Caveat Lector, That Is, I've Found a Web Site Full of Latin Phrases

I've spent most of this morning spelunking under the kitchen sink. Our instant hot water heater failed recently, and I've been working on replacing it. To save time, I'm only replacing the tank, and not the faucet. I should say in the attempt to save time because, of course, there are always complications. I had two compression nuts in the basement. I have no idea where they came from, or what happened to the first one I brought upstairs this morning. I also don't know why I would have bought them (if I even did, and they didn't come with the house) without the little thingy they compress against. I went to Home Depot. To be clear here, I don't really know the difference between copper, plastic or even Will ferrules. I chose copper for $1.13, but I think an assortment of various types; copper, plastic, wood, mithril, mist might have been better. We can be pretty sure that copper was wrong. So, another trip to Home Depot, another trip into the dripping cavern and so on ad nauseum. In the meantime, I have discovered, or as I think more likely, caused, a new leak from the hot water line to the faucet. This is a lot of bother to shave 45 seconds off the time it takes to make instant coffee