The Saga of the Hot Water (Part 1)
Out of the Blue
So one night, Bryan comes home from work at his usual quarter after midnight and makes for what is always one of his first orders of business: the shower. Hey, if I worked with coolant and hydraulic fluid all day, I’d shower right away too! So he jumps in, and . . . it’s cold. And like the great wife that I am, I hadn’t noticed a thing all day.
So he heads down to the basement and sure enough, the pilot is out on the hot water heater. It takes no time at all (for him!) to relight it, but of course, the water doesn’t get hot immediately. Annoying to stand around waiting to have warm enough water to take your shower.
A week later, this scenario is repeated. Then two weeks later, it goes out again, but this time it takes several tries to get it to stay lit. We now know we have to get someone to look at it and find out what’s wrong. Is it a clogged vent? Is the chimney cap loose causing wind coming down the flue?
Call all family members for recommendation of repairman. One is booked up, one charges a bit more than we were hoping to pay, one doesn’t service our area. Meanwhile, hot water is undependable and I try to check it an hour before Bryan needs it–with varying degrees of success, and it’s now doing this a couple times a week and taking 20 tries before it will light. So frustrating!! Soon we decide to bite the bullet and pay the service call.
But we are told there is nothing wrong. Hmm. Good news, no additional charges and it works normally again.
For a few weeks. **Side note–if “nothing was wrong” then why did it suddenly start behaving after the technician came??
Calling the technician back. I am prepared for a fight if they try to charge us for another service call. I mean, it’s not even been a month yet! This time he said he “made an adjustment” but that we actually need a new thermocoupler. (Is that a word? Word and Webster don’t know what it is.) He said they are so expensive and hard to put in, we should just install a brand new hot water tank.
Yelp! it is hundreds of dollars for that.
He says we should just keep relighting it until it goes completely. But at least he agrees that we don’t owe another service call fee.
Waiting Game
Now, Bryan is a decent handyman, but a few things are beyond him or at least make him nervous. Gas mixed with fire is one of them! So we get on the waiting list of the more reasonably priced repair man recommended to us and hope the tank doesn’t completely give out before he can get to us.
But of course it does. A week or so later, no amount of clicking would get it to stay lit. Fortunately, it did stay on long enough for a warmish shower for him. And all along I’m saving it for him, heating water on the stove to do dishes, washing laundry in cold water, and taking my shower if there’s any hot water left after he’s done or sponge bathing if the hot doesn’t last long enough.
Wow, looks like this saga is too long for just one post! So, to be continued . . .
Leave a comment: what do you think happens next?
No comments:
Post a Comment