Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink

Well, this weekend could not have been more of a disaster if we'd planned it - but it does have a happy ending. Saturday morning I went to throw some trash in the garbage cans. This entails going through the laundry room to the garage. My cat had been acting strangely, "asking" me to go into the laundry room for some reason, which I suspected was her way of telling me her catbox needed cleaning. As I approached the door to the laundry room I saw water. Uh-oh! Even without my contacts in I could see water covering the floor. I hollered "Honey, we have a problem!" Tom came down the hall and instantly his face filled with dread. He got out the shop vac and started sucking up the water as I attempted to rescue the things that were on the floor, now soaking wet, like the box of laundry soap, the litter box, and some laundry waiting to be washed. I grabbed every available towel to help soak up water while Tom vacuumed. At that point we weren't sure if it was the water heater or the washer. It didn't look like nearly enough water to have come from the 40 gallon water heater. I crossed my fingers and hoped it was the washer. I wouldn't mind getting a new one. ;) That was not to be the case. During the water-sucking phase, as Tom cleaned up around the water heater, he saw water dribbling out of the overflow pan on the bottom of the water heater. Ugh. Once the water was cleaned up, we tried to relight the pilot. No gas seemed to be coming out, which was odd. Tom got down and looked inside where the pilot should have been. That was when he saw the pinhole in the tank with water spraying out of it. Great. Saturday morning... no one is open. I knew this was going to be expensive!

Our gas water heater is power vented. In most installations, the water heater is vented up through the ceiling/roof. If, for some reason, it cannot be vented straight up and needs any sort of turns in the vent pipe at all, one must install a power-vented unit. In our case, we have cathedral ceilings throughout the house. The water heater happens to sit in a spot where the ceiling is 15 feet above it. We didn't want an ugly pipe going all the way up to the ceiling so we cut a hole in the wall to the outside (it sits right next to an exterior wall) and installed a power vent model. Unfortunately, that makes replacing it an ordeal. First of all, we had to find another power vent water heater from someplace that was open on a Saturday. That immediately x's out the plumbing supply houses. Secondly, it had to fit some very specific dimensions. It couldn't be taller than the existing water heater or we'd be looking at cutting a new hole in the wall...not an option. It couldn't be more than 3" greater in diameter or it wouldn't fit into the spot of the existing one thanks to where the last plumber put the gas piping. I started making phone calls.

I got in touch with one plumbing outfit. They had no water heaters in stock but could do the work if we got a water heater - for a rather hefty price. I called every place in Sandpoint I could think of that might carry water heaters. Many did have water heaters, just not power vented ones. Sears was our best shot. They had one in stock, but we needed to measure it to see if it would fit. We trekked over there, got them to open up the box, and realized it was 2" too tall. We talked to the plumber again who said he might be able to get one of the plumbing supply houses to open up and check their stock. In the meantime, we have no water, can't take showers, and have our granddaughter's birthday party to go to. On top of that, Jonathan was coming home to study for finals and was hoping I'd help quiz him on some stuff. By 1PM we were no closer to having water, a water heater, or any resolution to the problem. I called Home Depot in Coeur d'Alene. They had one that sounded like it would work - and it was not that expensive - $389 (the Kenmore was $519). We were starved and frustrated. We decided that, in lieu of a shower, we could jump into the hot tub and at least get a little cleaner. We took about a half hour soak, made ourselves halfway presentable, and went to grab a burger. While we were eating, the plumber called. The plumbing supply house had one that would fit - it was actually about 9" shorter and we could do shorter - but it was $785!!! Yikes! We heard all about how much better quality it was, blah, blah, blah, and how Home Depot sells inferior quality, blah, blah, blah... We passed. We decided we had to do the birthday party at 5, then head to CdA to Home Depot to get the water heater.

