Saturday, September 10, 2022

No hot water

Our water heater went kaput a week ago.

At first Don thought he could get away with replacing just the heating element (singular; it only has one element), but quickly realized he couldn't disconnect it. Arrggh.

So we bit the bullet and ordered a replacement water heater. For good measure, we also ordered a small portable propane water heater as well, as a future backup.

But as you can guess, with the current supply-chain issues, neither item is scheduled to be delivered for several more weeks. Whee!

Nor could we purchase either item "off the shelf." We called various places (home improvement stores, hardware stores, etc.) in an ever-widening radius around us to no avail. Because we live in a manufactured home, the water heater had to be a certain size and have only one heating element (a second heating element would likely fry our electrical system).

So, we wait. Fortunately, due to past experiences with water woes, we were ready.

First of all, this faithful tea kettle is seeing a lot of use. I heat a kettle of water, add it to cold water, and use the resulting warm/hot water to wash dishes (though rinsed in cold water).

But the biggest help has been these solar shower bags, one of our better purchases in years past. We have a two-gallon and a three-gallon size.

However since the weather is (finally!) getting cooler, the bags tend to cool off before we're ready to take our evening showers. So the faithful tea kettle is pressed into service once more, as we add a kettle-full of hot water to the coolish water in the shower bags.

It's a little inconvenient for Older Daughter and I to wash our long hair with these shower bags, but we're making do. We're just grateful beyond words we have them, especially since it's going to be several more weeks before we get the water heaters delivered.

Still, we'll be glad when we have hot water again. It's definitely something we take for granted until it's not available.

13 comments:

  1. We have some experience with portable propane water heaters, almost all of it negative. The water pressure switches quit working, the propane solenoids lose the oomph to open when under any pressure, and customer support is either unresponsive or circular. I hope your experience is better, and that you don't need the portable heater much anyway.

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  2. A friend in the UK who is desperate to save money on heating & utility bills bought a big coffee pot, the kind that holds 40 C. or more. She turns it on & let's it heat up all the way, then unplugs it. It stays hot for several hours. She turned off her hot water heater & only uses this now. It's enough for her to do her dishes & take a short refreshing shower & helped her save alot of money on her utility bills.

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  3. When I was a kid in the late 40's we were poor and our water heater died. My dad would heat up about 8 gallons of water on the kerosine stove (as in the stove was our house heat and he just set the big container on top until it was hot) and than dump it in the tub for who ever had the next turn for the bath. I was more than a year until we had hot tap water. I was six so it was no big deal for me but my older sister has a different opinion.

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  4. We feel your pain! Our old water heater (40+ years old) had to have one of the elements replaced. When it still didn't work, SwampMan had to replace the thermostat. It works great again! We purchased another, smaller water heater to replace it a few years ago, then decided to wait to see how long we could keep it going. We'll probably take out old faithful the next time something has to be replaced. Probably.

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  5. I will always have an old fashioned water heater. I live in hurricane prone area on the east coast. After losing power for almost a week I was still able to take a warm rationed / navy shower at the end of the day of clean up. The tank kept the water warm for that long.

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  6. I think I would have bit the bullet and went with an electric tankless option and made it fit. I am sure I don't have all the facts to make that call though too. I hate water heaters they always quit working at the worst times... because there is no good time for it !:) Sorry your's died

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  7. Two things to consider for your new hot water heater.

    1) Order a spare anode rod. I'd recommend the magnesium-aluminum type that's segmented. I believe all anode rods are standardized to 1 and 1/16 of an inch. You'll need a socket if you don't have one. *Before* the tank is installed, break the original anode rod free. They can be extremely difficult to remove. Then re-install with some non-toxic dope or teflon tape so that when you go to replace it it's not rust-welded into place. They usually need to be replaced about every five years. There's plenty of how-to videos on YouTube.

    2) Get a spare dip tube. Dip tubs funnel fresh cold water down to the bottom of the tank away from the outlet. They degrade over time. The problem is that they are inside the cold water inlet so to replace you need to be good at soldering or have them install the inlet with socketed connections that can be undone with wrenches.

    -Outlier

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  8. Oops. After more research I discovered you're not supposed to use teflon tape. It acts as an insulator and blocks the transfer of ions. Pipe dope is supposedly okay. I'm thinking olive oil would work too.

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  9. For years as I grew up we had a water heater that frequently malfunctioned. As a result I can wash long hair in a lavatory and take a cold shower in about 3 minutes. Even with warm water I still wash my hair and myself in the shower faster than my husband could with very short hair

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  10. Although we have a shower bag we also have a weed sprayer (new, in the box) as a backup.

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  11. I have had mobile homes and had a dual element hot water heaters and while I can work and repair them. I finally switched first to a propane fueled hot water heater then to a tank-less dual (electric/propane) heater and saved of bunch of money.

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  12. For sterilization of dishes I was taught when I worked for the school cafeteria service that one part bleach to 10 parts water for the final rinse will do the trick. Wear gloves, hard on your skin.

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  13. The weed sprayer is a good idea. I lost my well pump (for only a week) and just used a pitcher. It worked decently well, but was not like a normal shower.

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