I'm not just talking about the weather we've had lately, either. Some advise I'd give to newly married couples or new home owners: check your warranties. Make sure they don't all come up at the same time. Our oven and our roof would be good examples of that. Also make sure that when you have work done on your house, go with someone who has been in business a long long time. Our driveway and old HVAC are the results of fly by night disasters, and we can't get hold of the folks that put them in, because they're out of business. It seems our water heater is another...
Five years ago, we got a tankless hot water heater. We special ordered it from Lowe's, and called the manufacturer to get the name of a licensed technician who had gone through their training to get it installed. The installation took a couple of days, and the installer was one of the most annoying people to have in our home for that long, constantly talking about how good he was and seeking out other parts of our home that needed repair to drum up more business... We didn't hire him for anything else. I couldn't listen to him any longer!
Anyhow, we've had problems with the hot water heater ever since it was installed. We called the manufacturer, and they told us it was a gas problem, according to the error code, and told us to call our gas company. We have had the gas company out several times. We had them install a dedicated line just to the hot water heater, with its own regulator. We had them adjust the pressure over and over...
And then two days ago, out hot water heater died. We called the manufacturer again to get a licensed repair technician to come out, since we couldn't find the man who originally installed it. I called the company they told me to call, and yesterday evening he discovered that both our heat exchanger and the computer on the hot water heater had gone bad. That would make repairing it just as expensive as replacing it. The reason it went bad so soon, and it turns out the reason we've had problems all along, is from improper installation....even though we went with an installer they recommended who had gone through their training. The installer shortchanged us on the work. He said we could have the installation for $350 if he could reuse our current exhaust vent, but $450 if he had to put in a new vent kit. He told us our current exhaust vent was good and would work, and still charged us $486 for the install. Hmmm... And then, the exhaust vent wasn't good, because it allowed rainwater down in it. This may have been fine for a tank style unit with the heater on the bottom. It is not fine for a tankless unit because it had to burn off the water each morning before it would start, and in the process, completely corroded the heat exchanger and shorted the computer.
Now, our hot water heater has a twelve year warranty on the heat exchanger. However, the warranty is invalidated if it's improperly installed. Given that we went with their installer, and followed their recommendations whenever we had a problem with the unit (and lived with the problem of it being a nightmare to start each morning for the past 5 years because nothing we did helped, because they didn't address the real problem...) I really hope that Bosch will do something to help us out. I am waiting to hear from the man who came out yesterday to see what kind of prices they can give us on replacing this unit. I will be calling Bosch to see what they can do. I hope they will do the decent thing. We replaced a perfectly functional tank style hot water heater with their incredibly expensive tankless. We lived with the nuisanse if it not working properly, because we enjoyed being able to take super long showers when we finally did get it running. We followed all their advise. We just got an unscrupulous installer...and now have a sizable unexpected expense after two days of no hot water to show for it. I'm praying for a good outcome...
...to update, Bosch is sending a refurbished tankless hot water heater, free of charge. It is going out UPS ground tomorrow. We still have to pay for a vent kit and installation, but we get a brand new warranty. The only authorized plumber in the Nashville area has pneumonia... hopefully we'll have hot water by the end of next week. In the meantime, we're taking cold showers and boiling water for dishes and warm baths...
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