Redundancy and Backups

[FishTankBarn]

Had a small problem last Friday.   I came out to the barn and it’s was dark and breakers tripped.   One to find out that my heater died. I live in Michigan and it’s quite cold right now. Fortunately I had an additional heater at the ready.   Just needed some wiring and we were good to go.   Word to the wise, always keep backups, whether heaters, pumps.   Makes your life easier and might even save your fish. 

[OceanTruth]

I like keeping backups or spare parts as well. At least for things I would need right away in case of failure. That goes for non-aquarium equipment as well. ANYTHING and EVERYTHING will fail eventually, unfortunately.

[Philip]

26 minutes ago, OceanTruth said:

I like keeping backups or spare parts as well. At least for things I would need right away in case of failure. That goes for non-aquarium equipment as well. ANYTHING and EVERYTHING will fail eventually, unfortunately.

So true. Sump pumps, heaters and parts for your toilet. Not only will they go, it will be on Christmas Eve when all the stores are closed and 28 people are at your house. 

[gardenman]

33 minutes ago, Philip said:

So true. Sump pumps, heaters and parts for your toilet. Not only will they go, it will be on Christmas Eve when all the stores are closed and 28 people are at your house. 

The aquarium hobby can come in handy also. I live in a one bathroom older home and we were having ten people over for Christmas. Christmas morning the pipe feeding water to the toilet split and started to flood the basement. I was able to shut the valve quickly to prevent major issues, but there was no water to the toilet which would have been a problem with ten people coming. I had no spare copper pipe or fittings on hand (I do now) so I couldn't fix it and calling a plumber on Christmas morning would have been insanely expensive if I could get one at all. An old filter had tubing that had an inner diameter the same as the outer diameter of the copper pipe. I cut out the damaged length of pipe, slid the tubing about six inches up on either end of the cut off pipe and secured it with a couple of clamps and we had a functioning toilet again. Aquariums to the rescue!

I have a couple of small electric space heaters I can use if my big heater fails and should the power go out, I have a kerosene heater that uses no power and can pretty much heat the house for a full day if need be. I'm buying some of the nano air pumps to have on hand also. 

[Philip]

3 minutes ago, gardenman said:

The aquarium hobby can come in handy also. I live in a one bathroom older home and we were having ten people over for Christmas. Christmas morning the pipe feeding water to the toilet split and started to flood the basement. I was able to shut the valve quickly to prevent major issues, but there was no water to the toilet which would have been a problem with ten people coming. I had no spare copper pipe or fittings on hand (I do now) so I couldn't fix it and calling a plumber on Christmas morning would have been insanely expensive if I could get one at all. An old filter had tubing that had an inner diameter the same as the outer diameter of the copper pipe. I cut out the damaged length of pipe, slid the tubing about six inches up on either end of the cut off pipe and secured it with a couple of clamps and we had a functioning toilet again. Aquariums to the rescue!

I have a couple of small electric space heaters I can use if my big heater fails and should the power go out, I have a kerosene heater that uses no power and can pretty much heat the house for a full day if need be. I'm buying some of the nano air pumps to have on hand also. 

You are the MacGyver of Commodes.

[Andy's Fish Den]

My wife used to make fun of me all the time because I have bins in my shop of all sorts of PVC parts, other plumbing parts, electrical parts, you name it. She would call me a hoarder. She stopped once we had a plumbing problem before we had a bunch of people over for Thanksgiving, and I went out to my shop, got the parts I needed and got it fixed in under a half hour. I just looked at her and said "That's why I keep spares parts around!" 

I also keep a spare sump pump in my basement with a discharge pipe already connected with a union, so that if mine takes a dump all I have to do is unscrew the union on the old, and swap in the new. I've had to do it once and got it switched out before the water even reached the top of the sump pit. 

Edited February 16, 2021 by Andy's Fish Den