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offcntrFinally.
It has been one hell of a week. The near accident last Saturday. The grass fire. Then this.
We have a Metlund Diverter in our water system. It's a nifty little pump and heat sensor that you attach to the hot and cold water pipes at the point furthest from your water heater. Before you turn on the hot water, you press a button, and the pump diverts cooled water from hot pipe to cold until it senses the warm water arriving, at which point it shuts off, and you have hot water. Much preferred to running the tap, wasting water down the drain. (Sadly, they no longer make consumer models, concentrating on commercial building installations.)
Wednesday morning I pushed the button, waiting for a shower, and nothing happened. Well, the pump ran and ran and eventually timed out--twice--and I still only had luke-warm water. I eventually took a very uncomfortable shower and went off to work in the studio. Called up our preferred plumbers--Peterson--and they sent a team out that afternoon. After poking and prodding the water heater, they finally determined that there was in fact, nothing wrong with it. The problem was in the wiring. The wires leaving the circuit breaker were carrying 240 volts; only 110 were arriving at the heater. They also noticed that the wires at the panel were aluminum, those at the water heater copper. Somewhere in between was a junction or splice that failed. Since the problem was neither at the box or the heater, it was officially an electrician problem, not theirs. Sorry, thanks, bye.
I've never had to hire an electrician before--what little work there was in the studio, wiring in a kiln, was straightforward, and I did it myself, with a little advice from Jerry's. So I got out the yellow pages. (They keep dumping them on our porch, they must be good for something.) The first number I called was Builders Electric--I see their vans all over the place, I figure they're busy, they have lots of people. The fellow on the line took my information, said he'd have a tech get in touch. Two hours later, no call. It's six pm, I figure I'll call back in the morning.
I call back mid-morning, to find that they're too busy to help me. I ask for a referral, and get told to sit down with my phone book or computer and just keep calling. Gee, thanks.
So I go the other extreme--I call My Electrician, a one-man shop. Ed says he's got a job to finish today, but he could come by Friday morning. If I want to keep trying to find someone else, could I let him know? I say don't worry about it, I can wait. (I work at home with clay. I can miss a shower or two.)
True to his word, Ed shows up this morning, confirms the wiring is the problem. In fact, the copper wiring is only rated at 20 amps, the water heater draws 23. There should be at least 30 amp wiring, no wonder it burned out. He also climbs up in the attic to track the wire, and finds it going in a completely different direction than the breaker box. It wanders into the house and down into a wall.
This is beginning to feel like a repeat of our broken water line (It went under a tree, and they couldn't locate the break). So I ask if we can do the same thing: Just run a different line direct from source to destination? He allows how that would be his recommendation too. If I don't mind another conduit along the outside of the house (there's two there already), he can run one through the wall, over the door, then down along the base of the wall and around the corner to the outside of the heater closet. Back in, flex conduit and Bob's yer uncle. Asked if I needed to know how much it would cost and I said no. Money is there to fix the hot water that isn't.
So he went off to get supplies, was back just after lunch, and by 4:30, I had hot water again. And a bill that, while not small, was actually less than I expected. So I wrote him a check, and threw in a salmon painted mug as well.
Definitely keeping that business card.
It has been one hell of a week. The near accident last Saturday. The grass fire. Then this.
We have a Metlund Diverter in our water system. It's a nifty little pump and heat sensor that you attach to the hot and cold water pipes at the point furthest from your water heater. Before you turn on the hot water, you press a button, and the pump diverts cooled water from hot pipe to cold until it senses the warm water arriving, at which point it shuts off, and you have hot water. Much preferred to running the tap, wasting water down the drain. (Sadly, they no longer make consumer models, concentrating on commercial building installations.)
Wednesday morning I pushed the button, waiting for a shower, and nothing happened. Well, the pump ran and ran and eventually timed out--twice--and I still only had luke-warm water. I eventually took a very uncomfortable shower and went off to work in the studio. Called up our preferred plumbers--Peterson--and they sent a team out that afternoon. After poking and prodding the water heater, they finally determined that there was in fact, nothing wrong with it. The problem was in the wiring. The wires leaving the circuit breaker were carrying 240 volts; only 110 were arriving at the heater. They also noticed that the wires at the panel were aluminum, those at the water heater copper. Somewhere in between was a junction or splice that failed. Since the problem was neither at the box or the heater, it was officially an electrician problem, not theirs. Sorry, thanks, bye.
I've never had to hire an electrician before--what little work there was in the studio, wiring in a kiln, was straightforward, and I did it myself, with a little advice from Jerry's. So I got out the yellow pages. (They keep dumping them on our porch, they must be good for something.) The first number I called was Builders Electric--I see their vans all over the place, I figure they're busy, they have lots of people. The fellow on the line took my information, said he'd have a tech get in touch. Two hours later, no call. It's six pm, I figure I'll call back in the morning.
I call back mid-morning, to find that they're too busy to help me. I ask for a referral, and get told to sit down with my phone book or computer and just keep calling. Gee, thanks.
So I go the other extreme--I call My Electrician, a one-man shop. Ed says he's got a job to finish today, but he could come by Friday morning. If I want to keep trying to find someone else, could I let him know? I say don't worry about it, I can wait. (I work at home with clay. I can miss a shower or two.)
True to his word, Ed shows up this morning, confirms the wiring is the problem. In fact, the copper wiring is only rated at 20 amps, the water heater draws 23. There should be at least 30 amp wiring, no wonder it burned out. He also climbs up in the attic to track the wire, and finds it going in a completely different direction than the breaker box. It wanders into the house and down into a wall.
This is beginning to feel like a repeat of our broken water line (It went under a tree, and they couldn't locate the break). So I ask if we can do the same thing: Just run a different line direct from source to destination? He allows how that would be his recommendation too. If I don't mind another conduit along the outside of the house (there's two there already), he can run one through the wall, over the door, then down along the base of the wall and around the corner to the outside of the heater closet. Back in, flex conduit and Bob's yer uncle. Asked if I needed to know how much it would cost and I said no. Money is there to fix the hot water that isn't.
So he went off to get supplies, was back just after lunch, and by 4:30, I had hot water again. And a bill that, while not small, was actually less than I expected. So I wrote him a check, and threw in a salmon painted mug as well.
Definitely keeping that business card.