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> Unhooking a toilet is apparently an advanced skill in Florida. I am a former licensed master plumber, and I still hold a license to work as a plumber so I ju

> Unhooking a toilet is apparently an advanced skill in Florida. I am a former licensed master plumber, and I still hold a license to work as a plumber so I just want to weigh in here. I would never, Not Ever drink the water in Any industrial or commercial complex. Period. The reason is because although it is not technically difficult to "unhook a toliet" as you say it is even easier (especially now with the advent of Home Depot and Amazon selling all manner of "plumbing contraptions") to inadverntly create a potential cross conection. Here is the reason I do not drink the water (or or soda or soup or anything that uses their water supply): when I was a plumbing contractor one of my accounts was a wire and plating facility that made a lot of different automotive fasteners and what not (pretty cool mavhines btw), one day I walked into the plating room And I was Horrifired to see washing machine hoses attached to spigots literally laying in the plating solutions that contained Cyanide... no vacuum breakers no RPZ's (reduced pressure zone devices) nothing to protect the water supply from siphoning Cyanide back into it. Fuck that noise--never since have I drank the water, nor never will I again. And I have seen coutless cross connections since then in all manner of facilities. Not to mention not having a clue about proper material and methods while working on on natural gas or LPG sytems and so on, and so on. You can do a lot of damage really really fast if you're clueless.

yostrovs 7y ago
What about unhooking a toilet? Or installing a new kitchen faucet? Filling gasoline into your car is extremely dangerous too, which is why in Oregon and New Jersey trained professionals are the only ones allowed to perform the task.
- irrational 7y ago
  >trained professionals Ha ha! Wait, you are joking right? I live in Oregon and they are about as trained professionals as the teenager working at McDonalds is a trained Michelin chef.
  - dzamie 7y ago
    Yes, they're using sarcasm to ridicule their parent comment's claim that someone hired to just unhook a toilet should legally NEED to be a licensed plumber, by comparing it to similarly low-skill tasks "needing" to be highly trained in case something goes wrong.
Psyladine 7y ago
I'm not following; you want separate plumbing lines entirely to feed sinks, outlets and toilets? I can't picture a single residential facility that doesn't have a shared feed, nevermind a corporate complex designed for efficiency. >no vacuum breakers no RPZ's (reduced pressure zone devices) nothing to protect the water supply from siphoning Cyanide back into it Not even the shutoff valve? There should be constant pressure behind the hose beyond it.
- dredmorbius 7y ago
  You need an anti-siphon design, of some sort. Direct hose connections can result in back-contamination. A drop-fill won't do that. There are anti-siphon designs, they are less assured as they may still fail. https://www.thespruce.com/anti-siphon-faucet-1824942 https://www.thespruce.com/anti-siphon-faucet-1824942
93po 7y ago
I don't understand. They had a machine for washing parts where the water intake for the machine was pulling from an open container with the plating solution? How does this contaminate the building's water?
- jamie_ca 7y ago
  I think it's the case where the water supply (out of the wall) had an open hose that dropped down into a basin and at the bottom, made physical contact with a resting pool of cyanide-containing fluid. Capillary action could possibly induce the cyanide fluid up into the hose, and/or backwash/turbulence could mix fluids inside the hose, and in just the wrong conditions, could result in some cyanide back-flowing up to the piping, to be distributed elsewhere in the building. As an extreme layman, I'd assess that as unlikely but at least possible.
fnordfnordfnord 7y ago
>The reason is because although it is not technically difficult to "unhook a toliet" as you say it is even easier (especially now with the advent of Home Depot and Amazon selling all manner of "plumbing contraptions") to inadverntly create a potential cross conection. Please tell us how one can screw up hooking up a toilet so badly as to create a cross connection. It's not easy to confuse a 3" or better closet flange with a 3/8" compression fitting, and it would be pretty obvious to anyone who tried it.
- RaceWon 7y ago
  > Please tell us how one can screw up hooking up a toilet so badly as to create a cross connection Sure: unless you understand potable water and drainage systems, proper appurtenances, proper methods and materials I don't want you touching my drinking water supply. It's the same reason you don't want me typing random characters into your code. I'm not a coder, you're not a plumber. And to be clear I used domestic water as an example, you could just as easily mess up the sanitary connection and have raw sewage seeping into the building. It takes 8 years of working experience before you are even allowed to take a Master Plumbing test... and we aren't stupid people. There is A lot know.
  - fnordfnordfnord 7y ago
    So, no then. >It takes 8 years of working experience before you are even allowed to take a Master Plumbing test... and we aren't stupid people. There is A lot know. Never said plumbers were stupid. But we're talking about replacing an existing fixture with a functionally identical replacement. If you try to tell me that needs a licensed Master plumber, I'll know exactly what your motives are.

