Comments on: ACK! Our Water Heater Went Bust!

By: J. Money

J. Money — Thu, 03 May 2012 17:51:37 +0000

I know! Scary!! Gotta keep that E Fund ready at all time – just never know :( glad yours was covered by the home warranty too – you saved yourself a pretty penny! :)

By: Long

Long — Wed, 02 May 2012 23:39:18 +0000

Man. So unlucky. I had a leak with our water heater (very similar circumstances) in our first year of owning the house. Luckily, we were still covered by the home warranty so we got everything replaced and up to code for the service fee.

Didn’t know about the draining thing though. Thanks for the tip : )

Man. So awesome that you have the emergency fund in place. This would have been a credit card or payday loan disaster for someone who was not prepared.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:17:38 +0000

@Jules – Jeeeez sucks! Def. good you have someone you know and trust though – that makes it a TON better. I wish I had plumber friens :)
@Angella – Woahhhh!! Freaky!! We have bee problems around our deck too – no fun. We just keep paying for pest people to come out and treat it cuz it’s too much for us to handle ourselves.
@Stephanie – NOOoooo!!! I’m so sorry, friend! That blows hardcore, what a mess… I do believe in even Steven though, so it means you’ll be having an INCREDIBLE week soon!! You wait for it! :)
@Ryan – Haha… are you talking about a certain windfall from a certain Ramit? ;)
@Tammy – Yikes! People alwaayyyyyyys try to do cover up stuff and do things on the cheap – it sucks sometimes. I mean, we can all understand why and the money that it all entails, but jeez. Sometimes if you do it right in the first place it lasts a lot longer and IS cheaper in the end! I hope you guys find a nice home soon :) Sounds exciting!
@Cordelia – Hahaha… we’re still rockin’ our Craiglist dryer too ;) 4 years and going strong so far! We bought it from a chick in this mansion who was upgrading after a year or two, haha… THOSE are the good finds ;)
@Jenna, Adaptu Community Manager – Yeah, waterless is def. the way to be in a perfect world. I hope you get one in the future too!
@20’s Finances – Haha… well, I’d gladly go w/out water for a few days than pay $1000 ;) But yeah, Def. hear ya. Lots more control w/ home ownership for sure. For better or for worse.
@Jen @ Master the Art of Saving – Haha, good! I miss renting right now ;) And not all water heaters are that bad, but if you get someone to install it and not do it yourself, the money starts piling up. The tanks themselves are only a few hundred dollars or so (at least for 50 gallons), but just like other stuff it’s paying for that time for someone to install it :(
@JP – Huh. I didn’t know you could get one for your house at any time?? That’s interesting. I know we had one when we first bought the house (and we TOTALLY would have kept paying for it if I was in the same position then financially as I am now), but I didn’t know you could add one on later… I’m gonnna look into! For future stuff at least – this one’s already too late.
@Joe @ Retire By 40 – Haha good job! Mr Handyman over there :) I didn’t realize you had to drain water heaters once a year to maintain it either – so if you’re doing that yours will probably last longer. Our guy said that probably contributed at least a little bit to it eventually leaking.
@richard @ moneygraffiti.com – Haha yeah! I call it Even Steven :) Whenever you have bad days there’s always the looking forward to the good ones!
@Wayne @ Young Family Finance – Yikes! Another thing that I def. don’t want to worry about, jeez… thanks for the heads up.
@Cherleen @ My Personal Finance Journey – Oh no!!! Not fun, I’m sorry to hear that :(
@philip – WOW yours is a beast of a heater! Haha… that’s awesome :) And yeah, I’ll make sure to give my cat an extra hug today from ya – he def. deserves it after all my antics!

By: philip

philip — Tue, 01 May 2012 13:47:06 +0000

I bought my house a little over 4 years ago… the water heater has a date on it of 1983!!!! Still seems to put out nice hot water and plenty to be able to take care of everything I need. It has tripped an internal switch a couple times and has rust spots all over it, probably should replace it, but it is in the garage where if it did leak it would get a couple things wet but just run out for the most part without doing much damage.

So sorry for your poor cat getting all the blame for your water heater “peeing” on the floor.

By: Cherleen @ My Personal Finance Journey

Cherleen @ My Personal Finance Journey — Tue, 01 May 2012 05:41:12 +0000

Rejoice and be glad that you have the emergency fund where you can get funds in situations like these. We learned our lesson the hard way when our heater broke down during the winter.

By: Wayne @ Young Family Finance

Wayne @ Young Family Finance — Tue, 01 May 2012 03:34:22 +0000

Another problem with tankless that most people don’t think about is regular maintainance. If you don’t have a water system, you’ll be paying the plumber to come out every year and clean the pipes out. It’s just one more expense for having infinite hot water.

By: richard@moneygraffiti.com

richard@moneygraffiti.com — Tue, 01 May 2012 01:33:23 +0000

That sucks, but consider yourself fortunate that you at least had some warning and didn’t wake up at 3 AM with 6 inches of water on your floor, as happened in our household once. Then was the panic of, “how do we cut the electricity to this thing before it blows up??!!” On the positive side, you had that $1,001. bonanza to cushion the shock. What can I say? The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away . . . ;)

By: Joe @ Retire By 40

Joe @ Retire By 40 — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:56:23 +0000

I’m getting nervous about our hot water heater too. It’s old. I need to check on it more often.
Today, I just fixed the microwave! The handle’s screw mount broke off and I was going to order a new handle ($67), but I took it apart first. I noticed there is another screw mount and I just drilled a new hole and it’s fixed! yay.

By: JP

JP — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 19:40:17 +0000

have you looked into a home warranty? you can purchase one on your home at any point. Our’s is about $300/year. if anything breaks, you call the homewarranty company, they send someone out for $40 (it’s $35 for our rental place that we have a warranty on as well). they fix it or if they determine it can’t be fixed, they replace it (installation and all) – nothing extra on top of that $40 to send someone out. i’m still not exactly sure how these companies make any money, because one thing breaks a year and you’re pretty much ahead. might be someting to at least look into.

By: Jen @ Master the Art of Saving

Jen @ Master the Art of Saving — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 19:29:37 +0000

I didn’t know water heaters were so expensive to replace, my parent have like 3 or 4 in their house. That’s going to get spendy one day. Stuff like this makes me feel a little bit (not too much) better about being a renter right now.