After four days of not hearing anything from Rheem, I sent a followup, and after a week of waiting in vain for a response, returned to Home Depot, ready to take whatever they were willing to give me. Well, they were nice and called Rheem to grease the skids, talking to several people, and I was on the phone with one of them. He asked about the problem. I described it and he said it could not be repaired, that they would send a replacement (as their written warranty had laid out). I would just have to bring the defective water heater in to Home Depot. Great!
He then talked to the Home Depot person and I thought I was all set. Not. Apparently Home Depot has a close relationship with Rheem, but Home Depot handles warranty claims their own way, and only their own way, and if I was going to bring the defective unit back to Home Depot, they would only be able to give me a refund, and then I could reorder a new one. But the price for a new one was now $500 more than when I bought mine, and there was still the matter of a pro-rata refund for the water heater bought early-2015.
At this point I was ready to cut my losses, so I went home and uninstalled the defective water heater and brought it back to the store. I had known this particular Home Depot person for a couple of years, and she got the store manager involved, and after they had some further discussions with others, they came back and gave me a full refund. Thank you, and kudos to Home Depot!
But after the bad experience with Rheem, I was not going to buy another one, especially the same model for $500 more. So I went home again and did more water heater research, and found that there were only three primary manufacturers of water heaters (sometimes sold under other names). Rheem (sold by Home Depot), Whirlpool (sold by Lowe's), and another name that was sold through plumbers and contractors. After looking at Whirlpool reviews, I decided I would bite my tongue and buy another Rheem, although this time a no-frills, much cheaper electric water heater — and a model that Home Depot had in stock.
But first I had to undo all the gas water heater infrastructure. PVC pipes running up through the roof bringing in fresh air for the burners and exhausting combustion products, the condensate drain line, and that new steel gas line I had just installed. Fill in the holes in the ceiling and paint, etc. Then bring the new, smaller 40-gallon electric water heater home and put it in place. The old earthquake strap would have covered the upper thermostat access door, so I had to put the water heater up on blocks and lower the strap to make it fit.
The water inlet and outlet pipes fit fine, so I filled up the tank, purging air from the hot water pipes until the water ran freely from the bathroom faucet. No leaks! There was still the matter of the electrical connection. The water heater needed a 240-volt, 30-amp circuit, but I needed more space in the electrical sub-panel, so I ordered a combination circuit breaker made up of two 120-volt, 20-amp breakers (to replace two existing full-size units), and the one new 240-volt, 30-amp circuit breaker for the water heater. The combination unit takes up just two full-size spaces (regular breakers would have used four spaces). It's the unit lower center in this photo:
The 30-amp circuit took a 10-gauge cable (color coded orange), run the short distance over to the water heater and down from the ceiling through a blue flexible conduit. Very simple.
The whole electric water heater installation was very simple, so why did I install the complex, expensive high-tech gas water heater in the first place? 1) The forced-air unit had a sealed combustion chamber, drawing air from outside, so no open flame inside the house that cheaper, less-efficient gas water heaters have. The cheaper gas units also need a double-walled metal chimney running up through the roof, rather than a simple PVC pipe. And 2) Efficiency. The expensive gas water heater had an estimated $199 annual operating cost, while the electric unit's estimated operating cost is $550 per year. That's for a family's use, of course, and there's just one of me, so those numbers would be much lower. It's a trade-off. And, if I end up installing solar panels on the roof, electricity will be free for life (well, after the initial large capital expense). The same logic also applies to my decision to replace the aging gas furnace (plus electric A/C) with an electric heat pump, but that's a post for the future.
Before the new water heater installation was complete, my new water pressure reduction valve arrived, which I installed with no problems, resulting in a straight-through water path. I adjusted the pressure to 50 psi (down from the municipal 100 psi water pressure).
Once I had tamed the very high pressure, I was able to bring the water softener on-line, slightly opening the by-pass valve to slowly fill the tank of resin beads. Then program the controller. No problems and no leaks. The water tasted slightly salty, which was to be expected if sodium chloride was used to regenerate the resin beads (I didn't, but the supplier likely did.). I plan to use potassium chloride. In any case, I started using bottled water to drink pending my first regeneration with potassium chloride. What will it taste like? Different, no doubt, but any new taste will seem normal after awhile. I may get a water purification device for drinking water.
So everything is working, and I have glorious hot water again after three weeks without. :-)
My old hard water contained 26 grains per gallon of calcium and magnesium, and now my soft water has less than one gpg! It feels slippery to the touch. Towels washed in the soft water are not scratchy. Soap has suds. A brush glides through wet washed hair, rather than catching on the mineral-coated hair and pulling it out. Minerals will not coat the inside of the water heater, nor form a rough layer on the inside of porcelain toilets. Who knows what hard water would have done to the inside of my new dish washer. Certainly the white spots that covered my black granite pottery studio sink have disappeared.
Does the new puppy care? Probably not.
Next? Getting ready for a new heating and cooling system (electric heat pump plus new ducting), and enlarging the new master bedroom.
I removed the old gas furnace, disassembling it piece-by-piece, from the attic (except for the freon-filled heat exchanger), and have started insulating all the new PEX water pipes. I will remove the rest of the steel gas pipes from the attic (since my house is now all-electric), and get the flexible ducting and registers ready for the heat-pump installers, who will put in a large distribution duct running the length of the house. As always, attic work requires cooler temperatures, so nothing will happen quickly until fall arrives in earnest.
No comments:
Post a Comment