Apistomaster
10-17-2011, 04:55 PM
After over 40 years or not owning any pets other than fish I decided I could use the company of a kitten.
I recently bought and installed a new Typhoon Extreme, 150 gpd RO/DI unit next to my two connected 55 gal barrels which make up my RO water reservoir.
The system worked fine for the first couple of weeks. I was enjoying the automatic shut off valve and float switch; no more flooded bathroom for me! Or so I thought.
Sometime recently my kitten decided to use the incoming source water tubing to chew on(she is just getting her permanent teeth) but I did not know this had happened. Not until yesterday that is.
I turned on the tap water source and left it unattended. By the time I returned to turn off the water I discovered the incoming water line was spraying out of more than a dozen line punctures in every direction and had flooded the bathroom with at least twenty gallons of water. Needless to say I was not pleased with this.
I am going to replace any damaged RO lines but I plan to first cover the accessible lines with sleeves of flexible plastic tubing and I still have to figure out some method of protecting the main unit's various short sections of tubing.
I am sharing this experience because it is both amusing and really frustrating at the same time and thought it might save someone else a similar experience.
I expected to have to deal with some damage from a rambunctious young kitten like the few broken leaves on a few of my Levelar window shades and what not but it never occurred to me that she would put out so much of her time and energy into sabotaging my new RO/DI unit.
It has been so long since I have owned a cat I had forgotten just how much mischief they could get into.
You can never anticipate all the potential trouble spots cats can find.
The last cat I had liked to sleep on top the cover of my 125 gal reef tank and on two occasions it some how managed to disconnect the overflow tubing that ran to the wet/dry filter when itjumped down off the warm cover and this flooded a finished carpeted basement recreation room with some 60 gal of reef tank water nearly ruining an expensive Steinway piano sitting next to the reef tank. Not exactly my preferred way of making water changes and in the process many expensive Elegant Coral heads were lost to the unanticipated low "tides".
Moral of these anecdotes; you will never see these weird disasters coming.
I recently bought and installed a new Typhoon Extreme, 150 gpd RO/DI unit next to my two connected 55 gal barrels which make up my RO water reservoir.
The system worked fine for the first couple of weeks. I was enjoying the automatic shut off valve and float switch; no more flooded bathroom for me! Or so I thought.
Sometime recently my kitten decided to use the incoming source water tubing to chew on(she is just getting her permanent teeth) but I did not know this had happened. Not until yesterday that is.
I turned on the tap water source and left it unattended. By the time I returned to turn off the water I discovered the incoming water line was spraying out of more than a dozen line punctures in every direction and had flooded the bathroom with at least twenty gallons of water. Needless to say I was not pleased with this.
I am going to replace any damaged RO lines but I plan to first cover the accessible lines with sleeves of flexible plastic tubing and I still have to figure out some method of protecting the main unit's various short sections of tubing.
I am sharing this experience because it is both amusing and really frustrating at the same time and thought it might save someone else a similar experience.
I expected to have to deal with some damage from a rambunctious young kitten like the few broken leaves on a few of my Levelar window shades and what not but it never occurred to me that she would put out so much of her time and energy into sabotaging my new RO/DI unit.
It has been so long since I have owned a cat I had forgotten just how much mischief they could get into.
You can never anticipate all the potential trouble spots cats can find.
The last cat I had liked to sleep on top the cover of my 125 gal reef tank and on two occasions it some how managed to disconnect the overflow tubing that ran to the wet/dry filter when itjumped down off the warm cover and this flooded a finished carpeted basement recreation room with some 60 gal of reef tank water nearly ruining an expensive Steinway piano sitting next to the reef tank. Not exactly my preferred way of making water changes and in the process many expensive Elegant Coral heads were lost to the unanticipated low "tides".
Moral of these anecdotes; you will never see these weird disasters coming.