Today I had the experience of replacing a hot water heater. This is not something I would get up and decide to go shopping for, since it stands in the garage in a small closet next to the washing machine. I went out to do a load of clothes when I discovered water standing on the floor, I thought it was from the washing machine. I mopped it up and moved the washer and decided to wait on the washing. Later I came back to the washer and found more water. Well, I thought that was odd, so I opened the door to the hot water heater and there was MORE water, I then realized the water was coming from the heater, and with farther investigation, discovered it was dripping from the bottom of the container and from the connection at the top, a small drip, but still two constant drips. This was at 11:00pm on a Saturday night. What to do???? So, I came back to the bedroom and said to Danny " Well, I have good news and bad news, which do you want first?" I always like the good news first, but he wanted the bad news. After he saw the mess, he totally forgot about the good news, which was the washing machine wasn't leaking. He couldn't sleep and thought and thought about what to do, and I told him it had been leaking for days, one more night wasn't going to make much difference. We used the shop vac over and over, finally after several calls to plumbing companies, we got to talk to an actual plummer. He advised us to shut off the water at the wall, which leaked too, and then to turn off the gas connection to the heater. You know what this all means don't you? NO HOT WATER... really. So we did what he said, then I decided I should take a shower because it might be longer than we think before we get a plummer out to fix this mess. Let me tell you, do this before you turn off the water to the heater, because there is no pressure in the shower afterwards. I didn't know about the connection between the water connection and the flow to the shower. It was a quick but ok shower. The next day we called and set up an appointment for Home Depot to come and install the new heater, the soonest time available was TUESDAY...somewhere between 10 and 2. OK, I can wait another day. Well, Tuesday arrives and the plummers call and it is Osham, out of DALLAS???? Really? You would have thought someone in Tyler could have been on the list of Home Depots worker consignments. I didn't know Oshams did plumbing, I thought they did foundations. Oh well..They wanted to know if we lived in the city or outside the city limits.. we told the lady who set this up it was in the city, then they said they would have to call for permits and codes, I thought they would know how to install a heater, anyway they would call us back, time passes and they call back and report that it is going to have to be brought up to city codes and would take longer, it is already noon, and of course MORE MONEY! We had a quote of $700.00 dollars for a 30 gallon heater installed. Now, it was going to be $1600.00...WHAT??>>@#$@#&(*&$*@^@. We just told them to cancel the order and we would do something else. After many calls, and hours later, and the shock of the cost, we found a plumbing company who would replace it today for only....$1100.00 total dollars for a 50 gallon water heater. They got to our house at 4:00pm and by
6:45pm I was looking at a tall new source of hot water....something I really need, I just didn't want to spend my entire income tax return on this year. So, if there is a shiny lining to this dark cloud, it would be that I HAD a tax return to pay for it. By the way, the date etched on the old water heater was 1-31-90, RIP old heater, you went through alot of HOT WATER!!! We'll see if the new one can break that record...what do you think??? Yea, probably not, but I am going to etech the date on it too, for the next owners. Think about all this the next time you turn on the HOT water.
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