Day 1165

We got up about 8 today, did the pet stuff and had breakfast.  John had gotten up early to see Isaac.  He wanted to install the water heater in the afternoon, so I went out to the garage and got together all of the tools and stuff we'd need.  I put it all in the cat room.

Melissa came over about the time I was finished.  She used Ellen's sewing machine to repair some clothes for Isaac.  It was warm and humid today, so I checked the sighting in the pellet gun.  It's perfect.  I don't know why I miss so many squirrels.  Then I sighted in the new BB gun.  It was very frustrating.  I finally got online.  The reviews say it's a piece of shit and doesn't keep it's zero.  I'll put something else on the gun.

I was finished with that about noon.  We all had leftovers for lunch.  I had the rest of the Central Market sandwich from a coiuple of days ago.  Then Ellen and Melissa went to JoAnn's to get sewing supplies.  I stayed home and surfed.  John showed up about half an hour later and we got to work on the water heater.  It was probably about 2 when we started.

Things went well at first.  We disconnected the old heater and drained it.  That took quite awhile.  Then we put it in the truck. 

Putting the electric anode in was a bitch.  We uncovered the anode in the old tank to see how it worked.  It involved prying off a plastic cap and then digging through 3 inches of foam insulation to uncover the top.  I'm glad we had the old one to practice on. I got the cap off the new heater and dug down through the insulation.  Neither of us could get it unscrewed.  I ended up putting a pipe on the end of the ratchet to get enough leverage.  It was really on there.  Then we put in the new anode.

It turned out that we needed a couple of plumbing parts, so we went to Belterra about 5.  When we got back John worked on the new plumbing while I tried to make a wall plate for the conduit.  I broke the plate, so it was back to Belterra.  I got three more plates.

It took two plates to get a good one when I got back.  John ate dinner while I got the strain relief on and the wire in the conduit.   broke the plate in the process and had to make another.  Somewhere along the way I misplaced my knife.  Things were beginning to go south. 

With everything ready we brought in the new heater and lifted it into position.  Then John hooked up the hoses.  They were really stiff copper hoses and hard to work with.  He was really careful to make sure they wouldn't leak.  I started cleaning up and putting things away while he did that.

When the hoses were hooked up John opened the valve to fill the tank.  I continued cleanup/put away.  I kept looking for my knife, but couldn't find it.  When the tank was filled I connected the power to the heater and the anode.  Then I turned on the heater.  Miraculously it worked.  Ellen programmed the heater while I finished the cleanup.  I found my knife in the last pile of tools and parts.

I finished and had dinner about 8.  It took about 2 hours for the heater to heat up all of the water.  It seems to be working fine right now with no leaks.

We surfed and talked for awhile and then John and Melissa went to the apartment.  We surfed and watched TV some more.