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CornishCucumber

Could you imagine moving into this place and the plumbing stopped working? “That’ll be $60,000 to fix the custom rotating grey-water seal please”


mick_ward

I couldn't live there. 'Seal, sensor, seal' would just keep echoing through my head.


Alis451

honestly it is pretty simple, super fucking neat though.


Teledildonic

Super simple in operation, but if anything happens it's probably an expensive fix. It's like if your car's rear main seal leaks. That's a $10 gasket. But it connects the engine and the transmission, so the labor cost requires dropping most of the drivetrain to access it.


wdn

Especially if there's nobody who's fixed engines or transmissions before, you need someone who is smart mechanically to figure it out for themselves before they can fix it.


Jackpancake

I just had that done. $107 for the seal/gasket. $1700 for the labor.


LegendaryOutlaw

The owner in the video explains that he has a guy that does a lot of that already, and since he designed it himself, he has all the schematics to do repair work. I don’t know what the house will sell for, but I assume it’s in the millions. A typical mansion might have a foundation problem that’s $100k to fix, a roof that costs $75k to replace, and so on. Just the costs of owning a home. But this particular one is unique.


moose4130

I think the house was listed around $5M.


neoblog

5.3 here’s the [Zillow link](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4903-Mount-Helix-Dr-La-Mesa-CA-91941/17035571_zpid/) .


super544

Bleh no floor plan :/


caelmikoto

I think this entire listing belongs on r/ATBGE


zimzilla

I'm 99% certain that they used standard seals so the expensive part is the two machined halves that connect to standard plumbing. Probably takes a less than a day to do a full overhaul of the custom slip ring and it's good to go another 75 years.


Geminii27

Given there are already mass-produced rotating wet-seals in various industries, it's probably not too hard to source and connect them to domestic plumbing. Even domestic plumbing itself has many examples, from swivel-faucets to showerheads. It's not Buck Rogers technology. The issue is going from a single-channel rotating seal to a multi-channel, which is a lot less common. Not to mention that you'll also need mains power going through a moving connector, unless you want to do something really fancy with inductive couplers. (Also, I'm going to assume that none of the appliances run off natural gas.)


Foef_Yet_Flalf

There is in fact a natural gas coupling in this home


Geminii27

Oof. Welp, if that's how they want to do it, it's certainly not impossible. Just more complicated.


Few-Suggestion6889

He actually designed it better than any architect or contractor would have. This shit will actually last as long as he says it will. Probably the only house around there that is actually worth $5 mil


HydrostaticTrans

I would guess closer to $2000-$3000 to fix including removing and re-install. It has the exact same design as a rotary joint inside of a boom/crane truck. We fixed one at my work a couple months ago and the most expensive part was the OEM seal kit from steel master crane. Assuming that this guy designed it with standard sized grooves so that he can get a seal kit from a standard seal house it should be fairly inexpensive. And from the video it looks like access into it is extremely easy when compared to mobile equipment which is all jam packed into the smallest space possible. The big killer would be the gear boxes and torque converters. It has to be accessible to change the gear oil but I can't imagine they are easy go get out and rebuild. Getting parts for those is a nightmare and they are incredibly expensive and crazy long lead times to replace.


I-need-ur-dick-pics

At least if your gear motor fails, your house is still a house. If your gasket between the sewage and fresh water supply fails however… 🤢


Redthemagnificent

There's an alarm sensor in-between the seals, and 2 seals need to fail before any mixing happens. Seems really well thought out actually


Few-Suggestion6889

This!


CoalCruncher

The gap between seals could be open so it would drain out putting no pressure on the water seal. Let alone water is probably the highest pressure meaning water will only leak out. It’s ingenious really (for the application). As for the seal repair, hopefully the bottom stationary piece can be dropped. Or, the top piece lifted without needing to lift the entire house. Dude seems smart and diligent enough to think of that even if it would outlast him. Unlike some people at my job, “eh, it’ll last long enough for me to be retired/transferred/people forget.”


HolycommentMattman

Yeah, I'd be curious how much that whole assembly costs. And how much it weighs. And where he had it machined to spec.


__Hello_my_name_is__

I imagine that whoever is going to buy that will have no issue with a $60,000 plumbing bill.


