I know the saying "if it's not one thing, it's another"....but things have just been piling on top of each other.
We had troubles with our hot water heater again. So we started to get it fixed, and found out that the hot water heater that was put in Dec '08 (just 6 months before we purchased, this our first home) has to have a converter before we put the new thermostat on it. Apparently you can't buy the thermostat anymore, and have to have the converter. Even if we rushed it, $20 more, they can't have it here before Thursday afternoon.
My brother and his family are coming this evening!
So I told them to wait on things, and my husband & I are trying to figure out what to do. They can't do anything until tomorrow morning anyways. We've got at least $120-150 in parts, and expect that a new water heater will cost just twice that, and might be able to go in tomorrow night.
Has anyone any experience with "tankless" ? Just wondering if it might be more beneficially to go that route, and gain a little space in the "laundry closet".
Would they really see a savings in the natural gas bills on a tankless, and how big would you need? We are a small 3 bedroom house, 2 baths though.
I definitely understand "if it's not one thing, it's another"!! We're stationed in NC, but we also still own our house in MO. It seems like when there's something going wrong with the house we're staying in here (or with our car), there's also something going wrong with our property half a country away!! Trouble certainly seems to attract more trouble!
I wish I could give you more info on the tankless water heaters. My husband looked into going that route with our MO house (we're only leasing here in NC so we get what we get lol), but I can't remember why he decided against it. I'll ask him tonight and let you know what he says.
Our MO house is also our first owned home. We got a warranty through one of the local house/hvac repair companies as a part of purchasing our house (I don't know if it was because it was a FHA loan or if we just had a thoughtful real estate agent), but we read the fine print and while it covered things like preventive maintenance for the air conditioner or bad wiring in the outlets and whatnot, it did not cover the hot water heater that died within 6 months of buying the property! It was very frustrating. We ended up getting a Home Depot credit card and just buying a whole new water heater.
funny thing was, in talking with my father, he reminded me that 40 years ago we were in a home that had basically a tankless on demand water heater. It had 1.5 gallon tank, and also heated the house with baseboard heating. Wasn't to bad. Still thinking and praying on it.
The electric water heater at our home, back in Maine, went kaput a few months after we bought the home. There was already gas in the house for our stove & dryer, so we decided on going with a tankless water heater to replace it. Our electric bill dropped substantially after that (since the electric ones are constantly maintaining the heat of the water), and we didn't see a huge increase in our gas costs. That house had 3 bedrooms & 1-1/2 baths.
My only advice to you would be to make sure you buy a size appropriate for your needs... The guy who helped us determine what size we needed for our house was wrong & we ended up with a unit that didn't meet our needs (we should've opted for the larger one). So if the dishwasher's running or the washer was running & you want to take a bath.....you ran out of hot water. BRR
Outside of that, we really liked it. We're contemplating going with an on-demand tankless water heater again at our current house, but I'm not sure how well it would work for us because we don't have a well (our water is off a spring).
Ugh, I know that "one thing it's another" feeling. Why does it seem like things just can't space out for our sanity??
That said, we don't have a tankless, but I have heard good things. A few years ago there were tax breaks on certain energy-saving home upgrades, and I know tankless water heaters were one. I don't know if it that particular tax break is still available, but that might be worth looking into! Could make it even more worthwhile.
Laura, we got a tankless about two years ago and it is the best thing EVER! Our water heater was over 20 years old (the repair guy said that was unheard of they usually only last 8-10 years). It was quite costly but we did see a big drop in our gas bill. There are only two of us but we do live in a 3 bedroom 2 bath house. The installers would know the right size, we would have gotten the smallest but he explained that if we bumped up to the next one the regulator was included and the other we would have to pay for. All in all it wasn't that much more. We have a main heater and then depending on demand sometimes it bumps up a little higher. And you can regulate how hot of a temperature you want, especially if you have kids, you can make it a little lower. The brand is Noritz and we were told that some major hotel chains used this brand. Again it was pricey but we would have had to pay $500-1000 just to bring a new water heater to code. We paid a little over $2500 and to me is one of the best investments we made in our house!
Well, we have a friend who is a plummer and he's not comfortable with putting in a tankless so hubby has decided not to go tankless. Plus for hubby, he wants to get this in fast and doesn't want to work on it, so not this time. This fellow has found us another short tank, for $320. It'll be gas so hopefully this will last a while.
I sure know the feeling of one thing on top of another. Sometimes you feel like you are drowning but it does get better,
Good luck with the water heater.
