The first sign was the sound. Wednesday morning, July 9, I went down the half flight to the laundry room around 7:30 to start a load of towels and heard a squish under my slipper. There was a puddle about three feet wide spreading out from the base of the water heater, and the drain pan, which I didn't know we had, was full and running over.
Greg was already on his route, of course. He leaves at 3:40 in the morning. So it was me, a stack of old beach towels and my phone.
The first hour
I'll tell you what I did, not because I'm an expert but because I had to look half of it up while standing in a puddle.
- Turned the gas valve on the side of the unit to "off." Ours is a 40-gallon gas heater, so there's a dial on the control.
- Shut the cold water supply valve on the pipe at the top.
- Moved the laundry baskets and a box of Christmas ornaments that were sitting much too close.
- Mopped up and put a fan on the floor.
- Took a picture of the label with the model number and the date.
The label said 2011. Fourteen years. I had the date written in the green notebook, along with what we paid back then, which was $725 installed. I'd also written "expect 10-12 years" next to it in 2011, so I can't say nobody warned us.
The leak was coming from the bottom of the tank itself, not a fitting. Once that happens there's no fixing it. The tank had rusted through.
Three phone calls and three quotes
I called three plumbing companies between 8:00 and 9:00. I'll describe them without names. One was a big outfit with commercials on the Dayton stations. One was a small family company in Springboro a neighbor had used. One was a plumber who'd done a toilet repair for us years ago.
Here's how they came in for a 40-gallon gas tank heater, same size as the old one, installed with haul-away:
The big company quoted $2,180 and could come Friday. They also spent ten minutes on the phone telling me about tankless units, which started at around $4,200 installed. The small Springboro company quoted $1,650 and could come Thursday morning. The plumber we'd used before quoted $1,590 but couldn't get to us until the following Tuesday.
Six days without hot water in July was not something I was willing to do for $60. We went with the $1,650 quote. I asked what was in it and they listed the heater, a new gas flex line, a new expansion tank, the permit, haul-away of the old unit and a six-year tank warranty. That last part matters more than it sounds.
When Greg got home at 1:30 he looked at the puddle, looked at the towels and said, "Well, it had a good run." Then he took a cold shower and didn't complain, which I'm noting here for the record.
The install, and what $1,650 bought us
Two installers showed up Thursday at 8:15 and were done before 11:30. They drained what was left, cut out the old unit, set the new one on a new drain pan, connected everything and lit it. They checked the venting and the gas line for leaks and walked me through the new control. By 1:00 we had hot water again, and I have never been so happy to wash a sink full of dishes.
Breaking down the $1,650 as best I can from the invoice: about $760 for the heater itself, $95 for the expansion tank, $60 for the permit, and the rest is labor, parts and disposal. That's a little more than double what we paid in 2011. Some of that is fourteen years of prices and some is new code requirements, like the expansion tank.
What I'd do differently, and what I'm doing now
I should have started a water heater fund about three years ago. We had the money in savings, but it came out of the same account that has been absorbing a lot this month. Our homeowners renewal just came in 22 percent higher, too, which is a separate post. July has not been kind.
So here is what I've changed:
I wrote the new install date in the green notebook with a note to start setting aside about $15 a month for the next one. Twelve years times $15 is $2,160, which should be in the neighborhood when the time comes. I also put a reminder in my phone to drain a few gallons from the bottom valve once a year to flush sediment, which the installer recommended and which, I'm embarrassed to say, we never did once with the old one.
And I'm going to keep the drain pan clear. That pan is the only reason the water didn't reach the family room carpet, and it was the one thing in the whole laundry room I didn't know we had.
