Old Man Rant

[Rhody]

My Old Man Rant is directed at the Delta Faucet company. 4 years ago we bought a Delta single handle kitchen faucet with a pull down sprayer. You know the kind, the end of the faucet is connected to a metal flex line and you pull it down and out from the tube where the water comes out. It has a button on the side that converts it from a faucet to a sprayer.

Over the last month, the water pressure out of that faucet has steadily dropped. Yesterday, it reached a tipping point and I decided to do something about it. I removed the head from the hose, and the aerator from the nozzle, and that was as far as you can disassemble the dang thing. I dug out the restrictor and I can see the filter element, but unlike their faucets in past years, there isn’t a release to get it out. It is press fit into the housing so tightly that it won’t budge. Even the parts diagram shows the head as one assembly with the spray nozzles, switch filter and housing as one piece!

So I figure I’ll just buy a new head. When we purchased the faucet, it was $240. The head for the faucet is $187!

Removing the restrictor returned the faucet to normal pressure, but it’s only a matter of time before the filter clogs permanently. Then I guess I’ll dig it out with a screwdriver or pick and buy more time until the nozzles clog. By the they will have discontinued parts and I’ll have to buy a whole new faucet assembly.

More planned obsolescence from corporate America!

Ugh all of that would trigger my rage. Especially 240/187. And water restrictions like that now designed to end run people who just want to take them out.

 

[TexOkie Shaver]

Ugh all of that would trigger my rage. Especially 240/187. And water restrictions like that now designed to end run people who just want to take them out.

I’ve removed the restrictor from the shower head as well. You had to run around in the shower just to get wet. Rinsing soap off was near impossible.

At this point, the restrictors consist of a disk with a hole in it. Once it’s incorporated into the design, we are screwed.

 

[Rhody]

I’ve removed the restrictor from the shower head as well. You had to run around in the shower just to get wet. Rinsing soap off was near impossible.

At this point, the restrictors consist of a disk with a hole in it. Once it’s incorporated into the design, we are screwed.

I give you credit for trying to fix it or take it apart. I used to consider myself handy. I own tools. Built things and repaired stuff in the past. Now whether it’s age or lack of practice or confidence I seem to just break things.

 

[TexOkie Shaver]

I give you credit for trying to fix it or take it apart. I used to consider myself handy. I own tools. Built things and repaired stuff in the past. Now whether it’s age or lack of practice or confidence I seem to just break things.

I know what you mean. My daughter, who works in the medical field, tells me that I have intentional tremors. I told her there was nothing intentional about them. She just shook her head. Dad being dad.

The tremors have robbed me of my ability to do intricate work and sometimes result in the unintentional destruction of the thing I’m trying to repair.

I’m also unable to write more than a few words with pen and paper. After those few words, the scrawl is unintelligible even by me. I truly cannot read my own writing. Thankfully, I found Evernote and typing is only marginally affected by the tremors.

Oddly enough, they don’t affect my shaving very often. I have that occasional twitch that usually ends with a nick, but they are not consistent. I guess it’s because I don’t grip the razor tightly.

Brush work is another story. I cannot face lather because first, the tremors set in and I can’t keep the brush going in a circle and secondly, I end up with brush burn.

If you are unfamiliar with intentional tremors, Google it

 

[StuMcB]

"So I figure I’ll just buy a new head. When we purchased the faucet, it was $240. The head for the faucet is $187"


You get taps like we have here in the UK

Seriously though that's a big spend for a filter head. Sounds like you need a YouTube hak.

 

[Alacrity59]

I was feeling a little upset again at the marketing of laundry products. Take something like OxyClean. The box contains 1.36 kilos of product and also tells you that it will do 64 loads of laundry. Let's be charitable, round up, and say this is 22 grams per load. Do you know what that looks like in the scoop they provide in the box?

Spoiler: Guess???

 

[StuMcB]

 

[njpaddy]

I miss the old man (lunch) rants I used to have with a fellow retiree before covid. 3x a year, for more than 10 years, I'd drive an hour north and he'd drive an hour south and we'd rant for 2-3 hours over lunch. I think our last lunch was Oct 2019. We had one scheduled for late Feb 2020, but cancelled it due to early covid uncertainty. Neither of us use our cell phones, and only occasionally email (which just isn't the same), so those lunches were our catch-up times to rant with someone outside of family.

