The laws of entropy seem to accelerate any time it seems like I may be catching up. There I am sitting in my office dutifully participating in another 3 hour video conference with our dev team and management team, when my only local office mate (aka my bride) pokes her head in the door. She mentions that I if I get a minute she noticed that there is a non-stop trickle of water running down a the cabinet face from the ceiling in the kitchen. SH!T, that’s not good.
My immediate assumption is that the air conditioning that is having to work overtime in this very humid overly hot conditions has either frozen up and the condensation has not been able to escape via the main drainage tube because there is probably a black mold build up in it and the overflow drain is most likely clogged with the remnants of the insulation that used to be on the pipes but was eaten off by the mice that had infested a few years back. Yes we have been blessed with lots of events. You would think that the company that replaced our 15 year old units would have rewrapped the pipes and cleaned up the mess in the pans but alas there are so few craftsmen around these days. For that matter there are few that give a damn at all. Anyhooo, I decided as soon I can get off the call I was going to clear the clog in the main line and fix the issue.
While not giving it too much thought I did wonder why the job didn’t last from 2 weeks ago when i had just cleared the drain line and replaced the filter. The call started wrapping up and I headed for the garage to grab the shop vac. Tools in hand I headed for the bathroom behind the kitchen where the drain line comes out. It exits from the sheetrock via a pvc pipe with a black rubber hose connected to it that terminates into the side of the drain from the left sink in the bathroom. I loosen the clamp holding the hose and let it drip into the spaghetti pot I am utilizing to catch anything I don’t manage to get with the vacuum. I have my bride turn on the vacuum and synchronize removing the rubber hose from the barbed fitting and replacing the fitting with the end of the vacuum hose.
The transfer goes flawlessly but I am really not feeling a big flow of water being vacuumed up. So I separate the hoses and I see a few drips drop into the pot. I re-connect them to make sure it is vacuuming as it is supposed to. Then I think about it. The reason I did this job two weeks ago is because the AC would not turn on. This is a failsafe put in along with the new AC unit. There is a small float that attaches to the main drain line. If the water in the line rises too high it will “float the float” which severs the signal and shuts off the AC unit. Since the AC was still running maybe something else had gone wrong up there. Man I hope it’s not another Raccoon issue! In the meantime I vacuum out the barb fitting just to be thorough and put the hose assembly back and clean up the situation.
Off to the garage to get into the attic. The garage is HOT, it is still morning but it is also 101ยบ and there is no air movement in the garage. I reach up and pull down the attic ladder and literally feel a hot breeze hit me in the face. This is going to suck. I also hear a squealing. I know this noise. It is an electronic alarm faint and in the distance. Oh Sh!t that is the water heater!!
A fat sweaty man slightly over the weight bearing capacity warnings on the ladder and for sure on the crap wood used to build a makeshift walkway in an attic are really a recipe for bad things. Or if you have a video it could be good for others to laugh at. Either way I made haste to get to the offending noise. I managed to clamber across the stupid ac vent hoses that i had paid to be put “out of the way” so we could use the attic without these issues. Too bad I was out of town when they finished the job and got paid.
I turn on the overhead led strip and there it stands in all it’s glory. A VERY expensive “tankless” water heater spraying water out of one of its “I’m not a tiny tank, I’m a water passage” the spray hits the inside of the cover and trickles down onto a sensor that is busy sending the signal to a tiny pezio electric horn to sound the alarm of impending doom by water. Below the “tankless water heater” is a 10 gallon tub I put under it thinking that would be large enough to hold the water that might leak before I hear the alarm. This solution clearly was a failure and will need to have an over fill pipe that exits the attic next to the one for the ac pan that will never be used because of the new float. Hmm there’s an idea, if I had one of those floats I could use it to trigger an automatic shutoff valve and this would have never happened. Ok that is a great idea that will probably never happen. So back to reality, shut off the water you idiot.
After turning the large ball valve on the incoming line to the water heater I reach over to the 4 yes that’s right 4 60amp breakers and remove them and mercifully the electro whining stops. I have been in the attic now for a good 3 minutes and i am soaking, not from the leak but from my own pores. I head to the exit and immediately step through a weak piece of particle board that I should never have used as flooring. I manage to not touch the sheetrock but I will not be able to stand on that again. I get to the ladder and my other foot breaks through the outer sheet of a temporary door that I had also used as flooring. I better get out of here before I have to learn to fly.
Safely back on terra firma, I head to my computer, to look to see my options for this latests catastrophe. I have a vague recollection of when this happened previously. I ended up getting new ‘Water Passages’ with a new design. The previous ones leaked due to a specific weak spot which was done away with in the new design. So much for that. It still sprung a leak. When we built the house back in 2007 these were basically the only game in town for all electric tankless water heaters. Now there are more options. I checked my online manual found the phone number of the company in Houston and gave them a call. They don’t carry any parts for this model anymore. And when I mentioned it had a leak, the parts guy said, “Well I guess it JBWeld time!” Gee thanks, That sounds real encouraging. Well at this point there is no longer water dribbling down the cabinet so I have some time to figure out what I am going to do.
