Letters, to and from 24601
June 2007
Dear sir: I’m trying to determine the age of the hot water heater in our house and I’m wondering whether you’d be able to assist. The hot water heater is made by John Wood and is natural gas powered.
Model: JW402NA-04, Serial: 8705286192
Also, if you have any product manuals for this model or suggested replacement schedule, that would also be much appreciated.
If this inquiry is not directed correctly, please let me know.
24601
Dear 24601,
From the information you provided, your water heater was manufactured in May of 1987. (8705) of the serial number indicates this, meaning your tank is 20+ years old.
Most residential water heaters have a life expectancy of between 9 – 12 years. Due to the age of your water heater, we would suggest that you seriously consider having the tank replaced in the near future.
Support
July 2008
Dear Diary,
Guess what happened today!!! Hint, I just remembered that the definition for “got to have a shower” changes with certain factors.
24601
9 comments Thursday 10 Jul 2008 | 24601 | SlantyNet - General
I had exceptional service from Hillcrest Plumbing 2 years ago when mine went, and I ended up replacing it with another tank. If I had to do it all again though, I’d seriously consider just going with a tankless water heater system…
We’re investigating tankless, but the premium we were quoted for its installation seems a bit high.
Home Depot, for example, has tankless from $900 – $1500. But installation labor is higher than conventional ($1000 vs $295?), and a venting kit is required ($800, but the guy might not have precisely known what he was talking about).
We’re going to get some more advice today. Time is of the essence though.
Decision made. We went with another tank. Also went with the plumber that Miks recommended. One of the big selling points is that we spoke with him at 8 am, and he said they’ll be by to install today between 11 and 1.
The entire water main is off now, because the shut-off switch to the hot water tank doesn’t seem to be able to close properly. It’s weird working without water, though. We’ve got a bunch of pots with reserve water, so at least I can wash breakfast dishes, but there’s a load of laundry and dishwasher load that’s 1/2 finished that’s just going to have to wait. (And until we get the water back on, Trev’s in pampers, because I don’t want to be dealing with cloth without the backup of a flushing toilet!)
Just a note to my blonde colleague. Lets not use the word ‘backup’ and ‘toilet’ in the same sentence.
Heh…I had to shut off the main water last year because the valve to my washer had gone on the fritz. Afterwards, I found that the valve to one of my toilets had been on the fritz–in older houses with brass valves, they tend to not be able to close all the way over the years. I’ve been slowly replacing all the shutoff valves with nice Ball valves since then. Ball valves are totally reliable, and last forever. After the inconvenience of having to turn off the main water once, you may want to start replacing your valves too…
I don’t mean to say “I Told you so”
…but…
I TOLD YOU SO!!!!!!!
24601, seriously, I think I mentioned that you should replace your hot water talk at least 3 times in the last little while. I wasn’t joking when I said you had an old tank and that it should be replaced as soon as possible.
Hot water tanks aren’t like an inefficient furnace where you can replace it when you get around to it. Hot water tanks work on their own schedule….if it’s 7 years or older, replacement should be on your ‘sooner rather then later’ list.
Hopefully it was just a slow leak and not an eruption…
Another good idea is to have a water tank alarm that goes off when your tank blows. You just put it on the ground beside the tank. Similar to fire alarm.
Oh and if you go with the tankless systems you can get rebates from the government for being a powersmart environmental superstar.
Bard – fortunately, we did have a water alarm…..that’s how we found out about the leak….it went off while we were having dinner. 2D, yah, we knew that we were going to replace it, so no surprises there. It probably happened a couple of months before we would have gotten around to it……lucky for us, it was a relatively slow leak and we had the alarm. However, it could have been a very different story if it had happened last weekend while we were visiting the Kelso’s…. (Yikes!)
My hot water tank in my office went… didnt have an alarm – yeh it was messy. Since most of my lines use cold water, I went with a small 16L electric tank – way cheaper to heat. Sadly no $$ incentives for commercial businesses only homes when I called about being energy smart.