Sometimes owning a home can really suck! So the hot water heater went out the other day at 10:00pm. The error code said that the thermopile is bad. I thought "well that sucks, but i will just rundown to Home Depot after work tomorrow"

Well Home Depot sell my hot water heater, but not a thermopile for it. Neither does Lowes or any other hardware store in my area, i have to go to a plumbing supply place, which are all closed by now. So this is day 2 of no hot water.

Day 3 (today, Friday). I make it to a plumbing supply place for the part and pick it up. Take out the old, put in the new one, and nothing. The thing still isnt working. So now its midnight on Friday, and i zm sitting hete with a non working hot water heater. So tomorrow i get to call somebody to come fix this thing (and probably find out that they cant get the part until Monday or Tuesday).

Also the grass needs cut, the brush pile needs burned, gutters need cleaned...........

Just one of those days that makes me wish thst i lived in an apartment.

That sucks. Yeah, sometimes being a home owner, everything just seems to happen all at once. Other times, waiting on a landlord to do something can take even longer.

My water heater started leaking in my garage on a Friday night, I had to go out there every 4 hours and mop up 1-2 gallons of water until Monday because the hot water shut off valve right next to the water heater, didn't turn the flow off either.....LOL.....

How old is the hot water heater? If it's under 10 years it may have a warranty. If it's over 10 years you probably need a new one anyway.
It's not a bad idea to rinse the silt out of them once a year.

quote:

Originally posted by smithbc:
...Just one of those days that makes me wish thst i lived in an apartment.

Yeah, and wait for the owner/super/manager to be available and get around to it, find a repair guy, etc.

Having been in both places with a bad water heater (and furnace, and air conditioner, and door locks...), I'll take home ownership any day! Yes, you have to pay for the repair, but you set the schedule, too.

By the way, Appliance Brad taught me how easy most home repair jobs are, and there are Youtube videos on every subject.

Don't be discouraged!

 
One of the good (and bad) things about living in the desert is that during the hot summer, our cold water from the well is warm. It travels 450ft from the well, and close to the house the piping is close enough to the surface (12"-18") to get warmed up. Passive solar warm water.
 

Reminds me of the billboard I always see on the way to my dad's house for a plumbing company. It says "Call Us to Fix It After Your Husband "Fixes" it"

I’m with ya bro.
We just relocated outside of Boston in a Mixed use antique building. (1832)

Talk about a party!

Three of everything in the utilities room,(One boiler is slated for demo and replacement), a well, two YORK AC Compressors,(good) and a 1950s air handler,(bad), that will soon be put down. and a ten foot section of funky sill to open up and replace.

Oh and a deck that needs a pile of love as well.


It’s frickin pah’ty man a real ray-jah’!

Hang in there!

One time living in an apartment I went from leaking water heater to installed replacement <2 hours.

Here at the house when I called around for a replacement 1 place wanted to schedule an inspection for the Next Week.

That's really rough.
We should have a thread section for times like that.

It is possible to get a bad thermopile generator. And with the right tester, you can test the output of the old one. Manufacturers want to get you parts under warranty; they want their product to remain in your home because there is a better chance you'll get the same one when it is time to replace it.

The last bad component I had was a thermocouple; I put in a second one on the spot, and the boiler fired right up.