A few months back our utility company sent a notice that it was discontinuing its "Guaranteed Hot Water Program" for which we paid a monthly fee. Basically, the hot water tank was purchased through their program and for a very low fee we were on a program where if anything happened, they would be out within 8 hours to fix it or replace it for free.
A couple years ago one of the heating elements went out. One quick call later a service man was working on it and we were good to go in less than an hour. At no cost. And we all know how much a plumber costs to just walk in the front door so this was really great!
Fast forward to a few months ago when the stopped the program. And now fast forward to this week.
I think one of the elements is out again because we seem to run out of hot water after two showers and washing dishes. Lovely.
This time though it won't be as easy nor as cost-free to get it fixed. In truth, it may be cheaper to buy a new hot water heater than pay a plumber to work on it. I hate the thought of that for two reasons; money and the fact that I hate living in a disposable society where it is cheaper to throw stuff into the landfill than to repair it. When did it become cheaper to replace rather than repair? Something is just not right in that equation.
So anyway - in the next while (or when we can no longer just make it work out that we have hot water when we need it (because trust me, we'll do that for as long as possible) I will need to look into cost of repairing vs cost to replace. Maybe I'll even look into one of those fancy tankless water heater things.
*sigh*
5 comments:
I'm having that very same predicament with my car. :/
I don't understand the new water heater...how on earth can it heat the water as fast as you can use it? Is that the way is happens.....just like you pay off your car and then everything starts to break.....plus there are so many things that it's cheaper to just buy new...go figure!
I don't understand the new water heater...how on earth can it heat the water as fast as you can use it? Is that the way is happens.....just like you pay off your car and then everything starts to break.....plus there are so many things that it's cheaper to just buy new...go figure!
I don't know about up there, but down here in CA we paid about $600 to have a new one installed, just to give you a cost idea. We have really hard water and it looks like it will need to be replaced again because of that. It currently pops (like popcorn) when it has to work hard. We were considering the tankless too cause ours is in the house, but never got a price. If you find out I'd love to know.
sorry about the water heater situation. i know here the tankless cost a lot more to purchase and they can be harder to install/service as they are new.
Post a Comment