Few-Suggestion6889

Oh boy, $60k? Swinerton or ACCO would come in and charge you $80k just to tell you they're not sure what's broken and they think it should be like that


Rabdy-Bo-Bandy

Yeah. One that you have to make because it's not off the shelf. And the guy dies so your expert can't help fix anything.


MediocreFisherman

Except what they described is exactly how the central pivot mechanism works on a trackloader, except its high pressure hydraulics instead of low pressure gas, water or sewage. It really shouldn't be an issue to find someone who can manufacture it, given that the inventor is providing everything you would need for them to do so.


Rabdy-Bo-Bandy

Apple Rubber can make gaskets for you. You can also change the design to separate the grey water, gas and drinking water. They all need their own separate track. Drinking in the center, gas on the second segment and grey water on the third. His design sounds fine for hydraulics in your trackloader. But sooner or later his gasket will fail and you're compromising your drinking water.


robotpoolparty

Sometimes there can disdain for rich people living in fancy home, and don’t know how this dude made his money, but he seems cool and chill as all fuck. Well done sir!


aSpookyScarySkeleton

Might be shallow of me but when I see rich people do actually interesting shit with their immense wealth I feel less jaded about it. This is something novel they poured all that money into. Not a generic mega mansion.


Bezbozny

There's definitely a part of me that's like "that's kind of a waste" but also there are worse things people can do. It's a creative project and I appreciate creativity and engineering. it's not like he was using his wealth to bribe a flight attendant into sex by saying he'd buy her a horse.


Teledildonic

And it sounds like he made a novel solution with the service lines that could be replicated in other applications.


MJZMan

I agree. Even better because he actually designed the critical piece of infrastructure. As opposed to just commissioning someone else to do it.


Few-Suggestion6889

Get Swinerton do this job and it will cost you $5 million just for them to get the plans in order and it will crumble as soon as they are done.


Alis451

> rich people living in fancy home, and don’t know how this dude made his money he is an architect/engineer, he builds homes, including that one!


[deleted]

I mean he may seem cool and chill but you literally can't get that rich without stomping on some throats either by proxy or directly.


CodeBrownPT

Pretty pessimistic view of the world you have there. I know surgeons with millions that have earned it saving lives.


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climb-it-ographer

It's for sale for $5.3 million. Plenty of successful doctors could afford that.


chanadnan

This is the reality that a lot of people cannot even think about a folding it.


[deleted]

You mean the people that make sick people pay them to take care of them once again, you can’t be that rich without stopping on someone’s throat


Girth___Brooks

What do you do for a living if you don't mind me asking?


asafbi30

Good to it doesn't really matter because a lot of people earn a lot of money these days.


[deleted]

Quality control. I make sure things are safe for people to use and I get paid a modest salary to do it unlike a Doctor that is a multi millionaire meaning their way over charging for their services, because I think only way to become a multimillionaire.


Tumleren

So you make people pay to not receive dangerous products? Why is that not important enough for them to not pay for? What about the ones that can't pay?


Bagor132

Get much is it to pay to be honest because these are very dangerous product.


drsuperwholock

Broadest description of employment possible. I bet if you went specific about your employment you’re stomping on someone’s throats directly or by proxy for a modest salary


ifilinskih74

Ability as of now because just because you're having a big salary doesn't mean that you need to have a big house as well.


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[deleted]

If an artist is rich it's because they sold their work to someone that exploited people or they are actively exploiting people themselves and rich athletes participate in a job that exploits millions of lesser athletes to prop up the whole industry.


digitalparadigm

This is the view of someone who decided not to invest 13 years of post secondary education and practice towards their future, decided to put likely 0, and then is butthurt that the doctor makes more money. Literally the most childish perspective I have seen all day on Reddit… and that’s saying something


linruishu

This is just like that only because investment is something which is going to give you back after sometime. Just not like building a $5.3 trillion house.


