Another happy day.

[Lakota Wolf]

Just so your for warned,,, Im baaaaaaaack..

I woke up this morning around noonthirty, dragged my happy self with one eye open to get my 1st cup of coffee.I pass by the bathroom mirror and scared the heck out of myself,, Gotta love bed head,,, seems like gremlins in the middle of the night sneak in while your sleeping and go all bonzai on the ole hair do,,, Or was it that 4 day binge in Vegas? Anywho,, I finally choke down the 1st cup of coffee as my second eye slowly peels itself open to get somewhat focused on my surroundings. I now know where One eye Jack got his nickname,,, It was his look prior to his 1st cup of coffee. ** true story,

I finally get motivated to go work on the hot water heater AGAIN... this is getting to be a weekly chore. I start by going down and getting the 2 tanks filled, Drag them home, wrestle them out of the truck and sinse Im old,, I cheat and use my mini hand truck and tote them to the side of the 5'er. Then using brute strength,,*because I didnt eat my can of spinach and do my Popeye impression,, and get them into the cabinet. (I should design a slide out tray). I get the lines hooked up,, turn the gas on,, go inside and remembered to relight the stove pilot light. I turn the water heater switch to on and nadda,, I turn it off and on a dozen times or so,, still nadda,ziltch, aint gonna happen. I turn the switch back to on and leave it and head outside,, I look up at the sky that was nice and sunny about 15 minutes ago,, looking very dark. Just great,,, our forcast of 10%chance of rain is going to be a 200% very shortly. I take my handy bbq lighter,, the fancy kind,, with the flexable neck, and shove the tip into the burner tube,, unplug the 12v power wire from the safety shut off sensor and then reconnect,, The ole piezo lighter clicks away then whoosh,, water heater lights up,, yaaaaaa,,,, Poof,,,, it goes out.. hmmmm,, I pull the wire again,, wait a couple seconds,, then plug back in, click click click click and a few more clicks,, and nadda... I unplug and and replug and again shove the bbq lighter tip in and light it and a purdy yellow flame appears at the end of the burner tube, Well, that dont look good at all. There isnt enough flame there to toast a marshmallow,, never the less heat water,. Ok,, I unplug the power wire again,, walk over and turn the gas off. I remove the gas regulater to the water heater and tear it all apart.... I reassemble it,, and get it reinstalled,, turn the gas back on,, plug the power wire back in and the ole click click goes as usual,, after severl disconnect and reconnects it finally lights,, pretty yellow flame again,,, I tap the regulator and whooooooosh,,, BLOW TORCH,,, flame blows out back wards about a foot,, dang near burning my eyebrows,, (F.Y.I. )  dont be leaning low when lighting a gas appliance.

 I pull the power wire off and turn the gas off,,, Then let it cool,, then turn the gas back on and take my bbq lighter next to the burner tube to make sure the gas is off at the regulator,,, no flame,,, Hey,, at least the shut off works. I go back inside and relight the stove pilot light cuz its close to dinner and eating cold ramen noodles arent very apetizing,, I did figure out how to make them taste better tho,, They have this cool flavor packet in the packaging. But thats another story.

After sitting down and stewing over the catastrophic failure,, I have come to the conclusion,, My gas water heater is possessed by Poltergeists. Sometime in the middle of the night, they climbed out of my TV and decided to reside in my water heater,,

I replaced the Gas lines, Tank regulator twice,, the gas regulator for the water heater twice, the mixture tube and ignitor, and the control board 3 times,(2 melted). Ive replaced the sensors 3 times and replaced the wire and connectors. I will give it credit,, It DID work for 4 days in a row flawlessly,, then ppppfffffffft, .As soon as the storms that are pounding us, with Turd floating capabilities, I plan on removing the gas water heater and install my 20 gallon electric water heater, under the kitchen cabinet, close to where the gas one is now located,

Im cringing at the thought of having to cut the center board between the 2 cabinet doors so I can finaggle the electric one under there,, plumb it in, supply it with 11/120V and then replace/repair the center board between the cabinet doors. Maybe I should take some pictures of this project with a camera that actually works.

P/S. Before anyone mentions a Priest to do an exorsism on my water heater,,I had already thought of that.. I figured the best method is to remove it WITH the poltergeist still contained inside it.

[Lakota Wolf]

The RV guy checked the electric operation of my old one and the anode rod looked practically new and the heater after an hour would only bring water temp up to 88 degrees.. He said, very inefficient, and mentioned the conversion kit, but for a 25 yr old water heater, he said its time to retire it,, especially with the poltergeist still inside.. The one I got from him, was barely used if used at all.. The inside burn chamber was still shiney with no blue-ing or burn scaring.. This replacement one I got from him was a win win,

[Rich Thomas]

Lakota can you use the conversion kit. It replace the anode with an electric heater.rod to add electric hot water to your existing heater.

[Lakota Wolf]

Alrighty,, an update on the gas water heater,,, I wrestled it out,, took down to the RV guy to see if he can identify the Poltergeist. He double checked everything after hooking it up for a bench test.

It fired up like it should,, then it went all spazzzzzzz.  He removed each component trying to isolate the problem,,Everything was checked again before being installed back onto the heater. Relight, and its purring like a kitten,,, for approx, 4 minutes,, then it decides to spazzzzz again,, He steps back and said its bad,,,, there has to be more then ONE Poltergeist in there.

He even installed new replacements parts, and same thing happens. He was almost ready to perform and exorsism,,, but chose not to,,  keep it contained. He did have another water heater 1 yr newer from a salvage that he said works,,, I gave him a few bucks and will help him with some side work later.,, I got home,, got it installed and hooked up and its whisper quiet and works like brand new... Im still going to install the electric one when the weather is nice..

So if your having issues,,,, it just might be a Poltergeist,, lurking in the appliance...

[Russell E Johnson]

ROFL!!! Your water is definitely possessed. I agree that the best move is to extricate it while it is still possessed. Hopefully they will not jump to fridge during the process. You have had enough problems.