The Cold Water Kid

Today is day ten with no hot water. The 4th of Julius I took a cold shower, but that is not recommended using water coming from 120 feet down in the ground. Contrary to fiction, there is not enough friction to warm it as it travels through the pipes. My frozen fannie disputes the notion of geothermal heating.

The infamous Whirlpool gas-fired water heater with its cheap stamped steel burner quit functioning on the 3rd. The gas bill for June was higher than normal (well, we did have a June that was colder than normal, Mr. Gore, but that is beside the point). There is no rust on the unit. Jesse's analysis is that the stress of heating and cooling produced metal fatigue in the stamping, and the spreader that was supposed to direct the flame upward broke loose and directed the flame in directions it was not meant to go. This probably kept the heater going long after it was supposed to shut off, and, I suspect, destroyed the thermocouple, since the igniter works and the pilot ignites but will not stay lit.











The heater was Matt's present to us just before Jim & Maria arrived from Loosie-anner in November 2006. As can be seen from the label, it has a 6 year parts warranty. So Matt called the 1-877 number the night of the 3rd and was told a replacement would arrive here in about 5 business days. He is not happy that we are still heating water on the stove to take our baths.

Coming a week after Mike had to replace the drive coupler on his Whirlpool washer -- the same part we replaced on ours about a year ago -- it just does not look good for the Whirlpool brand name around here.