Splish, Splash

The old line goes "there's always something" and this holiday season it's a plumbing something in this household.

Exhibit A is over there on the left. Pretty ugly, huh?

I was kayaking in very windy conditions today and came back all cold and covered in nasty lake water. I wanted to jump in a hot shower and scrape off the germ-ridden gunk off me as well as warm up. That didn't work out so well since it was a cold shower--no hot water available at all.

After a bit of analysis--and me blaming my mom for turning on the washer while I was showering--it came to light that the hot water heater had sprung a leak. Given the amount of rust on the outside this probably happened a number of weeks ago.

When my dad and I were looking it over, before we shut off the water and power to the unit, there was water coming out of both of those blue metal covers in a torrent. I hate to imagine what this month's water bill will be!



As you can see on this closer shot, the inner container was leaking out into the outer jacket and it had totally filled with water. That door to the left is the upper access panel--fully 5 feet off the ground. All the electrical connections are there--and were completely immersed in water. Scary.

I can't see how the thing was continuing to operate without blowing a circuit breaker. The only reason we realized there was a problem was that the demands of the washer and my shower exceeded the ability of the impaired water heater to supply hot water.

So once we turned off the water supply and the circuit breaker my dad and I went into town to Lowe's and priced out the cost of a new water heater. The broken one is 50 gallon but my parents don't need one that big so they're replacing it with a 40 gallon one like the one in the picture below.

I wanted to install it myself but after hearing what was involved from the salesperson, I decided to let well enough alone and have a plumber do it. It's not a difficult task, but even the first step--cutting the existing copper pipes so you can remove the old unit--would require buying new tools and it's a lot easier having my dad pay someone else to do it.

So there's no hot showers here for a few days. Merry Christmas! LOL But at least we have water and that's a very good thing.

Oh, and Dell sucks. Still.