A tankless hot water heater had been but a dream of mine for 6 years. Hearing about other people getting a tankless hot water water made me green with envy in fact.
I signed a lease on 285 Martin Drive in 2005. At that time, I was embarking on a new life in Colorado and last years student rental was my dream home. Like most of the 1955 charmers in Martin Acres, the house had its issues. The front yard was top producing dandelion farm and I had not yet realized that half of Boulder considered front-yard gardening a bonus and dandelion leaves, a salad. The refrigerator kept freezing the lettuce and why, oh why, couldn’t I fill the tub to the top before the water ran cold? (Hint: I didn’t have the endless hot water supply that a tankless hot water heater gives you!)
Fast forward 8 years and I have now owned the house for 6 of those now. A tankless hot water heater was still the fantasy that occupied my thoughts each time I cleaned the under-utilized jetted tub in my wee bathroom.
The home inspector had informed me in 2007 when I bought it, that the hot water heater was in fact, broken. A sensor/valve was malfunctioning in a non-fixable way, resulting in the fresh intake of cold water being delivered to the faucet with the remaining hot water. It was an older model and would need to be replaced when able. In short, I could fill my jetted tub about half way before the additional water began cooling it. Half way was not high enough to cover the jets (read: I could spray the bathroom with hot water) and three quarters full would net me a luke-warm jetted soak. Torture, either way.
So for five years, Marley (my golden retriever) was the only one to make use of that tub!
Then this year, I broke my foot. Guess what that meant? Yep, without a tankless hot water heater (or any working hot water heater for that matter), I was bathing in no more than 10 inches of hot water everyday, unable to stand and shower for the first couple of weeks. Something had to give. Miserable! This water heater, on its last legs for years, needed to be replaced. Every day had been a gift but the gift was running out and so was my patience.
Just about that time, I got a call from a friend. He was replacing his water heater and going tankless. The Rinnai model he chose was at the recommendation of another friend of his. It had been installed by Sunshine Mechanical about a year ago and that household was very happy with its performance. I lined myself up to be next and set about removing the cabinet in the laundry that was sacrificing itself to make room!
Brandon Mitchell at Sunshine Mechanical, promised me installation at the beginning of November. He was super busy, post-flood in Boulder. While I can’t say that he was easy to get a date/time commitment out of, he was definitely a nice guy and eventually, right on schedule, his two man team arrived to make all my hot water dreams come true.
For two days I heard hammering from the laundry room and yelling from the crawl space. Then there was silence and I was informed that I had endless hot water. I was all smiles. They chuckled when I told them I had purchased the bubble bath weeks before and had plans to turn myself into a prune in my tub, after they left.
I was not kidding!
But wait… there was more good news. They would be back the following day to drain and remove the old hot water heater and on my request, would also try and get out the other (even older) water heaters that were junking up my crawl space.
Check this out…
Two of the three water heaters are now out of my crawl space! The third one, the short fat one, just wouldn’t squeeze past the furnace, so remains an archaeological find for the lucky person who makes the next attempt.