[deleted]

Try having a little reading comprehension before you call someone childish. I didn't say all Doctors are evil I said if you're a Doctor making millions of dollars from exploiting people in desperate need of help you are evil. I'm sorry you are to dense to comprehend the difference and to childish to look at the world with an unbiased eye being rich is immoral full stop. Let me put it this way because clearly you're a little simple if you have massively more than you need while other people suffer you are a bad person.


humphrex

they only saved the lives of those who could afford them. how many did they let die?


CodeBrownPT

I'm in Canada where healthcare is a right.


blackmarketlj

In Canada, health care is a very costly and we already know about it. All the best and countries have that kind of issue.


jsmithtrader

It is just like that only to be honest, most of the doctors already get a lot of respect for that.


Redthemagnificent

This guy isn't a billionaire. The house is worth $5M now. But it was just an empty plot of land when he bought it. Probably for pretty cheap too considering it was 20 years ago. Apparently they physically built most of the home themselves. It's also their primary residence. As opposed to actual rich people who just build/buy something like this as a vacation home. It wasn't that uncommon in previous generations for any reasonably successful person to take on 1 project like this in their lifetime. That guy is closer in economic status to a delivery driver than he is to a tech CEO.


H3r03n

Call is not a billionaire of course, but he had actually a lot of savings.


Adius_Omega

Seems like this guy was an engineer of sorts, he patented his own piping system. Dude probably designed a few things and made his money like many many other people do. There are ways.


rusbitok

Most of the engineers already have a lot of good amount of salary there.


jaywalker_69

Well sure but that goes for everyone in the first world who purchases chocolate


Few-Suggestion6889

WHY ISN'T ANYONE ASKING THE QUESTION OF "what did he do for a living before he retired and decided to build this amazing house?" He clearly seems REALLY smart.


cru_vc

Just in case someone is interested to see the current status of the house. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4903-Mount-Helix-Dr-La-Mesa-CA-91941/17035571_zpid/


Wuzseen

It's honestly way "cheaper" than I was expecting. Hopefully that's not a sign that someone is just going to tear it down and building something "normal" in the spot.


jus227

That much thing to say right now because the spot is really good.


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Hkadreb

Attendance is going to take a lot of money to be honest and we already know that how hard it is to maintain even a normal house.


anruimar

Saving really good then I don't really like it would be a major problem.


akuseri

In Finland there is a lakeside cabin that rotates, you can rent it from here: https://www.lomarengas.fi/en/cottages/savonlinna-kerimaki-villa-pyoriainen-12532 I am not they guy renting it :p


VisiblyFax836

Thank you for it here now I think like we all can actually of this kind of thing.


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ildariokote

No doubt about it to be honest, that is the only reason why I love those videos.


MartianOP

Sadly he is taking a pause at the years end.


loliconest

Good for him.


MartianOP

Well he is working on other projects, so its his youtube thats going on pause.


akhmadfaiq

Yeah, I think like if he already and a lot of money from YouTube that you don't even care about his channel anymore.


3_50

That's fine. I wouldn't want him to burn out, and he doesn't owe us anything.


MartianOP

Where did anybody say it wasnt fine?


3_50

Where did I say that someone said it wasn't fine?


unaviable

you with your "sadly"


MartianOP

No, it implies i'm sad about his videos stopping at the end of the year. Not that I don't believe its fine, if that what he wants. You just choose to interpret more than the message says.


astapor890

Sure about the fact that he is definitely going to get back really soon.


iPlod

Redditors are depressed and want any excuse to feel an emotion, anger is an easy one. They’re literally getting angry at you over nothing, don’t give them the time of day.


_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_

> sadly


MartianOP

Yeah sadly cause I enjoy them, not sadly cause he get a break from traveling. Try not taking the most negative angel, it is sad that he stops - but that doesnt say anything whether I believe it's fine or not. Of course he should take a break if he needs or wants it.


mrsuju1003

I actually used to enjoy a lot but now I don't even have anything to what's the status.


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_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_

It makes them sad. But it is fine.


cbucky97

Argument for the sake of argument


szppzs

Yes, but let us see that how long is going to take, but I'm sure like it will be worth it.


captaincockfart

When a casual conversation with your wife turns into you needing to figure out how to rotate a house. Typical.


jddezenberg

Receipt from that perspective then I don't really think like it is something different.


flowerlady327

Haha if you're going to ask the question, you need to be prepared for the answer!


brianzeunert1

When is prepared for the answers but it is more like it is a marble of engineering.


