So, a few months ago, our hot water pipes started squeaking whenever we ran the water. It was kind of annoying.
Jules and Lon, in a neighboring unit, said they had had the same issue, and that after they had turned off the water main for some other purpose, the whine disappeared when the water was turned back on.
So, we turned the water main off for a while and then turned it back on. This seemed to do the trick.
But then, something weird happened. All of a sudden, we started getting cold water out of the hot water tap -- unless we opened two taps at the same time. If we wanted to wash the dishes, we would have to run the upstairs bathroom sink as well, to get it started. If we wanted to take a shower, we needed to run the bathtub faucet, too. Odd.
I consulted with our owner, Jim. He came out and we both stared at the heater for a while, but couldn't come up with any ideas. We decided to delay any action for a while to see what might happen next.
Well, the shoe dropped the other day: we had no hot water at all! Yikes - the whole unit was cold, all the outlet pipes and the tank. A tech came out and pronounced it dead. Bad news: this unusual unit, which also serves as a pre-heater for the furnace*, is hard to find and might take two weeks to get. Bad!
So, Jim came out yesterday and looked at the unit again. This time, he removed the plate and checked the pilot light**. It was out. We re-lit it. Success!
Now, not only do we have hot water again, but it comes out of the tap when you open it, just like it is supposed to! No more goofy haunted-house business. Yay!
Of course, the whine is also back. But this time I think we'll leave it alone.
So, most of yesterday was spent waiting around for a return visit from the hot water tech, who never came. Otis was busy with family stuff and errands, but I don't think I got further from the house than the mailbox all day.
We did host Johnbai, Dingo, Mr. X, and Soapy for GURPS night, with special guest star The Crocodile. While we were meleeing, Otis and The Angel took off for babysitting duty. We all had late nights, leading to a slow morning, at least for me.
For your non-text content today, we have Natalie Portman starring in a faux-Bollywood music video for her boyfriend, the Venezuelan-American indie-folker Devendra Banhart.
Well, then. have a nice day
Notes on the hot water situation for the technically inclined:
*The water comes out of our heater at 160 degrees and cycles through the furnace, doing something efficient in there. When it comes out, it has to go though a mixer that puts cold water back into the flow to bring the temperature down to 120 degrees, the standard tap temperature. The tech guessed that it might have been a malfunction in this t-valve that was causing the water-weirdness - we weren't getting any hot at all, just the re-mix cold, unless two taps were open to increase the flow. Sounds plausible - but this is the guy who didn't check the pilot light, so who knows?
**The day before we lost hot water, Otis smelled gas in the house. I checked the fireplace and saw that the pilot light had gone out. I closed the gas supply to the fireplace and the smell went away. I even checked the hot water tank room, and there was no gas smell there, so I presumed everything was all okay and the misfire was limited to the fireplace. Well, it seems that the hot water heater has a failsafe mechanism that automatically turns off the gas flow if the pilot light goes out, so that was why there was no gas smell, even though interruption in the gas supply probably made both pilot lights go out. All of this just reminded me what used to be second nature back when I was a cop: there is no such thing as a coincidence. If there was something hinky with the gas flow one day and the next day your hot water heater stops heating, the two incidents ARE related, even if the evidence seems to indicate otherwise. (For the record, Otis had it pegged.)
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