Hubby warned me when we were dating that being a pilot's wife is not always easy. She is required, very often, to wear many hats. Today was one of them, as I'm not and have never had any inclinations to be a plumber.
We have a tankless water heater. There are many benefits to having one and I am very pleased that we made the change several years ago. I no longer run out of hot water for my 'scalding' hot showers (as hubby often remarks) and I can set the temperature to hand wash dishes at 60C (which apparently takes 5 sec. to create a serious burn - who knew?). Another benefit of having a tankless water heater is that I can also set the bath temperature for Corwin's bath and never have to worry about mixing water and checking to see if it's right.
It's also very environmental. We no longer heat up a huge tank of water and keep it warm, even though no one is using any hot water. Europeans and Asians have been using them forever and it's only becoming more popular now, in North America, as we discover all the ways of being green.
Today, my tankless water heater has failed me. We've been having a random problem with it lately, but it wasn't more than a minor nuisance. For some strange reason, it was shutting itself off - completely, meaning no hot water at all. It usually happened when I was washing dishes and I merely had to turn the remote power switch back on and my hot water came back. It wasn't predictable and didn't happen often but I did call our vendor about it. He told me that a filter needed to be cleaned out. I was thinking that I could wait for hubby to get back home from his latest sojourn at work. Alas, this was not the case.
During my shower this morning, the hot water heater shut down, not once, not twice but THREE times. This would not have been a huge problem except that we had to install the remote 50' away from the shower in our master bedroom. So there I was, freezing my ass off, running back and forth between the shower and the remote trying to finish my lather, rinse, repeat. Wasn't pretty nor pleasant. It was evident that I would not be able to wait and that I'd have to clean out this 'filter' myself.
So, while my mother watched Corwin (thankfully, she lives next door so it's quite convenient) I ventured into the basement to tackle the job. I had the manual with me and it seemed easy enough. After many tries and a quick call to Dubai to check with hubby if there was a trick to shutting of the water valves, I shut it down and pulled the filter out.
The man had told me that it would probably be filled with dirt and sediment - um.... no, not really. In fact, the whole thing looked pretty damn clean to me. Nevertheless, this is what I was told to do and that it would rectify the problem. I cleaned it out with a toothbrush and put the now cleaned (albeit not noticeably) filter back in.
The water heater has been running normally now and hasn't shut off again, but it was random, so only time will tell if the problem has really been fixed. I'm normally a very optimistic person - in this case I'm expecting to be making a call to the vendor again to get some more troubleshooting advice. The plumber hat I'm sure will be returning in the near future.
Later that evening:
The hat is back....argh!!
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