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Out with the old.

30 Comments

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On a rainy afternoon that melted all our snow…

(Boo to that!)

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Our plumber removed our (not so) old, fancy schmantsy, heat pump equipped, dead water heater from the now extremely soggy basement.

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And in the only good piece of news, replaced it with a brand new one for free.

Turns out the previous water heater experienced compressor failure and since the damn thing wasn’t that old, it was still under warranty. Yay for small miracles.

The funny part is the compressor probably failed due to a dirty and clogged filter, which … yeah. Was pretty much our fault because we forgot it had one and never cleaned it. My bad.

So when the new tank was installed?

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Our plumber left us a none too subtle reminder.

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Snarky.

But very much appreciated.

Oh, and when I said the replacement was free? The new unit didn’t cost us anything…

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But it wasn’t “free” free.

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Our master plumber gets $168 an hour, his assistant $128.

Thankfully we have hot water now, but $296 an hour isn’t my idea of free.

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30 thoughts on “Out with the old.”

  9. Just remember – those two guys aren’t pocketing all that money. The company is charging that. It also goes to pay office staff and other overhead expenses. As a plumber, I was not wealthy. The hourly rate charged for my time paid three other people. If you look at the picture of him hauling that heater out the cellar door, you can see why plumbers don’t always last long. Dragging a 200 pound machine up the stairs isn’t easy. At least he had a helper. Lifting a water heater onto a pedestal alone isn’t fun if it’s too big to wrap your arms all the way around. (Yeah, I’m a bit jealous. I never had two people for a service call; only for major remodeling jobs.)

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    1. The master plumber is (owns) the company. His $168 hourly rate is only for him. His assistant got $128. I know there’s overhead, but it was still sticker shock.

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  11. No, that’s not free free at all! Our house has a tankless water heater. The hot water went out and we had not clue what to do. There’s no pilot light, because there’s no tank. Turns out there’s an on off switch!

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    1. Ever since Covid, contractors and plumbers are charging time for things that used to be included. The old unit had to be returned to the company since it was being replaced under warranty. We were charged for the drive.

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      1. Another change from when I was growing up: no more free bids. They charge to give you a bid, but then credit you if you decide to go with them. Not sure if it’s COVID-related or not, but I am sure it’s annoying.

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  15. Is it terrible that his sign written ON the water heater would bother me? I mean, he could have used nicer handwriting, or put it on a sticky note. *sigh* 😌

    Also, yay for hot water.

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