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Day of Unrest
Apr. 13th, 2011 01:02 pmOur water heater has been working sub optimally for some time. It has been creating hot water, but only enough for a couple of quick showers, or a load of dishes, or a load of towels. Replacing it has been on my "to do" list for quite some time, but when I had a tepid shower on Sunday it finally stirred me into action. I have been doing a fair bit of comparison and research, and I had already got an estimate on a replacement. I noticed the top place on my list had a 7-day number for their customer line, so on a whim I gave them a call.
It was all going well until she got to the point where she mentioned that the replacement tank had two 4500-watt elements.
"That may be a problem," I said. I went on to explain how our current tank only had two 1000-watt elements, and I wasn't sure if our circuit would be up to the newer tank.
"Exactly how old is your current tank?" Um... older than me?
When it became fairly apparent that I'd need to have an electrician come out to wire up a new circuit before we could replace the tank, she offered up the possibility that they could probably replace the element in the tank if that was all it turned out to be. She passed the information along to one of her technicians and promised to have him call me if there were any problems, but otherwise he would show up at 8:00 Tuesday morning with a new element in hand.
He actually showed up at about 7:45, but that worked for me. By 8:05 he was done and gone, and our tank was working like new. While he was working on it, he mentioned that a lot of people still have these tanks in our area. They're not quite as efficient as the newer tanks, but they never rust out, and aside from having to replace an element every 30-40 years, they are as reliable as heck. As we settled the bill ($196 after tax) he said, "Well, see you again in about 40 years."
I feel better now about repairing the tank rather than replacing it. As near as I can tell, this tank was installed in 1961, and this is the first time it has needed servicing.
Since I knew I would be taking the whole day off anyway, I decided to cross a couple more things off my long-standing to do list. The first item was to replace the back doorknob. The inside knob broke off the inner back door a couple of years back. It still worked if you knew how to use it, but it was a little embarrassing when friends (or, say, a plumber) went to open the door and the knob flew off in his hand. Well, actually it was more amusing than embarrassing, but it was still on my fix list.
The other item was the tap in the bathtub. The seal in it has been wearing out more and more over the years, and for the last while there has been a constant trickle coming from the tap. After the plumber left, I shut off the main water to the house and disassembled the tap. When I pulled out the cores, it was pretty obvious that they needed help. The rubber parts did not appear to be replaceable, so I grabbed the two cores and threw them into a bag along with the back doorknob assembly.
I took the lot to the local Home Depot, where they proved to be surprisingly unhelpful. I stood for awhile by the faucet cores, removing them from the shelf and comparing them to the one in my hand. There were several candidates that were identical save the thread size, or the diameter, but no exact matches. Finally one of their salesmen noticed me and came over to see if I needed help. I showed him the core, and explained that the tap had no markings on it, so I didn't know the brand (he asked me anyway). He turned it over in his hands a couple of times, looked at the multiple rows of cores and declared, "We don't carry this one. You'll have to go to [mumble mumble] Supply over on [mumble mumble] street near one of our other stores." He handed back the core and scurried off like I had suddenly become radioactive.
I chased after him to try and get him to repeat the name of the store he was referring me to, but he dashed into the Employees Only room at the back of the store before I could catch him. I dunno - maybe he was in danger of pooping his pants or something, but it was rather an odd, hurried exit. Somewhat annoyed, I left without buying anything and returned home to see if Google could help me narrow down the likely candidates of plumbing supply stores in town that were near a Home Depot.
I sat down at my computer, but before I had entered a single search I suddenly remembered Pollock's, which was just a kilometre or two down the road from our house. They had been very helpful when I needed some parts to install my dryer back when I first bought this house, so I figured I would see how well they could do with plumbing supplies.
The older guy at the counter turned over the core in his hands a few times before saying, "Yup, that's an old one alright. We don't have anything like this, but I'm sure we can replace these washers for you." He spent about twenty minutes disassembling the cores, even going so far as to drill out the old screws that held the original washers in place, but by the time he was done he had replaced the screws, washers and o-rings, and re-lubed the workings. When I got home and reassembled the tap they worked like new.
