Argh! God Damn Winter

Status
Not open for further replies.
kblessinggr

kblessinggr

PedoBeard
Sep 15, 2008
5,723
80
0
G.R., Michigan
www.kbeezie.com
I'm abruptly awoken by the wife at 7am this morning because she heard a very loud rumble all the sudden. Turns out the top of the top of the water heater burst open and was spraying up a fire-hose worth of pressure in water out of the top. Turned off the water til can figure out what the hell to do.

I can't afford this shit :angryfire:
 


Man I feel for ya... I hate winters with a passion, and look where I live, LOL..

A couple of years ago, we had water freeze in the pipes underground right outside the house. The guy who built our house in 1953 didn't put the pipes deep enough - so when it gets down to like -10 F with no snow, they freeze.

Anyway - we ended up without any water for 3 days because all the plumbers in the area were fully booked. D'oh! Finally some plumber came over with a monster blower that forced hot steam down to that sucker.

Did I mention I hate winter? :)
 
Oh Man! I can so very well relate to what you guys I staying. When I used to live in Uttaranchal in Himalayas, we used to have the same problems. Thanks god that my Dad was in the Army and they had arrangements for the worst-case scenarios.

Even worse was that the 2-3 feet of snow we used to have would break the electricity cables leaving us on generators -- 24/7 sound of which used to be a royal pain in ass.
 
I could not relate more, one of my main motivators day in and day out for starting AM is to never see another Canadian winter within the year (the main being quitting my job). It messes with my car to no fail, -30's, ft upon ft of snow, storms... I absolutely hate it. It drains the life out of you because you don't feel like doing shit, where half the world is in a t-shirt and going down to the beach.. I don't know where my genes came from but they definitely weren't meant to end up here. Summer time though, love it; unfortunately that's a small part of the year here... lol
 
Winter is good

I grew up in LA.

The novelty of having actual seasons that actually change hasn't worn off yet.

I still get giddy when I see lots of snow coming down.

I enjoy extreme weather.
 
That just happened to my neighbor - hopefully you have electric since they're usually cheaper than natural gas.
 
It's currently 18c/64.4f here in Spain. The sun is out and it's a beautiful day. We still get some extreme weather, big storms come in off the Atlantic in the winter, and it gets up to the mid/high thirties in the summer on the coast, mid 40s sometimes pushing 50 inland. You do not want to be in Seville in August.

Otherwise 300+ days a year of sun really helps make things enjoyable. Vancouver just got another snow fall in a winter that has seen a lot of it so far. Kind of odd for Vancouver, but the skiers and snowboarders are loving it.

I miss some things about Vancouver, but the weather isn't one of them.
 
I grew up in Anchorage. A winter full of snow and frozen ground is not my cup of tea any more. Now I live in the Pacific Northwest, and it's lovely. We get some snow once in a while but the winters are mostly boring rain that seeps into the basement.
 
omgyams said:
That just happened to my neighbor - hopefully you have electric since they're usually cheaper than natural gas.
Click to expand...

Nope, our stove, furnance, dryer and the hot water heater runs off gas. It's a bitch cuz we're always broke, and the last thing we need is the water heater itself to rupture. The water is turned off til we can figure out what the hell to do. Fortunately we have neighbors that look out for each other (ie: use our washer/dryer when there's was broken, or how we might go over to their place for a shower if our water is out. etc)

But I hate having the water turned off because that's a surefire way to allow the pipes to freeze up. Hard enough time keeping up with the rent right now and taking care of the two kids, but I actually expected something like this happening eventually, thus why I'm more annoyed than I am freaked out.

Ain't nothing like a freaking motivator to move you along, eh?
 
argh01 said:
I grew up in Anchorage. A winter full of snow and frozen ground is not my cup of tea any more. Now I live in the Pacific Northwest, and it's lovely. We get some snow once in a while but the winters are mostly boring rain that seeps into the basement.
Click to expand...

Trust me, I kinda got a grasp of what you speak of, except here it might actually melt once a season. Course this morning was after yet another fresh snow so I'm walking down slope in nearly 2.5ft of snow just to figure out what just happened. I opened up the access panel and you can pretty much see this big geyser of water shooting out the top of the water heater itself near where the exhaust pipe is, and it was putting a big groove into the stonewall next to it.

First thought was, why couldn't it just be a pipe or something I could probably just replace that or cap it off... but no had to be the top of the water heater which is 3 feet above my head to see exactly what happened, and I wasn't about to go standing on top of some short ladder on the side of a snowy slope leading down into the freezing creek right behind the house. (that'd be all kinds of problems without hot water nearby).
 
kblessinggr said:
But I hate having the water turned off because that's a surefire way to allow the pipes to freeze up.
Click to expand...
Actually, when I was worried about my own pipes I read someplace that turning the water off actually prevents the pipes from getting frozen. Having no water is not the same kind of inconvenience though.

Ever wonder if my avatars might be a self-fulfilling prophesy? :P
Click to expand...

Nah, you have the coding part nailed.
 
kblessinggr said:
I'm abruptly awoken by the wife at 7am this morning because she heard a very loud rumble all the sudden. Turns out the top of the top of the water heater burst open and was spraying up a fire-hose worth of pressure in water out of the top. Turned off the water til can figure out what the hell to do.

I can't afford this shit :angryfire:
Click to expand...

That's been happening a lot lately. I am an electrician and had to do a similar job the other day. The hose for the water froze and burst and was flooded everywhere. We just installed a heater on the wall above the hose to keep the room and the hose warm so it doesn't freeze.
 
kblessinggr said:
First thought was, why couldn't it just be a pipe or something I could probably just replace that or cap it off... but no had to be the top of the water heater which is 3 feet above my head to see exactly what happened, and I wasn't about to go standing on top of some short ladder on the side of a snowy slope leading down into the freezing creek right behind the house. (that'd be all kinds of problems without hot water nearby).
Click to expand...

I'm sure it's a pain man. Why don't you get a rope and tie it to the furnace or something that'll hold you, and then tie the rope to your belt. And have someone hold the ladder for you.

You might be able to fix it with just a screw or two, who knows.
 
kblessinggr said:
But I hate having the water turned off because that's a surefire way to allow the pipes to freeze up.
Click to expand...

Dude you should leave the most remote faucets open to a drip - that will keep movement in the line and keep the pipes from freezing. Trace out the lines to the hot water heater, you should be able to isolate it with shutoff valves.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom