About a week ago, DF decided that a sauna would be a lovely way to soothe the aches associated with some yard work. When he opened the door to the basement, though, he immediately sensed a disturbance in the force: Instead of dry, chilly air he got a blast of humid, warm air.
Yep: The water heater was in its death throes.
His first move was to turn off the water source to the heater. Although he didn’t say so, I expect his second move was to curse heartily and creatively. It was a Sunday evening and this was an inconvenience rather than an emergency, so he didn’t start looking for a plumber until the next day.
The actual replacement didn’t happen until midday Wednesday, after an attempt at a long-shot DIY fix suggested by his son, who’s in the plumbers and pipefitters union (and currently working out of state).
And of course we did it the frugal way: I cashed in for a $50 gift card from the MyPoints rewards program to add to about $40 worth of gift cards we already had, then DF shopped for a replacement and muscled it down the narrow cellar stairs with help from his other son. Since the plumber didn’t have to shop for and bring along the new heater, or carry away the old one (DF and his son got it into the Subaru and to the landfill the next day), it made for a much faster and cheaper fix.
In all we spent about $575 out of pocket. That sure beat the $1,600 quote DF got from the first plumber. We were pleased that it cost us so much less.
But boy, did I not like getting my hot water from the slow cooker.
We kept the appliance simmering until the heater was fixed. It was sufficient to the short term but made me realize once again that I would not do well living off the grid. I truly love a hot shower, and the occasional long, hot soak, and the easy availability of agua caliente to deal with a sink full of dishes.
Oh, I could live without this stuff if another big earthquake or a zombie apocalypse were to cause a prolonged power outage. I expect it would make me very cranky, though.
Hot water: A modern necessity
I believe that indoor plumbing is one of the greatest contributions to public health in the history of mankind. First, and obviously, no more water-borne diseases. When someone got sick for other reasons, water made it possible to cool fevers, sanitize bedding and clean up after those who couldn’t make it to the toilet (or the bucket) in time.
And even when no one is sick, it’s a blessing to be to do laundry and bathe regularly. In some places DF lived growing up they were lucky to get a bath once a week, and laundry was not at all frequent. He said you just accepted the fact that everyone had a certain smell. #nopenopenope
My mom’s sister, Aunt Dot lived and died without ever having a water heater installed in her home. Dishwashing and personal hygiene alike began with a kettle being put on the stove. They still do: Her son lives there with a couple of other old-dude roommates, still without hot water.
Two of my other aunts lived in the other half of the duplex, and my dad somehow squeezed a shower stall into their single tiny bathroom, and then run hot water to it. I’m not sure why Aunt Dot never bothered to get it installed, but it may have something to do with the fact that her husband was known to say, “Anything that was good enough for my old pap is good enough for me.” Apparently he also took that to mean that he didn’t need anything his old pap never had.
It was a different era, with different expectations. My mom’s people came from an impoverished rural area in Tennessee; at one point, 16 people (including four kids in diapers) lived in a two-room cabin. The whole family moved north to work in the fields and factories, and when Dot and her husband moved into the duplex back in 1950 just having indoor plumbing was a treat. (They used to get their water from a cistern and a stream.)
Hot water: My favorite luxury
Quite a few Californians are currently dealing with rolling blackouts. If your water heater is electric and the power is out for long enough then you, too, will be heating a kettle on the stove (if it’s a gas stove) or on the outdoor grill or firepit.
Probably not life-threatening, but certainly annoying. I hate doing dishes without hot water because they just don’t feel clean enough. I’d miss being able to jump in the shower when I’m grimy.
And at times it might actually be life-threatening. While hospitals and schools and child-care centers likely have generators, I feel for at-home daycares in California, and for those who have kids and/or sick people at home. After changing a diaper or emptying a bucket of vomit, you bet I’d want plenty of hot water and soap to wash my hands.
I like to think I’d roll with whatever happens, whether it’s a windstorm that takes out power for a week or that zombie apocalypse. But fewer than 48 hours without hot water left me feeling cranky. It’s not that I’m spoiled. I just want to avoid smelling bad and spreading disease. And yeah, I would miss those long, hot soaks.
Readers: What’s the longest you were ever without hot water? How much cleaning/laundry/showering did you do as soon as it returned?
