The Transplant

It's Saturday, I've finished my errands and I'm doing rounds now...I visit the basement at 11:30 AM to tend to a couple of wheezing windows and then everyone's worst nightmare happens.." Dr. Kodiak, Dr. Kodiak, the water heater is bleeding out, laundry room STAT!!"

But it's too late and the patient has bled out 4 years early in it's warranty period. Alas poor 40 gallon, I knew ye well...I call the warranty number on the side and they advise me to just bring it to Home Depot and they'll exchange it. Uh...It's not a Lego kit folks, there's pipes and gas and all sorts of scary stuff. I call around and find out that if I could get a repair guy it would cost me arms, legs, my first through last born and 1100.00 dollars to fix on the weekend.

Needless to say, I stepped up and donned my scrubs. 1100.00 my derrière.. Nurse...hemostats, pails, wrenches, mop, sponge and now we move the patient to the Explorer/Ambulance and wheel over to Home Depot on Washington Avenue in Albany, NY. I wheel the patient in and the Pro says go get another...I almost fell over... So I did and this great young guy Jason in lumber measures my old heater twice, pulls the right replacement off of the shelf and gives me the 411 on what to make sure I do right. It wasn't even his area of responsibility, he was the "lumber" guy that night.

I get the Pro-Dope pipe stuff, some Teflon tape and hit the door. The Pro at the door scans my transplant water heater and says good luck! I'm floored....This was a 9 year guaranteed water heater that died and they didn't charge me a dime to replace it...

The team raced home, completed the transplant by 4:00 PM and the patient was churning out hot water in under an hour... Now if you were wondering where the upstate thing comes in....

1. I fixed it myself...

2. I got great service at the HOME DEPOT!

3. I got great advice by Jason at the HOME DEPOT!

4. I saved 1100.00 dollars!!!

5. Every business I called for advise called me back in an hour and apologized because they were too busy trying to get people's heat back up... I do understand...Heat before hot water is a given. But they all gave me advise and told me that if I needed a "talk through" they would be there on the cell to help.... Try to find that anywhere else but in Upstate, NY!!!!

Taking a hot shower...

TK