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Saturday, June 23, 2007

Lochinvar

Lochinvar, sounds German.

Cuisine?
Fine china?
Couture designer?

None of the above.




It's my fricken hot water tank. I hope it isn't broken ... as in I need a new one.
I just went to take a shower ... cold, Cold, COLD water is all that comes out.

I go downstairs, hug the tank, (hey, I'll take one anyway I can get one) ... and just like my love life ... cold!


I have never lived in one house long enough to deal with things that break. I Googled for the owners manual to see how to light it. (crossing fingers that's all it is)

So far I have done what they said, now I have to wait five minutes for any gas in the line to clear. Then I turn this knob, while holding down that button, as I look into the door at the pilot to see if it lights, then keep holding gas button down for one minute. If that doesn't work, I am screwed. Call a repair man on a weekend, after normal hours $$ I bet it would be cheaper to get a hotel room for the weekend.

OK, so I am going to try this. Give me some time, if I don't post back my results, assume I blew the roof off the house.

** Update:
I thought I was doing all of the above, but the "hold down the button part" wasn't working for me. Huh? Hold it down? It doesn't even go down. I called a repair place.

The very first thing she said is, "After hour service fee is $140, just to come out and $45 for every 15 minutes there after, plus parts and if needed a new tank."

Whew, glad she got that out of the way ... no thanks, a hotel sounds better.

Call to place #2

"We are closed, if you want a service repair man to come out the fees are $150 plus $33 every half hour after ... blah-blah-blah"

OK, so I think I will wait until Monday.

No, I really want to take a shower ... try one more place.

#3 ... starts with his rates. Obviously they are all in agreement on these after hour rates. I told him forget it, I will throw on some perfume and open a bottle of wine. He laughed ... good, I like him now.

He offered to walk me through a few things over the phone. When we got to the "hold the button down" again, and I told him the option isn't there.

He said, "OK, get a lighter".

*ding*ding*ding* we have a winner ... it worked.

My tank is probably the original one when this house was built 11 years ago, so now I am sure it will need replacing very soon.

I usually go to church on Saturday, but since it's too late now, I will assume this is God's way of telling me to just watch the Tigers game and go to church tomorrow morning. I'm going to take that advise.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Home depot and Lowes both sell and install hot water heaters. And yes if its 11 years old you are lucky it lasted this long. If you need Mike to look at it give us a call.

Fightin' Mad Mary said...

It does sound like it's time for a new one. Aren't you selling your house? A brand new water heater might be a good selling point.

Why do things like that always seem to brake on a Saturday when it costs twice as much to get someone to come to the house...

Nancy said...

Sgk & Mary:

Yeah, 11 years seems to be on borrowed time. It is working fine now, but I better replace it before it goes out again. I think I may have caused the pilot to go out when I was rearranging the dehumidifier that sits right next to it. Or it was a coincidence.

New Hot Water Heater .. yes, it would look better on my house listing.

Things break in houses on weekends for people that don't have infants to get sick on weekends at 2AM, lol

Joan said...

Wow our house is coming on 10 years and I haven't even thought it was time to replace such items. Good luck

Sunshine said...

Our hot water heather bit the dust the very morning we were leaving on a one week trip. Have to say that despite not wanting to part with the $700 to get a new one, I'm glad it didn't start leaking all over while we were GONE.
Home ownership....so AWESOME.
Ugh.

Michael said...

Can you call in a favor to Jon? I'm sure he owes you in one way or another.

Nancy said...

Michael: He'd help for sure, but I just don't have the nerve to ask him to fly in from Las Vegas, lol

He moved there a couple years ago.