Boy do I ever know that feeling. I just had to put a bunch of work into my car because the dealership that did the work 2 years ago botched it up so bad it completely ruined the high end clutch we had put in. That was $1800. So we finally found a mechanic we can trust and my husband did a lot of research this time. Long story short, it ended up being $2800 to bring my car up to where it should have been after the first clutch job. Then I found out my brakes needed replacing ($800) and I've been putting off buying new tires, but hubby went ahead and put them on anyway. I have a sports car, so parts aren't cheap and I have to order them from the states, so shipping is crazy expensive on this stuff. We were lucky though. My husband has a "rich" aunt who gave us the money to cover the actual clutch job. So all we had to pay for was all the other "maintenance" stuff. We would be a in heap of debt if it weren't for his aunt, especially since tomorrow is my last day of work...
We've done so much lately with the house, things that never should have had to do, like the dishwasher we put in 3 years ago NEVER WORKED, and they came out 4 times in the first year while it was under warranty...ALL for the same problem. So we finally put in ANOTHER new one after going without one for over 8 months.
We ended up putting in a hot water heater that our friend was familiar with.
I'm praying now that the few appliances that we haven't yet replaced since moving in keep working. Cause there's no way we can keep replacing things that should still be well within their normal lifespan.
Sure wishing that I could actually find something I could physically do to make some money. Thankfully my daughter found a place that will work her for this week at least. After finishing her internship, and summer course, she's had no other luck on finding work for the summer. And she has to be back on campus the middle of August, so summer is almost none existent for her to find work here in town.
@ Cat: yeah, cars have been troubling us as well, including vandalism on my daughters. Police knew who did it, but we've not heard from them on reimbursements of over $600 in repairs.
I'm just thankful, my husband has a job! and that it's daytime factory work instead of nights. Soon, Lord, soon...perhaps some things happening this weekend will continue to develop and he can get back to his actual vocation.
I feel that way all the time. Unfortunately, I'm a renter so I don't know anything about tankless or anything else!!!
Tankless rules!!! I had it in my old house and do not have it in this one (been here 3 years). It is very high on my wish list of things I want to change. Tankless is more efficient - especially in summer - your water pressure is all mains pressure rather than a lower tank pressure - so generally more power in the showers, you gain the space ... I could go on LOL!!!
As for house disasters - we moved in here and 2 days later the electrics fused (bank holiday weekend) - turned out that the electrics were not up to scratch and when the movers had removed things from the attic, they had loosened some wires. We were lucky not to have a fire and the top and bottom was ... a COMPLETE rewire!!! Expensive. Just what we needed. Still it is all done and safe now and could have ended a lot worse so we keep smiling and wait for the next wave of problems to hit LOL
I hope things improve soon Laura - it can get you so down when several hit at once.
Didn't know tankless could improve pressure in the shower!! We desperately need (ok, just want) that. Hm... maybe have to bump up the priority on this for our own little "home improvements" list!
Tankless will mean the shower gets full mains pressure which is generally higher than a tank system - however - if that's not enough for you or if your mains pressure is not great, you are better off with a tank and a pressure boosting pump device. (not a shower head that claims to increase pressure - a proper pump that alters how the water flows from your tank). We used to have a combi boiler for instant hot water and a pressurised hot water cylinder to use when large quantities were needed - multiple baths etc. Worked great and I'd like one in this house.
We have the home warranty, too...mostly works in our favor (but not always). We also learn (almost every repair) that something is "out of code". :\ We've been in our house almost 7 years now and have replaced: fridge, oven, OTR microwave, washer, dryer, furnace. Only have the water heater, dishwasher and A/C left!
No experience with tankless here (at least not YET), so no help on that, but I do hear you about the stuff piling up or being back to back! Hopefully, you'll get your break soon!
Nice Point Tina...that when you have someone look at something, invariably they find something else, or CAUSE something else.
We just had a visit from our termite inspector, and when he was under the crawl, he mentioned that the A/C duct work is "off" over by a certain window. I immediately thought, oh great...and that's exactly where the workman was 3 days earlier, running wires for cable. We changed and bundled to get higher internet, and were able to get a basic cable thrown in.
Now My Son's got to find time to get under the house (he's the only one that is small enough to get in and still get around - sunken living room - and see exactly what's going on, and how to fix it.
I really need to convince my dad to make a trip in, cause he's an old electrician, and we have had constant troubles here...all our GFC outlets in the bathrooms and the 2 outside outlets are dead.
Dad's are marvelous - my husband is lovely and clever - not very practical though but my Dad is just so USEFUL!!! He's getting on a bit now but I still turn to him for advice all the time.