No Hot Water…and then the Dishwasher Broke
/Our main hot water heater stopped working suddenly. I discovered it when the water never got hot for my morning shower. I went down to its closet in the basement as soon as I dressed, expecting to find water around it or something else that looked dire. Nothing! The only thing that looked odd was the temperature panel. It took some searching to find an online manual to figure out that the lights meant nothing about temperature but were an error code that meant ‘open igniter circuit.’ We called the company that handles our HVAC and water heater maintenance.
The person came later in the afternoon and discovered that it was not a simple fix…parts would have to be ordered, and they might not fix the problem. The unit was about 13 years old. They sent us cost estimates for replacement parts (but not a sure fix), a replacement like the high-end gas-powered unit that we had, and two types of heat pump hot water heater. We decided to transition to a heat pump with the only question being which one. An electrician would come out to evaluate the electrical situation; since there are two kinds of outlets near the existing unit, we thought either one of the heat pump units would work and tentatively picked the least expensive one.
Our use of hot water has changed over the years. These days it is mostly for showers and the dishwasher. We rarely use hot water for laundry and try to minimize the rinsing of dishes before we put them in the dishwasher. That’s quite a change from even 10 years ago! We discovered that the dishwasher could heat the water sufficiently on its own without the hot water heater and used that change in setting for the duration we were without a working hot water heater.
The ‘apartment’ in our house with its own hot water heater provided access to hot showers while the saga of replacing our main hot water heater unfolded.
A few days after the hot water heater stopped working, the dishwasher broke (and produced a smell of melting plastic) when we selected the option to have it heat the water it was being supplied. The unit was over 13 years old so we opted to replace it.
A week later…
We have a new heat pump hot water heater and a new dishwasher. There was a minor amount of electrical work to move from the gas to an electric heat pump hot water heater (not a new circuit…just running a conduit from an existing plug/circuit a few feet to the hot water heater location).
We were pleased with how as fast it happened. The electrician came to evaluate the electrical situation and then two days later the installation of the hot water heater occurred. The day after that the dishwasher was replaced. My husband and I both felt our stress level going down!
