#a basement waterproofing estimator came earlier today and it wasn't a great experience. not to mention $$$$

[caterjunes]

grayson went downstairs for a late-night bowl of cereal & heard water splashing in the basement (which has been flooding with distressing frequency). they looked and spotted the new water heater's condensation pump IN THE ACT of gushing gallons and gallons of water all over the floor!!

they called for me, i ran downstairs in my underwear (just having showered like ten minutes earlier). i tbh sort of wrench the pump into a 5-gal tub (which it RAPIDLY starts filling) to give us time to diagnose the problem. this is not helped by there being like 4 tubes/pipes plumbed into/out of this thing.

i try to pick it up to get a better look at what it's doing and it feels like it buzzes weirdly on my fingers or maybe hand? so i drop it back in the tub (mostly submerged) and try again. same thing. grayson tries it, same thing. i'm like oh shit where did those LOOSE WIRES ON THE PUMP COME FROM OH MY GOD WE'RE STANDING IN AN INCH OF WATER AND I THINK WE JUST GOT SHOCKED. we both get the hell out of the water, i shut off the power to the water heater & go back to try again (grayson has heart disease! do not want them taking any risks w/ electricity!), get zapped AGAIN. i realize the pump is plugged into an outlet on a different circuit and unplug it (by the cord) (in hindsight should've turned off the whole circuit).

the pump stops pumping & i can move it to a new bucket (good! the old one is now overflowing) but it is still gushing water. grayson realizes our Mysterious Whole-House Filter Of Unknown Custom Design is in the middle of its flush cycle so we shut it off. and the water stops. we turn the spigots to bypass the filter so it won't do that again, hopefully.

turns out when the water heater installers put the condenser pump in, they (for some reason) routed the filter flush outflow pipe down through it, then out to the main outflow pipe using the condenser pump. but the flush cycle has such high flow rate that it absolutely overwhelmed the tiny little condenser pump and just poured out of every opening in it. so. i'm annoyed. this didn't need to happen.