While at the party, Jonathan arrived from Spokane. He decided to go home and begin studying after the party while we trekked to CdA. After an hour, we bade everyone goodbye and headed down the road. We got to Home Depot about 7:30. We still weren't positive this unit would be the right height, but we had no other options. When we got to Home Depot, we headed to the water heater section. We ran into Dwayne. The guy was amazing! He'd been a plumber for 28 years before going to work for Home Depot. He tore the box open so we could take measurements. Yes!! It would work! Then, he proceeded to explain to Tom and me how to go about putting together the piping for the pressure relief valve in a way that would not require soldering. He was soooooo helpful! If I could give this guy an award, I would! I will call Home Depot today to tell them exactly what I think of the guy. I hope when the new Home Depot in Sandpoint opens next month, we have a guy like Dwayne working there! So, we got the parts, the water heater, and the instruction for a "mere" $425 (much, much cheaper than the local plumbing supply house) and headed back home. Oh, and Dwayne set us straight about Home Depot's "inferior" quality products. He told us that their products are all made by Rheem or Reliance, the two biggest names in water heaters, and there is nothing inferior about them at all. Considering this water heater has a longer warranty (it's a GE made by Rheem) than the last one, which came from a plumbing supply house, I think I'm going to believe Dwayne. I think local merchants that are afraid of being put out of business by Home Depot have a habit of knocking the quality of their products, saying that's why they're so cheap. In reality, it's because Home Depot buys for 2,000 stores, not one or two. Three cheers for Home Depot!

We got home about 9:30PM. Jonathan helped Tom unload the water heater. Then the trick would be putting it in place. That required that it be lifted up over the gas piping - about 8" - and set down in place. Tom got on his knees and lifted straight up while Jonathan and I just guided it into place. Then Tom let it down. Wow, am I glad he's as strong as he is!!! No mortal could have done this. It was a real feat of strength! Phew! So, water heater is in place. Now we start assembling the blower unit on top, the venting, etc. We have glitches, but it finally gets put together. Ready to fill it up. Disaster. The water pipe that lets water into the tank has a leak - undoubtedly a result of all the bending and tweaking Tom had to put it through to make room for the blower unit. It's 20 years old, so it's not surprising that it developed a pinhole leak. By this time, it's late - midnight - and we're tired, frustrated, and ready for bed - and I haven't been able to help Jonathan at all yet. We get to bed about 1 AM. At 7:45 AM Sunday, in the middle of a very involved dream, Tom wakes me up. He has been up for who knows how long trying to get the old pipe off so he can put a new one on. It won't come off. The book we have on plumbing says that he needs a mapp torch. He only has propane. It specifically says that propane can't get hot enough to melt the non-lead solder. He figured if he heated it long enough, it would eventually work. After messing with it for another 15 minutes or so, I suggest we call a plumber. I figured we'd spend 3 or 4 hours on this project whereas a plumber could knock it out in no time. He acquiesced. I called the guy I'd spoken with Saturday. For $97.50 an hour with a one hour minimum, he could do the work. He arrived about 9:45. He had the pipe off in about 1 minute. The way the old pipe came off the wall, it was a really tight squeeze for the blower to fit. Turned out we needed a new valve anyway, so he just redid that whole connection so we had more room for the blower, a new valve, and new pipe to the tank. $129.50 for parts and labor. All that was left to do was connect the gas, which required I go to the Co-op and get the fitting. There were some snafus there too, but we finally got the right size fitting, hooked up the gas, turned the power on, and voila! - the heater fired up and started heating water. In no time at all, the water was heated and I could start laundry, showers, etc. By the time we finished, it was 1:30 PM. I finally was able to sit down with Jonathan and quiz him on stuff for his tests, help him ponder through various questions for which he had to develop essays, etc. It wasn't the weekend we'd hoped for, but it turned out okay. I know one thing for sure - when this water heater fails, we're getting a tankless one! Had we been able to find one that was power vented, we'd have installed one yesterday. They cost at least twice as much, but you never have this problem of waking up to a flood in your laundry room, you don't spend money heating a tank of water that's just sitting there most of the time (it heats water on demand instead, which is MUCH cheaper), and it woulk likely last the rest of our lives. This is the second water heater we've replaced in 20 years, which means their average life span has been 10 years. I suspect in the not too distant future, tank water heaters will be a thing of the past.

Now, off to work to begin the installation of 34 new Dell computers. This will be an intersting week. It's "peak" at FedEx, which means Tom is working a zillion hours a day and will work Saturday. On a bright note, Jonathan comes home for Christmas Break on Friday. It will be nice to have him home. He's looking forward to seeing his best friend who goes to Georgia Tech. The holiday season has begun!