Plug in a Poke

As I put it on Facebook:

Murphy’s Law, now you’re just messing with me.

We’re in what? Week 3? Week 4? Of water issues. We got all the leaks handled a few days ago, then over the following 2-3 days our water went from hot to warm to lukewarm to HAHAHA no. It’s an electric water heater and got beat up more than a little, so I thought we might need to replace it. However, it turned out to be both simpler and more complex.

First, we discovered that the 220 breaker was only sending half power. I.e., half the breaker had tripped. We wrangled with it and got it turned back on, but also bought a breaker to replace it because the one powering it is a dinosaur. Incidentally, the breaker still hasn’t been replaced because…

The heating element was also leaking and we knew it had to be replaced. I know, I know, I said we’d fixed all the leaks, and I thought we had. But I got told we had a small leak from the area of the element, so I hauled my happy butt to Home Depot and bought the replacement element. It got replaced today. This is what a nice new element looks like:

Nice, clean copper tubing in a straight line, and so on. It isn’t setting my heart aflutter, but it’s clear it’s mechanical.

The pictures below show what was wrenched from the bowels of our water heater. These aren’t stock images: they’re camera-phone pictures of the actual remnants of our heating element.

Not quite so pretty, eh? That alien-looking corrosion comes thanks to the ongoing leaks which, because they were out of sight for months, did a whole hella lot of damage.

By the time the heating element was changed out, I’d started work, so the breaker swap had to wait.

Remember, I work from home. Shutting off the power main meant I didn’t work. But everything was fine. Hubby said the water was super hot, super fast. Between calls, we were discussing that the temperature probably needed to be turned down, now that it was working. In fact, we were mid-sentence during my break when I heard the BOOM.

Oh yes, boys and girls. The water woes weren’t done yet. They were just warming up – so to speak. The water heater blew its top. Hubby ran and turned the water off. Again.

I had visions of a large metal cylinder with a Wile E Coyote hole ripped in the side. Luckily it wasn’t quite that bad. It had merely blown off the supply line. Still a flood, but a heck of a lot cheaper to fix. And fix it we did. Or more accurately, fix it our handyman did. Hubby and I worried the thermostat might have been toast because the temperature shouldn’t have hit anywhere near enough to blow things up. It takes a lot of pressure to pop the line off. But the handyman checked and said the thermostat was fine. He reconnected the line and gave it an extra helping of PVC glue this time.

…And it blew again a few minutes later, this time well before the water inside had time to get hot. That little detail kicked us in the proverbial teeth but also provided our Aha moment.

Today was an atypical cold, rainy day, and the plumbing adhesive you buy here is made for use in Arizona. It’s waterproof once set, but we were expecting a typical low-humidity turnaround. Between the low temperature and higher-than-normal humidity, allocating five minutes to bond wasn’t gonna cut it. This time we’re letting it set up overnight, and will likely hit it with a hairdryer tomorrow morning for good measure before turning the water on again. Our patience is over and done.

I’m getting mighty tired of fast food, too. I put some chicken in the fridge to thaw early this morning (well, technically yesterday morning since it’s now midnight.) Here’s hoping I actually get to cook a day later.