[jrref]

I'm an engineer and have lived in the Villages for a year and a half now. I'm creating this post to alert homeowners of maintenance tasks here in the Villages that are often overlooked.

1) If you have a gas or electric Tank hot water heater and it doesn't have an expansion tank you should have one installed. If you have an expansion tank it must be checked at least once a year. This can easily be done by tapping on the outside of the bottom and top of the expansion tank with a metal object like a screwdriver. The bottom half of the expansion tank will have water in it and the top should not. When the tank is good the tapping sound on the bottom and the top sides of the tank will sound different. The bottom will sound like a thud and the top should sound empty. Expansion tanks generally last 5 years IF THEY WERE PRESSURIZED TO THE WATER INLET PRESSURE WHEN INSTALLED. Because the tanks are pre-pressurized to 40 lbs from the factory some installers never pre-pressurized the tanks properly and they will fail sooner than 5 years in this state. There is also a pressure valve on the top of the tank where you can take a reading each year as well and if the pressure is lower than it should be you can add air. But you must drain the hot water heater after the electric and or gas is turned off, below the expansion tank level before taking a reading and or adding air. This will also drain off any sediment from the bottom of the hot water tank.

The purpose of the expansion tank is to maintain safe water pressure when your hot water heater heats water. Hot water from the heater expands which increases the water pressure in your water system. The expansion tank compensates for this hot water expansion and keeps the water pressure in your home at a safe level.

If you just ignore this maintenance over time a failed expansion tank can cause the water pressure in your home to increase to unsafe levels. Generally, your water pressure should be less than 80lbs here in the Villages. When an expansion tank fails, faucets, water valves, water hoses to the toilets, refrigerator, water filters, etc, can fail causing a flood in your home. It can also cause an increase in the pressure in the hot water heater tank causing the expansion safety valve to leak.

These expansion tanks are relatively inexpensive and if you are handy you can test and change them yourself. If not you can call your plumber or HVAC company of choice to check it when they service your hot water heater. If you have a Nova whole house filter for example, when they come yearly to change the filters they will also check the hot water heater expansion tank as well. If you do it yourself you can check it yourself.

There have been many reports of whole house water filters, softeners and burst hoses failing and flooding the home. It's not the hose or filter's problem, it's because of unsafe water pressure in your home.

2) All home irrigation systems here in the Villages had a rain sensor installed when the home was built. What we have found is after 5 years or so the sponges in the rain sensor dry up and the sensor fails to tell the controller not to water when it rained. Becasue of this, probably thousands of residents here in the Villages water unnecessarily after a heavy rain or storm wasting and paying for a significant amount of wasted irrigation water. The solution is to replace these sponges or just go to your local big box store and for around $20 purchase and install a new irrigation rain sensor. If you can't do it yourself you can hire one of the many handymen and or irrigation service people here in the Villages to do it for you. I believe it's simpler to replace the whole sensor because the plastic parts in the old sensor can break when replacing the sponges. There has been so much talk of rising water costs and this is a relatively easy way to lower yours.

3) The irrigation water we get from the Villages South of 466 is "Grey" water meaning it's minimally treated and is not pottable meaning you can't drink or cook with it. We have found a LOT of sediment in this water which clogs the filters in the irrigation system spray heads eventually leading to them being totally clogged and stop working. One way around this is to have your local irrigation service persion check and change the filters yearly or the option many of us have used is to install an irrigation water filter. These are sediment filters installed before your irrigation valve box outside so that you have nearly sediment-free water feeding your system. It's a relatively inexpensive way to keep your irrigation system running without a lot of maintenance. There is a valve that you open once a month or so to clear the filter and that's it. There are some local handymen who can install this for you.

4) Whole house water filters filter the treated water from the Villages removing sediment, chlorine and other things that you generally don't want to drink. Although many don't mind the taste of the Villages water there is a lot of sediment that will settle in your hot water tank or system, in your pipes, faucets, dishwasher, etc.. Installing a Whole house water filter will keep sediment from causing damage over time to everything that uses water in your home. If you have a hot water tank system a whole house water filter will lessen the need to drain the tank to remove water sediment for example. These systems are relatively inexpensive and can be installed by Nova filters or you can do it yourself by purchasing the many systems available either through Amazon or your local big box store. Just do your research and look into all these options since not all whole house filters are the same or have local service like Nova for example.