Screw Home Depot and everything about big box stores like them. The next time I need something like this I am heading to the neighbourhood store first.
I also bought a new back doorknob while I was there. Replacing that only took a matter of seconds.
It was all going well until she got to the point where she mentioned that the replacement tank had two 4500-watt elements.
"That may be a problem," I said. I went on to explain how our current tank only had two 1000-watt elements, and I wasn't sure if our circuit would be up to the newer tank.
"Exactly how old is your current tank?" Um... older than me?
When it became fairly apparent that I'd need to have an electrician come out to wire up a new circuit before we could replace the tank, she offered up the possibility that they could probably replace the element in the tank if that was all it turned out to be. She passed the information along to one of her technicians and promised to have him call me if there were any problems, but otherwise he would show up at 8:00 Tuesday morning with a new element in hand.
He actually showed up at about 7:45, but that worked for me. By 8:05 he was done and gone, and our tank was working like new. While he was working on it, he mentioned that a lot of people still have these tanks in our area. They're not quite as efficient as the newer tanks, but they never rust out, and aside from having to replace an element every 30-40 years, they are as reliable as heck. As we settled the bill ($196 after tax) he said, "Well, see you again in about 40 years."
I feel better now about repairing the tank rather than replacing it. As near as I can tell, this tank was installed in 1961, and this is the first time it has needed servicing.
Since I knew I would be taking the whole day off anyway, I decided to cross a couple more things off my long-standing to do list. The first item was to replace the back doorknob. The inside knob broke off the inner back door a couple of years back. It still worked if you knew how to use it, but it was a little embarrassing when friends (or, say, a plumber) went to open the door and the knob flew off in his hand. Well, actually it was more amusing than embarrassing, but it was still on my fix list.
The other item was the tap in the bathtub. The seal in it has been wearing out more and more over the years, and for the last while there has been a constant trickle coming from the tap. After the plumber left, I shut off the main water to the house and disassembled the tap. When I pulled out the cores, it was pretty obvious that they needed help. The rubber parts did not appear to be replaceable, so I grabbed the two cores and threw them into a bag along with the back doorknob assembly.
I took the lot to the local Home Depot, where they proved to be surprisingly unhelpful. I stood for awhile by the faucet cores, removing them from the shelf and comparing them to the one in my hand. There were several candidates that were identical save the thread size, or the diameter, but no exact matches. Finally one of their salesmen noticed me and came over to see if I needed help. I showed him the core, and explained that the tap had no markings on it, so I didn't know the brand (he asked me anyway). He turned it over in his hands a couple of times, looked at the multiple rows of cores and declared, "We don't carry this one. You'll have to go to [mumble mumble] Supply over on [mumble mumble] street near one of our other stores." He handed back the core and scurried off like I had suddenly become radioactive.
I chased after him to try and get him to repeat the name of the store he was referring me to, but he dashed into the Employees Only room at the back of the store before I could catch him. I dunno - maybe he was in danger of pooping his pants or something, but it was rather an odd, hurried exit. Somewhat annoyed, I left without buying anything and returned home to see if Google could help me narrow down the likely candidates of plumbing supply stores in town that were near a Home Depot.
I sat down at my computer, but before I had entered a single search I suddenly remembered Pollock's, which was just a kilometre or two down the road from our house. They had been very helpful when I needed some parts to install my dryer back when I first bought this house, so I figured I would see how well they could do with plumbing supplies.
The older guy at the counter turned over the core in his hands a few times before saying, "Yup, that's an old one alright. We don't have anything like this, but I'm sure we can replace these washers for you." He spent about twenty minutes disassembling the cores, even going so far as to drill out the old screws that held the original washers in place, but by the time he was done he had replaced the screws, washers and o-rings, and re-lubed the workings. When I got home and reassembled the tap they worked like new.
Screw Home Depot and everything about big box stores like them. The next time I need something like this I am heading to the neighbourhood store first.
I also bought a new back doorknob while I was there. Replacing that only took a matter of seconds.