 

[Alacrity59]

I miss the old man (lunch) rants I used to have with a fellow retiree before covid. 3x a year, for more than 10 years, I'd drive an hour north and he'd drive an hour south and we'd rant for 2-3 hours over lunch. I think our last lunch was Oct 2019. We had one scheduled for late Feb 2020, but cancelled it due to early covid uncertainty. Neither of us use our cell phones, and only occasionally email (which just isn't the same), so those lunches were our catch-up times to rant with someone outside of family.

I know what you mean. It is good to blow a little steam away from family.

 

[Rhody]

I was feeling a little upset again at the marketing of laundry products. Take something like OxyClean. The box contains 1.36 kilos of product and also tells you that it will do 64 loads of laundry. Let's be charitable, round up, and say this is 22 grams per load. Do you know what that looks like in the scoop they provide in the box?

Spoiler: Guess???

View attachment 1219587

That is unbelievable but totally explains why I have to keep buying more of that stuff all the time.

I miss the old man (lunch) rants I used to have with a fellow retiree before covid. 3x a year, for more than 10 years, I'd drive an hour north and he'd drive an hour south and we'd rant for 2-3 hours over lunch. I think our last lunch was Oct 2019. We had one scheduled for late Feb 2020, but cancelled it due to early covid uncertainty. Neither of us use our cell phones, and only occasionally email (which just isn't the same), so those lunches were our catch-up times to rant with someone outside of family.

Sane here.
In fact this thread was always amusing and was started by @Macfrommichigan who was recently the subject of a missing member thread.

 

[Rhody]

I know what you mean. My daughter, who works in the medical field, tells me that I have intentional tremors. I told her there was nothing intentional about them. She just shook her head. Dad being dad.

The tremors have robbed me of my ability to do intricate work and sometimes result in the unintentional destruction of the thing I’m trying to repair.

I’m also unable to write more than a few words with pen and paper. After those few words, the scrawl is unintelligible even by me. I truly cannot read my own writing. Thankfully, I found Evernote and typing is only marginally affected by the tremors.

Oddly enough, they don’t affect my shaving very often. I have that occasional twitch that usually ends with a nick, but they are not consistent. I guess it’s because I don’t grip the razor tightly.

Brush work is another story. I cannot face lather because first, the tremors set in and I can’t keep the brush going in a circle and secondly, I end up with brush burn.

If you are unfamiliar with intentional tremors, Google it

I did look that up. Sounds like a real hassle to experience especially when you start to concentrate on a task.

 

[TexOkie Shaver]

I did look that up. Sounds like a real hassle to experience especially when you start to concentrate on a task.

It is more of a grip pressure issue. The tighter I hold something the more likely I’ll get the tremor. Since I lightly grip the razor, it is rarely an issue shaving. The tremor is one of the reasons I don’t attempt straight razor shaving.

 

[Razorcan]

who don't know how to give a customer change.

What is this "change" you are talking about?

 

[Rhody]

It is more of a grip pressure issue. The tighter I hold something the more likely I’ll get the tremor. Since I lightly grip the razor, it is rarely an issue shaving. The tremor is one of the reasons I don’t attempt straight razor shaving.

No that’s probably not recommended

 

[njpaddy]

I know what you mean. My daughter, who works in the medical field, tells me that I have intentional tremors. I told her there was nothing intentional about them. She just shook her head. Dad being dad.

My hand tremors are most noticeable when eating soup or cereal. I usually wind up with half a spoonful in my mouth unless I bend over close to the bowl. I went to a doctor about 8 years ago for a checkup and without me mentioning anything, he asked how long I had had a hand tremor and if it was a problem. I told him that when it got to the point that I start spilling my glass of gin, I'd let him know. So far it hasn't. Doctors have no sense of humor and hate me as a patient. I also have Dupuytren's contracture in both hands. I can't lay them flat on a table and if I put them together, there's a 2" gap between the palms. Three years ago I went to a hand specialist who asked when it started. I told him the nodules first started in the outside edge of both hands and the webbing between the thumb and index finger 30 or more years ago, but it was only the past 5+ years that nodules in the palms began to deform and contract the fingers. I already knew what the options were, so his advice at my age was to do nothing until it interferes with my daily activities. My hands look like crap, but I'm ok with that. They still do what I need them to.