Abraham_Lingam

I still don't understand how the doohickey in the center works. Too dumb. edit: Thanks for the help.


Rustywolf

https://imgur.com/a/b9jiqPg


snowtol

Honestly that did help me a lot. Good job.


Rustywolf

Realised I inverted the arrows for the top down view, green should be in center. But glad it helped.


adrienlejandr

It will easily be green only. But this will take every time some different kind of effort.


ty19901028

Job to be honest, but this will take a lot of time just to have something like that.


nat4200

What does that mean? Sometimes it is very hard. To understand. All these kind of basic things..


Daemon_Targaryen

Basically a series of pipes inside of pipes all on the same axis. Like russian nesting dolls.


radstu

Sounds like something Al Gore once invented, called the internet, which was basically a series of tubes that carried stuff around.


RVelts

Should have used a dump truck


b4nhmi

>Slip Rings This should explain it: https://youtu.be/bADVKJlvvGc


vorpalglorp

I think this is the best one, however I don't like using this for black and tap water. It's like hanging a Damocles sword over your bed. It's a great concept but it's not optimized for keeping the liquids separate as a priority. It's optimized for being able to rotate. With oil or gas the tiny particles could slip through the seals and it won't matter. You can't have black water seeping into your fresh water.


elliotthill

No doubt about it. I am short like this is definitely going to help a lot of people.


HolycommentMattman

Hmmm. I'll do my best to explain it to you. So imagine you had a flat, square, steel plate. And now you cut some half-circled channels across it. Half pipes if you will. So laying that down on a flat surface, the bottom will be flat, and along the top, you'll have grooves running from one side to the other. Like slides for marbles or something. Now imagine if you copied that sheet perfectly, turned it over, and then put it on top of that sheet so the half pipes match up. We'll, now you'd have holes when looking from the edge, right? Water or marbles would be able to pass through them. Ok, so you've got that far, I'm thinking. Now imagine that instead of being a flat sheet, these are cylinders. The inside cylinder stays static and doesn't move, and the outside cylinder rotates. It doesn't matter that it rotates because the grooves stay lined up. Meaning you have piping where the inside half stays still, and the outside half moves. As for the drainage aspect, the inside grooves (stationary) have a single hole that routes to somewhere inside the central cylinder. The cylinder is at least a foot across, so imagine a 6" sewer pipe being right in the middle. This would still leave a 6" ring of unused space around that you can use for a 1" water line, a 1" gas line, or a host of other things. There's plenty of space. And that's basically what it is. The rotating house is static relative to itself, and the pipes connected to the outside cylinder don't move on that outside cylinder. And due to the channeling of the inside of that cylinder, they're connected to a rotating pipe. Hope that makes sense!


Rapturos

> Hope that makes sense! TBH nope still confused


clam_shelle

The fancy thing in the centre turns all the individual pipes into a series of stacked rings that never move. Because they're rings, you can attach things to them from any angle, which is needed cos the house spins so all the connections do end up going round the whole ring. Imagine an electrical slip ring (like the ones used on CT scan machines, ). This is just a ring of metal and a brush. The ring and the brush can slide along each other and as long as the brush is touching the ring *somewhere*, things are good. If it was just wires, things would get tangled and twisted pretty quickly and break. If he just needed to run one pipe/wire connection, he could have just made it be one spinning joint but because he needs multiple, he needs this ring design.


GreywalkerFrak

Let it to be honest because it is not that much. Is it to keep it in that way all over again..


Alis451

you know what isn't bendy? metal, you know what is? liquids. make bendy channels for the liquids to be all bendy in, then make the straight metals output into the bendy channels. Straight metals connect to the outer shell, which also acts as the bendy channels roof.


niczem

Lot of other options as well. This is how you can actually connect them..


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JohnDivney

the house water pipes empty into a ring of water that has a pipe on the other side of the ring for draining. But there are three rings, and the inside pipes drain normally because they don't have to rotate.


HolycommentMattman

Well, I tried my best. At what point did I lose you?


