Being a landlord isn't too bad. That is, until you get that unexpected call from the tenants. You know it can never be good when you get that call (which only occurs on Friday nights or Saturdays because THAT'S WHEN YOU ARE MOST SCREWED). For instance, it's never to say, "Hey! You guys are the best! Hope you have a great weekend! We're sending over a bottle of wine to toast your Landlord Awesomeness!" Instead it's, "Um, we have no hot water for 24 hours," or "There is water leaking from the kitchen light fixture into a bucket," or "We picked up a piece of the roof that was blowing around in the backyard."
Joy!
That's when I really get my Landlady groove on. In between mutterings about the freaking house.
This is the same house that during The Great DC Deluge of 2006, leaked like a crying baby and formed obscene shapes out of the wet, drooping ceiling.
This time, it was no hot water, and before I called in the plumber to rob us blind for an emergency weekend job, I decided to pop on over and do some investigation. Like I could fix it. HA!
But, I did do a quick google search on hot water heater repair and it seemed that the first few steps were easy enough - like turning the thing off and then on and so forth, so I figured I could at least handle THAT. How dumb would we feel if we just had to do a hard reset (which is my troubleshooting method of choice for everything). The other steps were a bit advanced for me. Anything that requires shutting off power to tinker with electrical (i.e. potential explosiveness) innards was out. Way out.
I got there and quickly determined that the hot water heater was indeed not working. I could not seemingly make it work just by looking at it. Or touching the temperature setting panel. Not looking good. I turned power to it off and on again via the main circuit breaker...which made it rev up...for 2 seconds...before dying again. Grrr. The on/off method did fire up something, yes, but it didn't last, and I felt justified at this point in calling in for help. I started to fear the thing blowing up with me blasting into the neighbor's yard so, yes, hello, plumber, please come now.
I found a company who said it didn't charge more for weekend service - I had seen their vans all around town - so probably legit. It would be a hefty fee for just the diagnosis, but what could I do?
The plumber came out to the house, spent all of 3 minutes before figuring out that the OUTLET was not working. Just that outlet. He plugged in the heater to another outlet and boom. Hot water. Um, yeah, don't feel too much of a dolt about that.
God bless them, that company, they did not charge us for the visit. Even coming all the way out there to plug in our heater into a different outlet.
But, now, I totally know how to perform some seriously advanced troubleshooting. 1) Turn off and then on again. 2) plug into different outlet. 3) call for help.
When in doubt, reboot.
Posted by: magpie | Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 09:43 AM
Wow that is awesome that they didn't charge you! Basically a hard reset was all that was wrong with our furnace this past winter. Only they did charge us the $75 to push the button. Well, now we know!
Posted by: aimee | Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 11:32 AM
You are psyched!
I've had a guy come out to fix our oven only to have it work perfectly when he arrived. I don't blame myself. I mean really, how can you confuse 'gets hot' vs. 'doesn't get hot'?
Posted by: Manic Mommy | Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 06:10 PM
magpie- but I did! I did not re-plug in different outlet. That was my fatal flaw.
aimee- That's why I am totally calling them next time I need a real plumbing repair. It is very awesome.
manic- that is always the case. A therapeutic visit. I find the same is true with child illnesses and calls into the pediatrician. Poof! Better.
Posted by: KC | Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 09:28 PM
And if all else fails, you can give it a swift kick!
Posted by: Hetha | Saturday, June 20, 2009 at 11:22 AM