5) All water supply hoses for the toilets, refrigerators, dishwasher and washing machines have a fixed life and WILL eventually fail potentially causing a catastrophic flood in your home. The problem we have here in the Villages is almost all homes have Push/Pull valves installed where in some cases you can't replace the water supply hose without changing the valve. This is especially true for the water supply hose for the refrigerator. To manage this problem you can have your local plumber change out all of the Push/Pull valves for quarter turn ball valves so you can change the water supply hoses every 5 years or so.

6) From a reader, "Also, don't forget to flush the AC drip line monthly. I use a gallon of warm water & 1/4 cup regular white vinegar. It goes down the PVC pipe next to the AC unit (in garage or in house) and flows outside to the drip pipe.
I also have a washable, permanent air filter for my AC unit and I clean that with a garden hose every 2 or 3 months. More often if you have pets that shed a lot of hair."

There is a lot of discussion on what to pour into the AC drip line once a month. If you maintain it properly a gallon of warm to hot water should be fine. When you have your yearly HVAC service they put in an anti mold and fungus solution that is supposed to clear out the drain. But if you want to use a little bleach or Vinegar solution it should be OK. Just make sure you have your HVAC system serviced by one of the professionals here in the Villages at least once a year. There is also a check valve which senses when your AC drip line is clogged and will turn off the AC when a clogged drip line backs up to the Air Handler. You can't believe how many times i've heard of the check valve failing and people getting a flood in their garage from a backed up AC drip line. Your HVAC service will check this as well.

7) Cloths dryer vent cleaning. I believe many people in the Villages have their dryer vents cleaned because when you don't the dryer can stop drying the cloths pretty quickly. It's a very important bi-yearly or yearly service that needs to be done becasue if you neglect this maintenance you can have a dryer fire and potentially burn down your house. I can recommend Complete Dryer Vent Services on 352-653-0809. Or you can use any recommended company but just make sure you have this done at least once a year or more if you dry a lot of cloths.

I hope this post can be a reference for everyone in the Villages since these items are talked about in bits and pieces in many of the Talk of the Villages threads but not in one spot and they are SO IMPORTANT!

I don't provide any of the above services and I have no affiliation with Nova filters but I mention this company because many here in the Villages have used their products and services. They are locally owned, stand behind their product and workmanship and highly recommended. Even if you are just doing research, give Brad a call and he will help you with information for your specific need.

If you have any questions and or need some references to service people and or handymen who can provice some of these services please reach out to me at jrref@hotmail.com or PM me.

[tophcfa]

Great information, thanks. Just one minor correction, the irrigation system for homes north of 466 use the same source of potable water as the rest of the home, not grey water. There are pros and cons to that, a pro is that there is no need to worry about irrigation water getting into your pool, a con is that you get whacked with an expensive sewer charge for irrigation water.

[jrref]

Thanks i updated my original post!

[GpaVader]

We have a tankless water heater, do you still suggest having an expansion tank?

[jrref]

Originally Posted by GpaVader

We have a tankless water heater, do you still suggest having an expansion tank?

No they are not needed for tankless water heaters.

[kjb921]

Roughly how much for the filter system before the water hits the sprinklers and who did you use to install? They provide the filter or did you buy it and what kind have you found to work the beat. Thank you

[villagetinker]

Neighbor had one installed (for the sprinklers), was a simple filter cartridge with a CLEAR cover, mounter above ground at the inlet to the valve assembly. With the clear cover it was easy to see when the filter needed to be changed. i have no idea of the cost, and they have moved. Parts for a DIY installed would easily be well below $100.

[Laker14]

I have some questions about the expansion tank.

Is it disastrous if the charge is 60psi against a 70psi water pressure reading?
Instead of draining the tank to up the charge, can you disconnect the expansion tank (closing the valve that feeds the hot water tank first of course, and releasing the pressure in the hot water system by opening a hot water valve in the house), and pump it up the same way you did when you installed the tank?

[jrref]

Originally Posted by Laker14

I have some questions about the expansion tank.

Is it disastrous if the charge is 60psi against a 70psi water pressure reading?
Instead of draining the tank to up the charge, can you disconnect the expansion tank (closing the valve that feeds the hot water tank first of course, and releasing the pressure in the hot water system by opening a hot water valve in the house), and pump it up the same way you did when you installed the tank?

Technically you are supposed to pre-pressurize the expansion tank to the supply water pressure to your home or the tank will fail prematurely. It says this in big print in the expansion tank instructions. That said if you pressureize the tank to something close to the inlet pressure you should be fine. Remember your water pressure is going to vary during the day anyway. You just want to avoid streching the internal membrane to it's limits causing it to fail. As far as pressurizing and or measuring the pressure in the expansion tank, closing the the water supply valve to the hot water tank and opening the hot water in the house should release the pressure in the expansion tank but if you have an electric hot water heater i would open the circuit breaker to the tank during the process just to make sure the heating elements do not come on with no water on them.

[jrref]

Originally Posted by villagetinker

Neighbor had one installed (for the sprinklers), was a simple filter cartridge with a CLEAR cover, mounter above ground at the inlet to the valve assembly. With the clear cover it was easy to see when the filter needed to be changed. i have no idea of the cost, and they have moved. Parts for a DIY installed would easily be well below $100.

From my experience working with a handyman who installed many of these for my neighbors the parts are around $150-$175 but there is a lot of labor to do the install because many of these valve assemblies are burried and need to be dug out. Also because every installation is different due to the original piping it takes time to cut and glue all the pvc pipes, and valves for the install so everything looks good. He consulted with one of the filter manufacturers to select the correct sediment filter that we need here in the Villages. He uses a stainless steel filter vs the plastic one so it will last a long time. I also installed what they call a sock that covers the clear filter cover becasue it prevents mold build up on the inside of the plastic cover so you can see when the filter needs to be flushed. All you need to do is pull up the sock to take a look. There are several of us who have had the filters installed for 6 months and they works great. My sprinkler heads and fine misters don't get clogged any more. The only service i do myself is to periodically check each zone to make sure no heads are broken and that they are spraying correctly.

If you think about it the $300-$350 it costs to install this filter is easily paid for by a couple of visits from a sprinkler service tech who has to clean and or replace your sprinkler head filters every year. An those fine misters and sprayers used for the shrubs will always clog up and stop working without this main filter.

[Laker14]

Originally Posted by jrref

Technically you are supposed to pre-pressurize the expansion tank to the supply water pressure to your home or the tank will fail prematurely. It says this in big print in the expansion tank instructions. That said if you pressureize the tank to something close to the inlet pressure you should be fine. Remember your water pressure is going to vary during the day anyway. You just want to avoid streching the internal membrane to it's limits causing it to fail. As far as pressurizing and or measuring the pressure in the expansion tank, closing the the water supply valve to the hot water tank and opening the hot water in the house should release the pressure in the expansion tank but if you have an electric hot water heater i would open the circuit breaker to the tank during the process just to make sure the heating elements do not come on with no water on them.

thank you.

[Chamo]

Great information. Thank you. Does anybody have a phone number or a person that will install this filter system for your water irrigation?

[Nucky]

352-661–6555 Nova. Great people, Great products.

I would like to thank the OP and stress the importance of cleaning your dryer exhaust. Please don’t overlook this maintenance item. A dryer fire is nasty. It happened to us before we moved to The Villages. Desmond is the man’s name but I apologize that I can’t come up with the phone number. Best money you’ll ever spend. When you notice it’s taking too long to dry the clothes. This is your best move.

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by Nucky

352-661–6555 Nova. Great people, Great products.

I would like to thank the OP and stress the importance of cleaning your dryer exhaust. Please don’t overlook this maintenance item. A dryer fire is nasty. It happened to us before we moved to The Villages. Desmond is the man’s name but I apologize that I can’t come up with the phone number. Best money you’ll ever spend. When you notice it’s taking too long to dry the clothes. This is your best move.

Desmond Harris, 352-308-7457

[ithos]

I found out about a bad expansion tank when my AC did not come on. The diaphragm leaked which led to a pin hole leak on the top of the tank. It sprayed water on may AC control board that rendered it inoperable.

If you DIY, you will need to buy a few parts since they are installed with PVC. A pressure gage will be necessary too. My tank was only 6 years old when this happened.