I got home late last night and while I was trying to eat my dinner at ten o'clock Alex calls from upstairs complaining that there was no hot water. Apparently he was trying to take a shower but no matter how long he let the water run it never got hot. I put down my fish stick and went out to the garage to see what was going on with the water heater. You can imagine my disappointment to see the water heater surrounded by a rapidly growing puddle of water. The water heater was twenty years old which I am told is about twice what you can expect from them. I tried to turn off the hot water line so we could at least have our cold water but unfortunately the valve was frozen. I filled some pitchers with water so we would have something to drink and then turned the main water valve off. This morning I skipped work and removed the old water heater but then I had a meeting at 11:00 that I couldn't miss. From my meeting I headed to Home Depot and forked over the better part of $500 and got a new water heater along with the necessary valves, hoses and pipe. I was quite surprised by how well everything went, I only had one unexpected "event". The first thing I did was put a valve on the water inlet line so I could turn on the cold water and flush the toilets and pour a drink of water. What I didn't think through was that I had turned on the bathroom sink to let air in and drain the water lines. Since the valve was one of those single taps, when I turned on the main water line the water went from the cold water line, through the valve and into the hot water line. From the hot water line it came back to where the water heater would have been. You can imagine my surprise when water came shooting out of the hot water line flooding the garage. It took my brain a moment to register that water was coming out of a line that wasn't connected to anything. Other than spending my kids college money on a new water heater the whole event went quite smoothly. We loaded the dishwasher, Lisa did laundry and Alex got his shower albeit twenty four hours late.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Water Heater
I got home late last night and while I was trying to eat my dinner at ten o'clock Alex calls from upstairs complaining that there was no hot water. Apparently he was trying to take a shower but no matter how long he let the water run it never got hot. I put down my fish stick and went out to the garage to see what was going on with the water heater. You can imagine my disappointment to see the water heater surrounded by a rapidly growing puddle of water. The water heater was twenty years old which I am told is about twice what you can expect from them. I tried to turn off the hot water line so we could at least have our cold water but unfortunately the valve was frozen. I filled some pitchers with water so we would have something to drink and then turned the main water valve off. This morning I skipped work and removed the old water heater but then I had a meeting at 11:00 that I couldn't miss. From my meeting I headed to Home Depot and forked over the better part of $500 and got a new water heater along with the necessary valves, hoses and pipe. I was quite surprised by how well everything went, I only had one unexpected "event". The first thing I did was put a valve on the water inlet line so I could turn on the cold water and flush the toilets and pour a drink of water. What I didn't think through was that I had turned on the bathroom sink to let air in and drain the water lines. Since the valve was one of those single taps, when I turned on the main water line the water went from the cold water line, through the valve and into the hot water line. From the hot water line it came back to where the water heater would have been. You can imagine my surprise when water came shooting out of the hot water line flooding the garage. It took my brain a moment to register that water was coming out of a line that wasn't connected to anything. Other than spending my kids college money on a new water heater the whole event went quite smoothly. We loaded the dishwasher, Lisa did laundry and Alex got his shower albeit twenty four hours late.
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2 comments:
VERY FUNNY POST!!!!!!! and I love the picture of Alex . . . it is perfect.
love the picture!
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