when it rains it [explitive] pours...

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invisibledemon

invisibledemon

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broke as fuck. times are tough. oh well, still making it, sort of.

wife calls this morning while im at work: hot water heater is leaking. it's gas so theres no point in trying to explain to her how to shut the water and gas off, gas valve is out of her reach anyway. so, it just had a steady flow into the basement all day. got home and had the fun time of pushing the water out and blasting some fans.
now gotta get a new heater. but, i'll give the old one credit, it was installed in 1989. that fucker held on like a champ. doubt i'll ever see one last that long again.
 
25 years is a pretty good run for a water heater.

do you have a heat pump in the house too?

if that is near going, it might be a good decision to get one of those electric geospring heatpump hot water heaters instead of another gas job.
 
So is this a water heater thread or a just listen to me vent thread?
 
No heat pump. Will just a gas replacement.

And this is just a vent thread. For some reason when you vent about this shit directly to people they seem to think it's a hint to contribute money. "Man, I'd help if I could..." it's annoying.

Just needed to put it out there. Plus, the damn thing lasted almost as long as I've been alive. It's 3 years younger than I am. I was impressed.
 
But we can discuss heaters. I'll be going with a whirlpool replacement from lowes. Almost exact specs the old one has. It was more than sufficient so there's no point in upgrading. We never ran out of hot water. And tank less is pointless. Going by the energy guide it would take me well over 5 years to recoup the extra cost.
 
is this something that could be found on craigslist for a short term solution?
 
Do yourself a favor and get some flex pipes for the gas and water connections. If the old copper connections are soldered directly to the inlets, it'll take more time and money if you don't know how to solder. When I replaced mine, I bought some flex connectors and had the guy who installed it put them on. It'll be easier to do it again in 20 years.
 

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Bummer man. When things go bad, they go real bad. Every bump in the road and hurdle to be jumped is a test of your character. Keep on, keeping on.
 
the new hot water heaters are designed to fail within 10 years, faster if you have hard water.
they don't make them like they used to.
flex lines are awesome, they will make your life so much easier now and down the road.
throw in 1/4 turn valves while you are at it.
 
Never even heard of the term heat pump until I met people from the east coast. Wonder why we have "furnaces" and everyone else has "heat pumps"?
 
it's more of a southern thing, actually. I have a 'boiler furnace'.

heat pump is kinda like central air, but the other way around. Only really works were it doesn't get too too cold as they don't work under 35 degrees or so
 
Thought this was going to be a vent thread.

The plumbing supply place I purchased my hot water heater from told me that the difference between a 6 and 9 year warranty unit is that you pay more for the warranty. They are exactly the same inside, atleast with the Rheem water heaters.

Flex lines and the quarter turn shut offs are great and will make life easier when replacement time comes. The shut offs are especially good for the wife and children to be able to turn them off in an emergency. Good reminder to remind the wife where all the shutoffs are.
 
Water heaters were never built to last 15+ years. Not to say they don't but after the 15 year mark its just a matter of luck. Our water heater was one of the first things to get ripped out of our house. It was 17 years old and worked perfectly. I wasn't willing to risk it since a failure could mean a lot of money and it was a ticking time bomb. I believe the same size unit was $300 which IMO was a lot cheaper than ripping up my basement flooring.

Overall, water heaters are an easy install as long as it's roughly the same unit for the exhaust and gas lines to match up.

hopefully you have a concrete floor and didn't have any damage from the water leaking.
 
B16 said:
Never even heard of the term heat pump until I met people from the east coast. Wonder why we have "furnaces" and everyone else has "heat pumps"?
Click to expand...
http://www.carneyphc.com/blog/heat-pumps/furnace-vs-heat-pump/

A heat pump is a type of heat. Problem is everyone says one thing or another depending on what their parents called it.

Heat pumps are like super chargers and furnaces are like turbos. Problem is most people who don't know a spark plug from a muffler bearing will call all boosted cars a turbo car.
 
There's really nothing to rant about. There's no problem I have that isn't my own fault.

But the units are bigger now and they installed the old one with pic pipe straight to the unit. All of that had to be replaced. The water part wasn't bad, but gas line is a bit of an issue. Mainly bc it's late and I got a wrong fitting so we had to call it a night. Will finish it up tomorrow morning.
 
Plot twist. Civic engine blew on the way to work this morning. No warning other than a rough Idle the past couple days. No lights or anything. Woo.
 
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