Man, I hate doing plumbing.
So we're all set for the new washer and dryer to show up on Tuesday. The washer died last Tuesday, and we figured we might as well get a new dryer now as well. But they aren't showing up till this upcoming Tuesday.
Since the water heater was tucked in between the washer and dryer, and no way to get to it without moving the dryer anyway, we figured now would be the time to replace that old water heater. So we yanked out the dryer and put it out on the porch, out of the way, and got ourselves the new water heater today figuring we would have this all done and out of the way before the appliances showed up.
Connie and I almost had the new water heater installed, and I thought we were into the "smooth sailing" zone. Just had to remove the three rubber washers in the ends of the water lines, hook them up, hook up the power wires, fill the tank and turn on the circuit breaker, and DONE. But those darn washers were like they were welded into the ends of those lines. I had to literally break one out and chip the pieces out of the end. Come to find out, by doing that, and flexing on the pipe, the spiral copper water line cracked in a couple of places.
Damn... And they were soldered onto the pipes coming through the wall into the laundry room. Things were looking pretty grim with the water heater problem, being as this is Friday, and not having any washing machine to wash clothes till Tuesday. That would mean no showers and maybe running out of clean clothes as well.
Well, that ended the DIY part of this. Time to call in a an expert. Soldering copper pipes is out of my pay grade. The guy came out here, got it all hooked up, and replaced those soldered pipes with screw on ones by soldering ends on the pipes coming out of the walls. So if by chance I have to do this again, then no sweat. Come to find out that those water lines get thin over the years just from water erosion, so probably a real good idea to replace them now anyway. The water heater and lines were 20 years old, which the guy said is kind of stretching it for an electric water heater. But it ran fine, though, except for some very loud popping coming from the heating elements every now and again.
Well, I guess I did save a few bucks, anyway. Even paying the plumber an hour of emergency service time, it was still cheaper than getting a water heater from Lowe's or Home Depot and having them do the entire install.