Without water at all for two days. Our well runs on electricity. We had to go fire up a generator to run the pump and fire up another one for the fridge and freezer. And the phone and internet went out to almost all of our community. The bottom line is that when you live off-grid you have habits in place to deal with it. When you are faced with a power outage without those habits it is cranky-making! We only ran the generators for about 4 hours a day total, but boy did you scramble to charge stuff and wash the dishes while the generator was on. And really did not want to lose a fridge and freezer full of food $$$.
In the rural area where I grew up everyone had well pumps because there were no public utilities. If an ice storm or blizzard were predicted, we filled buckets and the bathtub so we could flush the toilet. #goodtimes
I’m always afraid that our old water heater will start to leak. Then you not only have to replace the heater, but flooring, subflooring and other probably expensive support materials. One of the first items we’ll replace when we move back home. We did have our well pump act up a couple years ago. Another item I want modernized.
I consider hot water to be a necessity. Especially if you live in a colder state. It’s not like you can walk to the nearest stream or lake to take a bath. 😉
That night, once he’d turned off the water source to the heater, he fired up the sauna — and took a very quick cold shower afterward. It wasn’t so bad because he was superheated, but toward the end it was a bit, uh, attention-getting. Brrr.
Ex and I traveled for a year and lived/camped in our truck most of the time. We were without hot water a lot. It’s one of the reasons that my idea of camping now is Holiday Inn….
When I was a kid, my mom’s idea of vacation was camping, frequently at older state campgrounds with pit toilets and no showers (or cold showers). Hence my refusal as an adult to go camping. I need a hot shower in the morning to feel human.
After a hurricane came through a few years back, we lost electricity for three days. Although it was sure a pain in the neck, I don’t remember too much about what we went without and I was grateful that we had town water and sewerage which was not affected by the power outage. My neighbors one street over are in another state (I live in a border town) and their electric power was not restored for one whole week. Another reason to feel lucky. What I most remember about that time was not being disturbed by noise from the tv, radio, fans, AC and other electric powered appliances so much so that I was able to go into the deepest meditation session I have ever had, maybe due to no distractions. The silence was wonderful.
The silence was probably great, although the reason for it wasn’t.
My dad went over to my sister-in-law’s house during a temporary power outage, because she couldn’t get the generator started. He said it was eerie to drive through the little town and see not one single light burning anywhere.
I think by the third day and me having to leave home to work in a store, I finally drove to my girlfriend’s house after an ice storm. She had power and we did not. Also no power meant no water because we had a well. We did have a wood stove so we could boil water and stay warm, but no water. The power went out after my husband took his shower and left for work. I was just about to head to the bathroom when it went out. And this was in December and people did NOT have the Christmas spirit.
I went without hot water for a year. One day, the power company called me to say I should check my water heater. WHY? They said they thought I had a leak in my hot water heater. WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THAT? By this time, my water bill was $800, so I had someone cut it off. I had 12 or more inches of water in my basement and the electric bill was something like $400 dollars above the average. My basement is in the basement, accessible only from outdoors. I like it that way. I have seen too many spooky movies where someone comes up from the basement.
Since I cannot safely go down the outdoor basement stairs, I had not gone down there in years unless someone strong held my hand.
Since I could not afford a new hot water heater, delivery fee, and installation, I did without for a year. I heated water on the stove for sink bath and washed my hair in the sink like I always do. Well, I put a tub in the sink for washing hair and body. It is not fun. But, I never stank and always had clean hair.
I already did all clothes in cold water. If I had something that really needed hot water, a trip to the $2 machine at laundry took care of that.
We had straight line winds come through a bunch of years ago and we were without power for a week or so. I went out and bought a generator and then converted my water heater (instant whole house) and stove to propane. I can always “kick” the well and get water. I can always heat water on the stove.
And then I bought battery camp shower. Heat up a couple quarts of water and add it to a bucket of cold. I wire the head into my shower. Hit the one switch and …..have a reasonably lovely shower.
When my well went out a few years ago….I ran a hose from the neighbors. Rinse and repeat.
You can always pick up a propane or butane camp stove to heat up a bit of water.
Every time we go on a small vacation and come home, something happens. Years ago it was the water heater all over the kitchen and hall floor. This time we turned all the water off everywhere and our whole house water softener. Came home last week, turned everything back on, and water shot out on the basement floor and short circuited something at the water softener. Ours was 21 years old and you can’t get parts for the one tank, so that turned out to be $2600. Maybe I shouldn’t ever go away again-LOL! It was a once in a lifetime vacation for us and we had a great time!
