yoga43108

Taps drip. It's inevitable, like death and taxes. Traditional taps seal using a rubber ring screwed down over the end of a metal pipe. Sooner or later the rubber is going to go hard, split or just wear away and it will no longer seal. Then water seeps through, and the tap starts dripping. Left alone the problem gets worse as the water wears away the valve seat. Then you'll have to either re-grind the valve seat(Do you own a valve seat re-grinder? Who would?) or replace the tap. Tedious in either case. But, it need not happen. Many taps now use ceramic discs.

Method of Operation
Instead of creating a seal by forcing a rubber washer onto the end of the water feed pipe, they use two ceramic discs each with matching slots in them. These are held over the end of the water feed pipe. The lower disc doesn't move while the upper disc is turned over the lower disc by the tap head. Water will only flow when the upper and lower slots match up.

Advantages
There are a number of benefits to this arrangement. The most obvious is that ceramic discs are much harder than rubber and much more resistant to erosion by water seepage. Hence they have a much longer life before needing replacement. Additionally, because the water flows between the two discs, the discs erode not the metal of the valve. Also, because of the way the discs are arranged, the taps go fully on with only one quarter of a turn and tap needs only light pressure to operate. This light action has the advantage that they are easy to operate with the back of the hand if your hands are dirty and for people with restricted movement.

Where they are Used
The ease of operation and the long life mean that most good quality sink mixer taps have been made using ceramic discs for a while, but basin taps with ceramic discs are surprisingly less common. The more use a tap gets, the more attractive the use of ceramic disc technology becomes. This is doubly true in hard water areas, which can be murder on traditional taps.

Disadvantages
Everything has it's downside, and there are cons to ceramic disc taps. They do eventually wear out and are more expensive than old style taps and are not suitable for very low water pressure. Unusually, many of the manufacturers seem to use standard sizes, so getting a replacement is often straightforward. Because taps on basins can be either handed or not not, one can't always be sure which way to turn each tap on, this can be annoying! Lastly, unlike traditional style taps, which take a number of turns to be on full, you may easily turn the water flow on far more than meant. The unexpectedly vigorous water flow and splashing can cause water going everywhere, including over your clothes. Not Good!

Bob Plum is the owner of BuyPlumbing co uk Ltd. If you live in Britain then the link http://www.buyplumbing.co.uk gives you access to a wide range of competitively priced bathroom goods and plumbing fittings.

On a global scale every year we can expect approximately 100 extremely disruptive earthquakes, around 10,000 floods, roughly 100,000 thunderstorms, hundreds of landslides and tornadoes as well as scores of hurricanes, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, droughts and tsunamis. Fortunately, not all of these events will occur in areas that will harm the human population, but many will.

What can man do to even the score? How can we know beforehand where calamity will strike? How can we foresee the evil and protect others and ourselves? Providentially, earth's inhabitants have a built-in early warning system that could aid in turning the tables and would more than reimburse man for his efforts in studying its secrets. According to the exogenic theory of climate, forces outside of earth's atmosphere exercise an influence on terrestrial weather. A correlation has been observed since the dawn of time between certain planetary phenomena and earth's atmospheric conditions. Unfortunately, modern man has viewed as quixotic even the most brilliant of history's minds that have studied and successfully employed this knowledge. Johannes Kepler, discoverer of the planetary laws of motion, first became famous for his long-range weather forecasts such as the one that foretold of the bitter cold winter that put Styermark, germany on ice in 1593. Isaac Newton's prediction, based on certain celestial conditions, of the destructive gales and sharp earthquakes that would rock london in 1750 materialized right on schedule-twenty-three years after his death!

one need not be of superior scientific stature to effectively forecast coming weather patterns. The twentieth century produced a few excellent astrometeorologists one of whom was G.J. McCormack. In 1962-3, Mr. McCormack published a series of long-range forecasts months in advance in Analog-Science Fiction, Science Fact magazine. He was judged as 93 percent accurate. Mr. McCormack was an electrical engineer by profession.

In a similar vein, John Nelson, a radio propagation analyst for rca and amateur astronomer, shocked the scientific world in the 1950s by announcing his discovery of the influence of planetary angular relationships on earth's magnetic storms. For years afterwards he published his long-range forecasts pinpointing the dates of severe magnetic storms that would wipe out short wave radio transmissions.

based on Keplers long-range forecast method, the Southeast US through the ohio Valley is in for a round of severe weather around August 14th and 15th. one scenario shows a tropical system approaching the west coast of florida and pushing inland with soaking rains. Another model suggests strong storms with damaging winds and possible flooding over the same area. Either way, there should be a very active weather pattern that should not go by unnoticed.

Ken Paone has been working with Kepler's long-range weather forecasting method for about 15 years. His published forecasts have appeared internationally. You can email Ken at kensweather@msn.com. check out more long-range weather forecasts for August 2006 as well as the results of his past forecasts at http://www.theweatheralternative.blogspot.com