The Heat is ON!

We recently experienced a typical home owner's emergency.

I intended to clean and fill the cats' drinking fountain and food bowls. What a mess they'd left! A puddle of water all around on the floor and under the mat that sits under the bowls and fountain. But no water ON the mat. Hmmmm... A mystery.

I got out a stack of old towels I keep for soaking up messes and threw some down. There! All gone! But wait. More water. What the heck?

It appeared to be coming from under the water heater. Just a little.

More towels. I texted That Man at work. I couldn't turn off the intake valve (I still have grip strength issues from the hand surgery), and The Boy had the flu and was completely useless.

That Man replied and asked whether I was sure it was the water heater. Well, there was MORE water on the floor, coming faster, and it was definitely WARM. I was using all the old towels I had in a crazy kind of relay - sopping up water with half of the towels, while running the other half through a spin cycle in the washing machine, then swapping them out. 

So he drove home to turn off the water and drain the heater, then returned to work.

I did some online research of a Big Box Hardware Store to get some idea of water heaters' costs, features, capacities, and exterior measurements. We had a 40-gallon heater, and the ones I saw online were the exact same dimensions as the one we had. No problem! Just call a plumber and have him install a new one. Should be an easy in and out, and take about an hour or two.

So I called, told them the size heater we needed, and they said he'd come out the next day.

The plumber arrived on time, removed the old water heater, said he'd have to braze some new copper pipe to get everything to connect, then came in and announced they had loaded "the wrong water heater" in his truck, so he had to send someone out to the distributor to get the right one.

Several hours later, here he comes in with a water heater on a hand truck. It was HUGE. Way taller than the old one.

"Wait, wait, wait!" I cried. "What is this? How big is this thing?"

Forty gallons.

"You're kidding me, right? This looks more like fifty!"

No, it's forty.

Then he explained that the shorter heater's diameter wouldn't allow it to fit in our allotted space.

I said I'd looked online and there were a whole slew of 40-gallon water heaters with the old one's exact dimensions.

Oh, those aren't as high quality as this one. It had more insulation, blah, blah, blah.

Then why have I never heard of that brand, and why does it only have a 6-year warranty? The old one had a 9-year warranty, and the ones online have 9- and 12-year warranties, and I've heard of those brands.

I just couldn't swallow that, said so, and didn't let him install it. I called That Man at work, and he talked to the plumber's supervisor, and aborted the process.  He's the BEST.

So I got back online, ordered a water heater from The Big Box Hardware Store, picked it up, and got it home before That Man arrived. After three more trips to TBBHS for assorted fittings, we had a water heater again, installed by us.

That extra copper pipe the plumber had added was too tall for the shorter forty-gallon heater, and just right for the monster he had brought in, which just happened to have the exact same exterior dimensions as the FIFTY-gallon heater I actually bought.

So we got a 12-year warranty instead of six, a 50-gallon capacity instead of forty, had hot water the next morning, and saved $600.00.

I think it was worth staying up until 2:00 in the morning to finish.