yostrovs 7y ago

What about unhooking a toilet? Or installing a new kitchen faucet? Filling gasoline into your car is extremely dangerous too, which is why in Oregon and New Jersey trained professionals are the only ones allowed to perform the task.

irrational 7y ago
>trained professionals Ha ha! Wait, you are joking right? I live in Oregon and they are about as trained professionals as the teenager working at McDonalds is a trained Michelin chef.
- dzamie 7y ago
  Yes, they're using sarcasm to ridicule their parent comment's claim that someone hired to just unhook a toilet should legally NEED to be a licensed plumber, by comparing it to similarly low-skill tasks "needing" to be highly trained in case something goes wrong.

Psyladine 7y ago

I'm not following; you want separate plumbing lines entirely to feed sinks, outlets and toilets? I can't picture a single residential facility that doesn't have a shared feed, nevermind a corporate complex designed for efficiency. >no vacuum breakers no RPZ's (reduced pressure zone devices) nothing to protect the water supply from siphoning Cyanide back into it Not even the shutoff valve? There should be constant pressure behind the hose beyond it.

dredmorbius 7y ago
You need an anti-siphon design, of some sort. Direct hose connections can result in back-contamination. A drop-fill won't do that. There are anti-siphon designs, they are less assured as they may still fail. https://www.thespruce.com/anti-siphon-faucet-1824942 https://www.thespruce.com/anti-siphon-faucet-1824942

93po 7y ago

I don't understand. They had a machine for washing parts where the water intake for the machine was pulling from an open container with the plating solution? How does this contaminate the building's water?

jamie_ca 7y ago
I think it's the case where the water supply (out of the wall) had an open hose that dropped down into a basin and at the bottom, made physical contact with a resting pool of cyanide-containing fluid. Capillary action could possibly induce the cyanide fluid up into the hose, and/or backwash/turbulence could mix fluids inside the hose, and in just the wrong conditions, could result in some cyanide back-flowing up to the piping, to be distributed elsewhere in the building. As an extreme layman, I'd assess that as unlikely but at least possible.

fnordfnordfnord 7y ago

>The reason is because although it is not technically difficult to "unhook a toliet" as you say it is even easier (especially now with the advent of Home Depot and Amazon selling all manner of "plumbing contraptions") to inadverntly create a potential cross conection. Please tell us how one can screw up hooking up a toilet so badly as to create a cross connection. It's not easy to confuse a 3" or better closet flange with a 3/8" compression fitting, and it would be pretty obvious to anyone who tried it.

RaceWon 7y ago
> Please tell us how one can screw up hooking up a toilet so badly as to create a cross connection Sure: unless you understand potable water and drainage systems, proper appurtenances, proper methods and materials I don't want you touching my drinking water supply. It's the same reason you don't want me typing random characters into your code. I'm not a coder, you're not a plumber. And to be clear I used domestic water as an example, you could just as easily mess up the sanitary connection and have raw sewage seeping into the building. It takes 8 years of working experience before you are even allowed to take a Master Plumbing test... and we aren't stupid people. There is A lot know.
- fnordfnordfnord 7y ago
  So, no then. >It takes 8 years of working experience before you are even allowed to take a Master Plumbing test... and we aren't stupid people. There is A lot know. Never said plumbers were stupid. But we're talking about replacing an existing fixture with a functionally identical replacement. If you try to tell me that needs a licensed Master plumber, I'll know exactly what your motives are.