Plumber in Ubon

[nisakiman]

Does anyone have any recent experience of a good, reliable plumber in Ubon? My in-laws who live in central Ubon have a problem with the holding tank (1000L) not filling very fast, if at all. I've had a look at the system, which includes one of those water softener (I assume) thingys, and although I have a fairly logical mind, I'm damned if I can make head nor tail of how the system is supposed to work. In fact, it defies all logic. I think it needs starting from scratch and all new pipework around the tank, pump and softener. Hence the need for a decent plumber. As soon as possible, too, because with me and the wife staying here, we are suffering 'empty-tank' syndrome! :)

 

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help with a phone number. Cheers.

[Michael Hare]

I think the problem may be with the filter being blocked up. How often do your in-laws clean the filter? Maybe never? I live in central Ubon and at our house we use the Ubon city council water. I have three tanks with a capacity of 4,000 litres. I have three filters. Yes, three filters to clean the silty, dirty city council water. Once a week, I back wash the filters and then rinse the filters through. You should see the sediment that comes out. Takes me about 30 minutes each time to thoroughly clean the filters through. 

 

I have a long list of telephone numbers of "plumbers". Joe Blow, cheap and useless. Drunken Somchai, good, but can never be found. Smart arse Piichai, knows everything, but in the end nothing works.  In the end my wife's brother is the best. 

 

Not a lot of help. What I suggest you first do is unscrew the float on the top of the water in the water tank and give the pipes there a good clean. Probably blocked up with sediment.

[ubonrthai]

Here is a list of "changs" you could try from an old post.  I don't remember which one ended up figuring out our problem but we must have called a dozen on that list before finding someone. I had a guy named Dong 06-2672-6992 help me install our 2nd water tank and he did a good job. One of the better chang's we've had do anything on our house. I don't know how he would do with troubleshooting your issue though.

 

 

 

[nisakiman]

Cheers Michael. I've taken the float valve off, and still only get a dribble of water coming out. I'd assumed it was a softener, but now you mention it, yes, it probably is a filter. Which presumably means that it should be between the meter and the tank. That was what was confusing me. I'll ask Pa when he last cleaned it, but he unfortunately has the beginnings of Alzheimer's, and can't reliably remember these things. How do you go about cleaning the filter? There's a silver knob on top with three positions, one of which is marked 'backwash', and the pipes leading in and out of the filter have on / off valves, as does the by-pass pipe joining them. There is also a tap on the top of the filter unit just under the silver knob.

 

Ah, ubonrthai has come up with a number. Thanks for that. I'll try the cleaning of the filter first and see what happens. Failing that, I'll give Chang a whirl!

 

Thanks for the help, it's much appreciated.

 

 

[Michael Hare]

9 hours ago, nisakiman said:

Cheers Michael. I've taken the float valve off, and still only get a dribble of water coming out. I'd assumed it was a softener, but now you mention it, yes, it probably is a filter. Which presumably means that it should be between the meter and the tank. That was what was confusing me. I'll ask Pa when he last cleaned it, but he unfortunately has the beginnings of Alzheimer's, and can't reliably remember these things. How do you go about cleaning the filter? There's a silver knob on top with three positions, one of which is marked 'backwash', and the pipes leading in and out of the filter have on / off valves, as does the by-pass pipe joining them. There is also a tap on the top of the filter unit just under the silver knob.

 

Ah, ubonrthai has come up with a number. Thanks for that. I'll try the cleaning of the filter first and see what happens. Failing that, I'll give Chang a whirl!

 

Thanks for the help, it's much appreciated.

 

 

 

I hope you have had some luck in cleaning the filter. I would try backwash for ten minutes, rinse for five minutes and then return the valve to the filter position. These would be the three positions you mentioned. 

 

If this work fails ring a plumber. This guy installed our filters (photo attached) and did a great job. Jen 080 476 8594

[nisakiman]

A short postscript to the saga of the water tank.

 

I was unfortunately unwell, our having just returned from Lao where I'd obviously eaten something which disagreed with me, so wasn't party to all that transpired, but unbeknown to me, Ma had spoken to a neighbour who had in turn sent a guy to fix the problem. (Ha ha).

 

I was distinctly unimpressed when he turned up, his entire toolkit comprising of a pipe wrench and a broken hacksaw blade, but I was feeling too ill to argue, and left them to it and went to lie down and nurse my rebellious stomach (a situation not helped by there being no water apart from a large bucket Pa had thoughtfully placed in our bathroom). Anyway, by mid afternoon (the guy didn't turn up until nearly twelve), my wife came up and told me the guy had finished and was gone, but that he'd cut the filter out of the system! What the ****!

I went down, and sure enough, the filter had obviously introduced too many complications for his tiny mind, so he'd just cut the pipes and re-routed them. But he obviously hadn't had the correct solvent glue for the plastic pipes, so five minutes after the pump had fired up, all the connections he'd made came apart. I rooted around in Pa's 'useless bits and pieces' box, and found a few worm clips which I put round the burst joints as a temporary measure so we could at least shower in chocolate brown water.

 

As it happens, Ma had also called the town water supply people, and the following morning (after we'd called the guy you recommended, Michael) a guy arrived with a proper tool kit, assessed the situation in what to me seemed a professional way, and gave us a reasonable price to do the job. So we called your guy back and told him not to worry, and let this new guy get on with it.

 

Thankfully, he was as good as he seemed to be. Got on with the job with no fuss, re-connected the filter and cleaned it out, replaced a couple of old leaking valves and joints, put in mostly new pipework and was done in a couple of hours. 500 Baht plus 300 for parts he had to buy (which he gave us the receipt for).

 

So finally, it was job done and done well. But as for the first retard......

 

Anyway, thanks for your help, guys.

[Michael Hare]

Good news indeed that the water system is now working and I hope your systems are also back to normal. 

 

To keep the water filter system going in good order, it pays to regularly back wash and rinse the filter. You saw with your own eyes what the colour of the city council water is like without going through a filter. 

[nisakiman]

3 hours ago, Michael Hare said:

Good news indeed that the water system is now working and I hope your systems are also back to normal. 

 

To keep the water filter system going in good order, it pays to regularly back wash and rinse the filter. You saw with your own eyes what the colour of the city council water is like without going through a filter. 

 

Indeed, the filter is essential. We're back to Greece at the end of the month, and because the in-laws are getting on, and Pa's memory is on the way out, we've arranged for the guy who fixed everything to come round every month (when they're on their own, they don't really use a lot of water) to backwash and rinse the filter. He'll do that for 100 Baht, which I think is worth it. Plus if there are any other minor issues that develop, he'll be on hand to deal with them.

 

My personal plumbing issues seem to have resolved themselves also, thanks. Plain boiled rice and Coca-Cola diet for two days did the trick!

[ubonrthai]

Thanks for the report. Saving that phone number for future use.