Kajiimagi

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Tumbleweed?
that's sort of a generic term for the type of plants not a specific plant. At least according to wikipedia. I just know they are a PITA. I have 3-4 on my fence line now. I had the yard sprayed to kill vegetation so I don't have to worry about them taking root.
 

BrutulTM

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Most tumbleweeds here are russian thistle but I imagine it's something different down there.
 

lurkingdirk

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Tumbleweeds.jpg


When I moved to Arizona I thought of the desert sort of like they showed it in Bugs Bunny cartoons with nothing but sand and the occasional cactus. In reality there's shit loads of plants. They're just dry and have very few leaves and every damn one of them has thorns. You can't really walk a straight line anywhere and god help you if you're not wearing good boots or you fall down somewhere.

The worst is the cholla cactus or some people call it "jumping cactus" because the little balls of thorns will break off and stick in you so easily it seems like they jumped onto you. I got one stuck in the wood stock on my shotgun once when I was out trying to hunt quail.

IMG_6942.3.jpg

So if you make a big pile of them somewhere safe, are they dry enough that they'll burn?
 

Haus

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Yeah besides the price, shark bite fittings are awesome. You can even use them to transition from pex, to copper, to pvc, and back again. They say not to seal them up inside the wall because if the o-ring dries out and cracks it will leak but I have some that have been in there for 15 years now and none have leaked. You wouldn't do your whole house with them, but they are great for a quick repair if you don't have tools.
I can confirm most of this.. I love Sharkbite fittings and have used them in several applications in both my house and my mothers. There's also an offbrand I think called Gatorbite which seems to be identical. Makes plumbing so much easier as I hate brazing shit.
 

BrutulTM

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This is pretty interesting.

That's pretty good. I was going to mention the fire thing. They talk about fire breaks in the video as if they are an antiquated technology but that's still how most wildland fires are stopped and tumbleweeds seem like they were especially designed to catch on fire and then spread it across the prairie crossing fire breaks as they go.

They are also becoming resistant to glyphosate which is interesting. Here's a cool picture of a field that has been sprayed with roundup and it illustrates how one glyphosate resistant tumbleweed can spread nicely across your field. You can imagine how many of them there will be next year if all of those go to tumbling around.

f01_238.jpg
 
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