This post was originally started about two weeks ago so here is the completion:
Today is a glorious day! After one month and ten days of suffering under the cold shower head of misery, we finally have hot water!!!! Some of you may be wondering what I am talking about and if so, you need to read my last post titled This Old House to fully understand the joy that I am going through.
Anyway, if you think it was simple, think again…. No. the water heater gods decided I needed to wage a battle of epic proportions to get hot water in my home.
First, I needed to find a hot water heater and my choices were pretty diverse but it came down to two things, tankless or tank. A tankless water heater is also goes by the name ‘Demand Water Heater’ (I prefer damned water heater after this saga) This means that instead of heating water to 120 degrees in a tank and then storing the water while it loses heat and then heating it again and again, it heats the water as needed. It has a flow switch so that it only turns on when the hot water taps are opened thus saving much energy and gas. The only problem is that if the water coming into the house is colder, you get less gallons per minute in flow so basically when the water comes into the house in the winter at a blustery 40 degrees and you want it heated to 100 degrees for your shower you may get about 4 gallons a minute in flow or less. So in the winter be prepared for a lukewarm shower.
After looking this information up, I decided that a tank water heater will work and maybe when I revamp the apartments, they will get a tankless water heater to save me money and so that they have as much hot water as they need. The next question that needed to be answered is the where question. Well, to make it simple, I went to Lowe’s and got another Whirlpool but in a different model that is more reliable than the one I had. Here is where the battle begins:
Lowe’s offers installation with a water heater purchase the only problem is that this store does not have a person on staff or on call that can install them so even though they offered it to me when I purchased the water heater, it wouldn’t have meant anything if I said yes. I purchased the water heater last Wednesday and on Thursday at about 8:00am the water heater arrived and was set down still in the box in my basement. And I must quote the Lowe’s guy: “That water heater you have now is practically brand new…” Me: Grrrrrrrr… Read my last post if you don’t understand what just happened. Anyway, at 8:05, I was tearing into the box and I swear the angels were singing and the lights were shining as the box was opened and the water heater was revealed. I was so excited in fact, I still had two hours before I had to be at work so why not try and hook it up right? WRONG!!!! I took one look at it and realized three interconnected things: 1. I have never put in a water heater before much less switched one out. 2. This is a gas appliance. 3. This is a one hundred and forty four year old wood frame house WHAT THE HELL AM I THINKING? So, I started calling the plumbers.
Between Sarah and myself, I think we called thirty plus plumbers. Half of them said that they won’t install what they won’t sell. A quarter of them were already booked up with other jobs. The other quarter just didn’t answer the phones and never returned the calls. Thanks water heater gods, first you get me all excited and then you crush my hopes of having a hot shower. Finally after six days, I was at my pastor’s house jut chillin’ and he asked me how the water heater stuff was going and I said grrrrrr… and told him about the plumber situation. He looked at me and said, let me call Bob.
Bob happens to be the custodian and maintenance guy for our church, he also happens to own a Dairy Queen store here in Salina. When we called Bob he had a few questions for me like what size the pipes were was it copper or PVC and so on. Finally he said, let me come out and take a look at it and see what you got. Well by look at it he meant tear out the old one and install the new one. I have to say, Thank You God for giving the world such a wonderful man that is blessed with the knowledge of water heaters. Because of Bob, we have hot water in this house.
I hope you all have a wonderful week and God Bless,
John
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