Water Heater - again

Friday, September 29, 2023

Desiree Heaton called me the other day and asked if I could fix something on her kitchen sink. I said, “no problem”. When I went into the garage to grab some tools I saw a tiny stream of water trickling under my work bench. My heart sank. There is no good reason for a trickle of water to be in my garage.

I knew it had to be the water heater and, as expected, that is what it was. I was quite frustrated because in my mind, I had just replaced that water heater and I figured it was way too early for it to fail already. As I thought about the last time the water heater failed I smiled because I actually posted a blog about it. I went back and looked for the post and it was actually April 8, 2008. You should go and read it but here is the picture I took at the time.

My water heater was fifteen years, five months and nineteen days old when it rusted out. According to google, the average life of a water heater is eight to twelve years so I guess I got my moneys worth from it.

They say they can last up to twenty years with regular maintenance but since my water heater had zero maintenance, I guess I can’t expect that.

Since it is just Lisa and I living here I decided to go with a tankless water heater. We use so little hot water that it doesn’t make sense to keep 40 gallons of water hot 24/7 for the few times we need it. They should also last much longer because you don’t have stagnant hot water sitting there for hours at a time. Except for the twenty-minute shower once a day the tankless water heater is full of cold water which won’t corrode so badly.

After hours of research, we decided to go with a Rheem water heater from Home Depot. My first trip was to buy the water heater and all the connections that I thought I would need. My second trip was after I got the heater hung and I realized that I couldn’t use any of the connections I got so I returned them and bought all new connections. I was able to use the gas line. My third trip was at 8:00 last night to return a connector that was the wrong size (it looked like the correct size and was in the wrong bin at the store, I hate it when that happens), to buy an elbow that I was short because I can’t count and to buy a drain tube.

I started at 11:30 this morning and ended at around 8:30 at night. For nine hours of work, I probably saved a grand or two of installation costs. Now I just have one problem. I always shower until I run out of hot water. Now, how will I know when to end my shower?

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An elephant can smell water from 12 miles away.

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