Life in progress

Tag Archives: hot water tanks


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Something fishy may cause disease – the saga continues

On Friday, I wrote about my hot water tank and how it’s not living up to snuff. The rental company sent an iffy contractor over… rather than tell the whole story again, you can click here to read about it. Since then, I’ve been doing a tankload of research, (see what I did there?) and I’ve come up with a few interesting facts. First, there’s a knob on the mixing valve to adjust the temperature of the water coming out of it. The contractor who came to see me didn’t mention that. Fishy? Yes. BUT I’ve also discovered that these mixing valve thingies that seem to be popping up on top of water tanks without people knowing about them do in fact have a very short lifespan. It seems, (and I could be wrong, but this is what I’ve been led to believe) that the Ontario government decided that all the water coming out of the taps in all the homes shouldn’t be any higher than 49 degrees C, to prevent scalding. To combat Legionnaires disease however, the water in the tank needs to be 60C. So, the happy compromise was the mixing valves installed directly on the tank, which regulate the entire living space.

What all that means is, it’s probably going to cost me $200 to get a hot water tank fixed that I don’t know if I want. I’ve been thinking about going tankless for years. So today I called the company that installed my boiler to see what they can do and they gave me an alternative – an indirect water heater that runs right off my boiler, which, at least in the winter, I’m using anyway.

And it’s a good thing I got them in too – the run-off from my boiler was leaking and I had a puddle on the floor. A couple of boxes got wet and I’m going to have to throw out a few pillows, but nothing earthshattering was ruined. They came back and replaced the pipe for $100. And they didn’t insist on cash! What a concept!

I haven’t called the water heater rental company yet because I want to get all the information I can to make a decision whether to buy or rent, which will depend on how much it all costs. That cost will also include getting out of the contract with the rental company. When I call them, I’m still going to complain about the contractor’s lack of professionalism. I’ll keep you posted.


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I think something’s fishy

For the past couple of months the water coming out of my water heater has been getting colder and colder. It’s to the level now that I can turn the shower on full-hot, do (only) what I have to in there, and get out to a mirror that hasn’t seen steam in weeks. The water heater is a rental, so I called the company to come and fix it.

Today a contractor came out to have a look. To start with, he ignored both the puppy and the cute kitty, so that was one strike against him already.

He felt the pipes coming out of the water heater and asked me to turn on the tap. I did. Then he asked me to compare the temperature of  the pipe going out to the wash basin compared to the pipe coming directly out of the hot water tank. After being told it was too hot for him to touch, I held it. And held it. I had to admit it was a bit hotter than the other one, but not nearly as hot as he claimed it to be. Strike two.

Next, he told me it’s definitely the “mixer pipe” at the top of the tank, where the cold and the hot mix to regulate how much goes out so no one scalds themselves. “We only put these regulators on for the very young, the handicapped, and the elderly,” he said. “Everyone else has the sense to turn the cold on if the water’s too hot.” With a young son, a handicapped son, and an elderly mother that comes to visit, my thought was “Strike Three.”

You’d think that would be enough, but he got one more strike in before he left. “Do you have cash? Because, I don’t like to paint everyone with the same brush but people who’ve given me cheques in the past have ended up bouncing them and not paying. I can fix your mixer pipe for $200. Cash. It’s not covered under the rental of the water tank.”

Would you trust someone who doesn’t trust you? Or is he just a poor plumber who can’t get paid? Sounds fishy to me.