HSMS cold

this is the spot where my hot water heater used to be.

for the first time in my life, I was screwed by a plumber. I shot this on the day of the challenge, but today is the first day since last thursday I have hot water in my house.

It all started the thursday after Christmas. I woke up and found my coffee cup was not clean from a freshly run dishwasher, and my shower was nothing but cold water. I called the pluming company I prefer and they could be here within 2 hours. But no. My husband choose to go with another plumber, at his father's recommendation. Its all about saving money. Not about efficiency. Not about saving time. But, by 9pm that same night, we had hot water again. The plumber was a licensed plumber, and a relative of my father in law.

But sunday, the pilot light kept going out, relighting relighting, but still had hot water. called plumber #1 (guy who installed). he said, "the wind must be blowing the light out, I know I installed it right, you will have to call the manufacture". I told him my other 13 year old hot water heater pilot light never went out!!! My new one was 3-1/2 days old, and I was already calling in on my warranty.

over a week later, two parts and two more plumbers later, GE agreed to send/bring a brand new hot water heater. plumber #4 came, and he said, "Oh, here is your problem". Okay, I know we are in real trouble here.

Plumber #1 had installed a non-direct vent hot water heater in a direct vent space. That is the reason the pilot light would not stay on. Bad, dangerous, and irresponsible. And, for the first time, I really had NO HOT WATER HEATER.

Within a few hours, we interviewed plumber #5 and plumber #6. plumber #5 gave the best price, plumber #6 recommended we get the tankless water heating system. For those of you in other countries, you probably think we are dinosaurs...we still use tanks to heat our water. But $3400!!! not this year.

The next day...plumber #5's company was out of the direct vent hot water heater. his distributor couldnt get one until monday.

This has been a nightmare. In my 30 years of house ownership, and quite a few different houses, I have never been screwed like this. I always do my research and try to know as much about a product and a procedure as the technician knows who is going to actually perform the service. But, I dont have time to learn all of it....so I try to hire reputable individuals. My husband will listen to ME next time!!!