 

[TexOkie Shaver]

My hand tremors are most noticeable when eating soup or cereal. I usually wind up with half a spoonful in my mouth unless I bend over close to the bowl. I went to a doctor about 8 years ago for a checkup and without me mentioning anything, he asked how long I had had a hand tremor and if it was a problem. I told him that when it got to the point that I start spilling my glass of gin, I'd let him know. So far it hasn't. Doctors have no sense of humor and hate me as a patient. I also have Dupuytren's contracture in both hands. I can't lay them flat on a table and if I put them together, there's a 2" gap between the palms. Three years ago I went to a hand specialist who asked when it started. I told him the nodules first started in the outside edge of both hands and the webbing between the thumb and index finger 30 or more years ago, but it was only the past 5+ years that nodules in the palms began to deform and contract the fingers. I already knew what the options were, so his advice at my age was to do nothing until it interferes with my daily activities. My hands look like crap, but I'm ok with that. They still do what I need them to.

John Elway had Dupuytrens. I’m not sure what he did, but I always assumed it was surgery.

Eating soup and cereal is always an adventure with the tremors. They show up when I start holding the spoon. At least, most of the soup goes in my mouth.

 

[rbscebu]

@njpaddy I started to develop Dupuytren's contracture in my 40's. The most common occurrence is with the ring finger of the left hand on men of Nordic decent. I was a perfect fit. In my early 50's I had surgery performed by a local (Cairns, Australia) plastic surgeon who specialised in hands. It was day surgery (hospital admission not required) and was performed under a general anaesthetic. From being anaesthetised to going home was about 4 hours. The dressings came off about two weeks later and all was perfect. Cost was well (then) about USD 5k before insurance rebate.

I was forewarned by my surgeon that there was a high chance (80% to 90%) that the Dupuytren's contracture would return within the next 5 to 20 years. For me, about 8 years later, it is now just starting to return. Once this pandemic thing is over and I can travel again, I will probably return to Cairns some time and get that surgeon to do the job again.

 

[shavefan]

My Old Man Rant is directed at the Delta Faucet company. 4 years ago we bought a Delta single handle kitchen faucet with a pull down sprayer. You know the kind, the end of the faucet is connected to a metal flex line and you pull it down and out from the tube where the water comes out. It has a button on the side that converts it from a faucet to a sprayer.

Over the last month, the water pressure out of that faucet has steadily dropped. Yesterday, it reached a tipping point and I decided to do something about it. I removed the head from the hose, and the aerator from the nozzle, and that was as far as you can disassemble the dang thing. I dug out the restrictor and I can see the filter element, but unlike their faucets in past years, there isn’t a release to get it out. It is press fit into the housing so tightly that it won’t budge. Even the parts diagram shows the head as one assembly with the spray nozzles, switch filter and housing as one piece!

So I figure I’ll just buy a new head. When we purchased the faucet, it was $240. The head for the faucet is $187!

Removing the restrictor returned the faucet to normal pressure, but it’s only a matter of time before the filter clogs permanently. Then I guess I’ll dig it out with a screwdriver or pick and buy more time until the nozzles clog. By the they will have discontinued parts and I’ll have to buy a whole new faucet assembly.

More planned obsolescence from corporate America!

Did you try soaking the head in CLR?

 

[TexOkie Shaver]

Did you try soaking the head in CLR?

Not yet, I was concerned with what CLR might do to the stainless steel finish. So long as I have the flow I’m at now we will be fine, but if it dismisses, the CLR is always on the table.

 

[Esox]

At this point, the restrictors consist of a disk with a hole in it. Once it’s incorporated into the design, we are screwed.

Did you try soaking the head in CLR?

Thats what I've done, it works. I was more worried about any plastic parts but everything was fine. Pull the head and drop it into a cup of CLR so its fully submerged. It doesnt take long either and comes out like new.