Egad. That’s one expensive vacation, all right. Glad you got to take it, though.
I live in Long Island and Hurricane Sandy did a lot of damage. We were without power for five days. Many for much longer. It was November, and the flu was going around. We had a small generator which we carefully used for a few hours each day, I have an electric stove and did not attach it to the generator. I used our grill to heat water, and cook. We also had a small electric skillet and electric rice cooker. We used those two things and a small electric coffee maker. There were twelve of us eating here. We left our refrigerator attached to the generator and I cooked for everyone, we ate had coffee, washed up and well, lights out. It was a very stressful
time. We were lucky that my husband ran to a big box store and grabbed a generator. Getting gasoline for it was difficult. It was frightening to know that it was all out of hands. The power company was doing what thy could but the hurricane demolished homes and lives. Again, we were lucky, no damage to our house, except for a loose gutter, and no fallen trees on our house. How did the pioneers do it. I was beat up and bone tired just sticking to a schedule and the few things I did. My husband and sons worked the generator and looked for gasoline. I was filled with gratitude when the power came on. No one got sick and we made it. I can’t imagine not ever having hot water. We take very good care of the generator , have not needed it since but it gets “yearly physicals” so it can stay ready.
When I hear a storm is headed toward us, I get ptsd about the possibility of losing power.
That sounds very stressful indeed. We’d be heating water on our grill as well, or on the burn barrel, if the gas line were compromised. I’d fill all our thermoses with boiling water every day so I could make a quick hot drink if someone needed/wanted it, or so I could take a sink bath. Again, hot water is my favorite luxury so I really don’t want to lose it.
About 10 years ago there was a storm that knocked out a lot of power in Anchorage. DF didn’t get his back for a week. Being the kind of guy he is, he took all the meat out of the freezer, cooked it (again, gas stove) and canned it. Can’t help lovin’ that man.
We were without power for seven days after Sandy. My then-teenage son still washed his hair every day. We finally got a generator about day 5, but it was a bit too little too late. Power returned while we were at my mother in law’s house doing laundry and taking showers. Our church never lost power and we ended up playing host to volunteers from North Carolina who came up to help. Our church also hosted a children’s choir from Uganda raising funds for AIDS orphans.
During an Oklahoma ice storm several years ago, we lost power for 3 days. I sure missed my hot water (electric water heater) and electricity in general. We were very fortunate to be out for only 3 days as some other parts of town were without power for two weeks!
That was probably the ice storm that convinced me to get a house-wired generator! Lots of people in the southern part of the state were without power for WEEKS. I showered at my friend’s house with a gas water heater, by candelight. Then I went to work with my hair in a towel and dried my hair, put on makeup, etc. My workplace never lost power, so I was able to charge my phone. I had a gas fireplace, so made a camp bed in the living room floor and used the firepit outside to cook food. I still have a large plastic tub of emergency supplies, including a camp stove.
We had Hurricane Michael last year and we were without power for 10 days. I heated a turkey fryer full of water to wash dishes and we took cold showers by lamplight. We had a generator to run the pump so thankfully we had water, and a cold shower is better than no shower. I learned it takes five gallons of water to wash and rinse a sinkful of dishes, so I had an excuse to only do it once a day. We had orange extension cords running all over the house and managed to keep the refrigerator cold and the freezer going with a couple of hours of juice per day. We were so blessed to get our power back after only 10 days; many folks nearby waited nearly a month.
Five days after a tornado. Our house was not damaged, but the storm took down power lines to the neighborhood. We did bucket baths (it was summer time), had all our cold food in ice chests, and watched the laundry pile up while entertaining a 10 year old with card games and board games. I finally loaded up the car with laundry for a 25 mile trip to a friend’s house. Had just put the last heap in when the lights came back on.
I suppose the longest was probably 5 days of a canoe camping trip. The lack of clean clothes didn’t phase me (we were in and out of the water a bunch), the awkwardness of hot water only with the campfire was a small pain. Really I was only upset by the having to pack out waste issue. I think we only have one or two campsites where that was required, but it was definitely the thing I cared about most. I wholeheartedly concur as to the miracle of modern plumbing!