Behold the power of geek...
Yesterday, I blogged about fixing my water heater. Today, I'm happy to report that, after a couple of days of trying, turning on the water and electric to the heater as needed, I *finally* managed to wrench the old TPR valve off of the water heater. I put on the new valve, using Teflon tape around the threads, and turned the water on and... Viola! Success!
I attribute my successful repair to being a geek. (well... that, and I couldn't afford a plumber. Have you priced one lately?!) Being a geek, I knew that a little research into the symptoms I was having would turn up the problem. Once I knew the problem, the solution came quickly. Actually putting that solution to use was difficult (15 years of corrosion is hard to knock off the threads, ya know?), but persistence always wins. I now have a perfectly good water heater again. Yes, it's well past it's life expectancy. But I've probably just got several more years out of it by doing this $10 repair. And when it finally does die, it will cost me about $200 for a new heater because I now know how to replace it myself (it turned up during my research) instead of the $600+ it would cost me in parts and labor to have a plumber do it for me.
Technorati Tags: plumbing, diy, water heaters
I attribute my successful repair to being a geek. (well... that, and I couldn't afford a plumber. Have you priced one lately?!) Being a geek, I knew that a little research into the symptoms I was having would turn up the problem. Once I knew the problem, the solution came quickly. Actually putting that solution to use was difficult (15 years of corrosion is hard to knock off the threads, ya know?), but persistence always wins. I now have a perfectly good water heater again. Yes, it's well past it's life expectancy. But I've probably just got several more years out of it by doing this $10 repair. And when it finally does die, it will cost me about $200 for a new heater because I now know how to replace it myself (it turned up during my research) instead of the $600+ it would cost me in parts and labor to have a plumber do it for me.
Technorati Tags: plumbing, diy, water heaters
