On New Year’s Day our water heater bled out and died. During the day Tom had noticed a leaking noise coming from the heating ducts. It sounded as if water was dripping on it. But it was raining like crazy outside, so we didn’t pursue it much. That night, after the rain had stopped, the dripping noise got louder and picked up tempo. We were too involved in watching Ohio State beat Clemson to investigate further until after the game.
After the game, I went to bed and Tom looked for the drip. He checked all the faucets in the house and the connection to the washing machine. Then he noticed the floor in the hall puckering. When he opened the door where the water heater lives, he saw that the floor was completely wet. He immediately turned off the water supply and started sopping up the water. I got up and helped him deal with the water. He connected a hose and emptied the rest of the tank out the front door.
Upon further examination, we could see that the water heater was leaking from several places. As far as we can tell, it was installed in 1993 so it didn’t owe us anything. But it wasn’t a great way to start off the new year and the problem occurred on New Year’s Day, which was a Friday.
When we bought the house in August, we also bought a home warranty from Choice Home Warranty. A lot of homes come with a warranty these days so you can feel more secure about things that might suddenly go wrong. I called them Saturday morning to file a claim. They were very helpful and sent out a certified technician first thing Monday morning. The service call cost us $65. I think the company charges that fee so they don’t have a lot of calls for stupid things.
The technician, Aaron, works for Water Heaters Plus. He inspected the water heater and assured us his report would be filed that day. On Tuesday we heard from Water Heaters Plus that we were approved for a new water heater and they could install it on Wednesday. Wednesday morning Aaron came back and a couple of hours later we had a new water heater. We paid about 1/3 of the cost of the new water heater and Choice Home Warranty paid the rest. Our warranty has paid for itself.
Having the water heater bleed out was a minor inconvenience. We took showers at John and Jackie’s on Sunday and at Mom and Dad’s on Monday. We heated water once for doing the dishes.
Choice Home Warranty and Water Heaters Plus get an A+ in our book. We were pleased with how quickly Choice Home Warranty responded to our problem and liked the company they sent to do the work.
Do you have a home warranty? What is your experience in working with them?