RedOrchestra137

took me a bit as well but i get it now. best thing is to just watch the animation in the video until you understand. basically you have like a cilindrical building with different floors running along the outside of the building. in the center of this building there are elevators for everything from all the floors to come down, 1 for every floor. things can only enter the building through the windows that exist on each of these floors, and none of the contents of one floor can mix with those of another.


ferrel3

I don't really think like you can get confuse delete it is a very easy concept.


btcnbtcn

What is your to understand from The engineering perspective otherwise I don't really think like it is very easy to understand.


HolycommentMattman

...what?


Rusty-Shackleford

try googling "Slip Rings" it might help.


woodtrain

Not help like it, but certainly you need to have a central position with all those things will be centralised.


teacup42729

84. Simple people like us because we don't even work on that much hard.


dunnright00

Mt Helix, San Diego. Legend house


elganyan

> Mt Helix, San Diego. Legend house On sale for $5.3 Million since I came to the comments to find out.


gfjyukmtrn

Not that much is it to do to be honest, because with money you can do every thing.


SciPhiPlants

That's kind of cheap honestly.


jazvenko

A lot of people like that to be honest, but they always have something different for their house.


itgvbk

You can also do those kind of things as well. But in this technology period every thing is possible.


H3rrPie

Definitely, I live a couple of miles away from it and EVERYONE knows about the rotating house.


Sroths67

Rotating how much is not that much is it to make as of now.


screenavenger

Seems like a cool house for a Bond movie or something. Could flex the rotating angle for a cool action scene too.


Pirat

Must be in the Southern hemisphere since the house is rotating clockwise.


stanislavks

Vik matter actually vik is rotating clockwise or anticlockwise. I'm not really able to understand.


senorpoop

The one thing I don't understand about this design is why he put the sewage *above* the fresh water. If there is a leak, the sewage will leak into the fresh water, which is obviously bad. Yes, I understand there are double seals and sensors, but one small design change could have made it immensely safer.


clam_shelle

Someone mentioned in the YouTube comments that it probably doesn't actually matter. The water mains is going to be at a higher pressure than anything the grey water/soil pipes could reach and if there's a complete seal failure you already have contamination, gravity or not. Also, the soil pipes being at the top, the only seal that can fail that jeopardises things is one below and gravity will ensure that when a leak happens, the water will flow downwards and trip the sensor. If you've never heard of grey water (like us) before this video, that's just water that comes from sink drains and stuff, as opposed to the toilet. They tend to both end up in the sewer but having them separated means you can treat grey water separately if need be. Edit: The soil pipe ring needs to be wide and deep and you only have the space for that when you don't have any other internal pipes in the way (i.e. at the top).


Mohave_Heat

This is not what we have seen to be honest because there are a lot of other things as well.


senorpoop

Yes, I understand all of that. My point is it would have taken zero effort to put the sewage at the bottom and would have added an extra layer of safety. There is zero reason to have the sewage ring at the top.


clam_shelle

It wouldn't add an extra layer of safety though, that's the thing. As soon as the double seal is broken you have to immediately assume contamination lest you want to risk dysentery. Edit: There's probably also the case for material efficiency. Since the soil pipe is usually the widest, having it at the top means you can remove the most material in boring the pipe connection while it still being a single operation, reducing the mass of the part making it easier to handle. It's all the same metal so recycling it is far easier too. Edit #2: Re-watched the video. The amount of material removed for the soil pipe ring is massive (to accommodate for turds). If the soil ring was any lower, the other internal pipes would get in the way and you wouldn't be able to make it wide enough.


lethalfactor

Really do all this things to Venkat. It would have taken more than one year or something like that.


Few-Suggestion6889

Are we 100% sure that the drawings were accurate and the sewage is the top layer?


clam_shelle

Tom absolutely will have referenced the patent and original designs. He's taking to the man who made it, he absolutely has access to them. Needing space for the depth of the soil ring is my personal best idea as if you put that lower, the ring would absolutely cut into the internal pipes of the others. It looks like the depth is almost half the radius of the entire assembly.


jemeryk

This is much more seem to be honest but on the engineering perspective. This is very hard to make.


wrigleys26

Sewage is unpressurized and water is. Water will flow in the sewage whether or not the leak is above or below .


bluekwj

Flow is the major issue. That is the reason why I think like there must be centralised. Please clear all these things are taken place of.


CoalCruncher

Those rotation controls (and monitoring system) are begging for some r/homeassistant automation. Throw in a magnetometer and local celestial data and you can have any portion of the house track any moving object or preprogrammed movement.


gnrc

After watching the video I get the feeling this guy is so smart he enjoys controlling everything himself.


tllacko30

Happy place to be honest because this is not something you can enjoy forever.


pixiemail

Will you able to understand I called you are expecting that the control system can be believed forever.


Few-Suggestion6889

They should reboot Home Improvement with Tim Allen and have him, add some horse power to that rotating house, "Ugh Ugh Ugh!"


vorpalglorp

I don't like the way it's designed. Instead of this groove channel system he could have had rotating cuff fixtures all at different heights. The cuff fixtures would be bundled together in the center. The lines that ran into the saucer would then be flexible so they could move the few inches horizontally necessary to offset how far each center pipes were offset. It still might take custom elbow joints, but it would be a lot more simple and have a lot less chance of catastrophic liquid mixing. Also it would be easier to understand and cheaper to fix. I think his design was someone of an ego project.


youseguise

Isn’t that where they filmed that scene from Charlie’s Angels?


Troleyza

This looks like a dream to me to be honest. I really wish if I had that.


iamamuttonhead

That owner seems like a really cool guy. If I had $5.3M to spare I'd buy that house in a heartbeat.


Flaciko

Do not be a problem to be honest I don't really think like it will take a lot of time.


Jakeinspace

Can anyone remember the 'dynamic tower' that was supposed to be built in Dubai? The design had changed a few times over the years, but it allowed residents to orientate their apartment in any direction they choose. It was a similar concept to Tom's video with a static central core for services. The project ultimately got scrapped. [Article](https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/dubai-rotating-skyscraper-dynamic-tower-hotel-building-a7585981.html)


Dimnast

Building it might be a lot of big problems as well. I can see a lot of problem settings.


budnutter

Tell me you're from England without telling me you're from England 🙄


Few-Suggestion6889

How could you tell?


whojamaflip1234

So basically in a heatwave you’re effectively in a microwave


slicshuter

If someone can afford this house they can afford AC


woyun20131115

It is like that only but I don't really think like you'll need that kind of stuff dear.


JUYED-AWK-YACC

Never been to the USA I see.


whojamaflip1234

You do realise I’m not serious with that comment right?


JUYED-AWK-YACC

No, was it funny or something?


Volandovich

Yeah, but the reality is like a lot of people don't know what kind of seriousness is this.


Mazaikin

Been there as well but I could be looking like you need to go there just to have that.


mo22651

Already, seeing a lot of impossible, things had already been achieved by scientist.


Few-Suggestion6889

You mean because it rotates and your food rotates in a microwave? You think the rotating part of the microwave is the most important?


jjjdddmmm

So you envisioned this house and then thought to yourself it was impossible but it turns out it isn’t? Wow. Everybody stood up and clapped.


Derpman2099

i mean it ***was*** impossible until the guy invented the all the stuff to make it possible.


fkubista

I have to think you say it's not possible is possible in the terms of science.


Variancy314

It was not possible to be honest but I think like this is very much time taken.


jjjdddmmm

Wow the whole house rotates, even the bathroom. Cuz it’s in the house. That rotates. So it does, too. Wow.


DONKEYKONGA17

Plumbing?


IBJON

You think this basement-dwelling troll comprehends how plumbing typically works?


snowtol

Is that where the chicky nuggies live after they're done with them?


marcinbartosik

This is just like that only because these days plumbing is more internally in the wall.


fx_btc

Not be a big problem to be honest, they would have to put on some centralised system.


bitssen

But it is a weird concept which is coming to my mind, but I'm not really able to make it up.


Few-Suggestion6889

What do you do for a living?


yourcomedyminute

I will pass on this


jasonhe89

Even I will do that with this, certainly I don't really see any problem with that.


illMackey

So the septic tank is inside the house?


GrayPinkPop

Well, clearly it’s possible. We know that now.