By David Heffner on 4/14/2010 7:56 PM

An old friend from school messaged me today on Facebook about his leaking water heater. He lives in northern Virginia with his family, so a service call for me isn't an option. I did give him the following advice until a plumber can get to his house in the morning: Turn the cold water valve off at the top of the water heater. Turn the gas off to the heater (if electric, turn the breaker off at the breaker panel). Drain the water heater if you can by attaching a garden hose to the drain valve at the bottom of the water heater and running this to the sump pit, floor drain or outside.  If the drain valve doesn't work, use towels to direct the leaking water to a floor drain or sump pit. When the new water heater is installed, ask that it be placed in an aluminum drain pan if at all possible. Install a thermal expansion tank for the water heater if you don't already have one. Install a 3/4 inch full port iron pipe ball valve at the bottom of the water heater with a brass pipe screwing into the tank and...

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By David Heffner on 4/13/2010 9:08 PM

I got a call today for a sewer gas odor coming from a floor drain in a dentist's office. The call came to me through the  property manager, so I didn't have the opportunity to speak to anyone in the dentist's office directly. I thought to myself, "Slam dunk." Pour some water into the floor drain and this should take care of the problem. Floor drains are notorious for having their traps dry out which then allows sewer gas back into the house/building. After getting to the office however, the office manager told me that she had poured 4 1/2 gallons of water into the floor drain yesterday. So much for that idea. Looking around the area of the floor drain, I couldn't see where else the problem could be coming from, so was going to tape off the floor drain with duct tape and see what that did. Just then, the office manager told me that they had removed an instrument washer (similar to a dishwasher, but for dental instruments) about a month ago. Bingo! I found the drain for the instrument washer in the wall behind the...

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By David Heffner on 4/12/2010 6:05 PM

We all make mistakes. Is admitting a misdiagnosis in a blog penance enough? I'll have to ask Father Mike what he thinks.

The water heater that I thought I had fixed on Friday went back to acting sporadically over the weekend. The homeowner called me this morning with the bad news and I was able to get back to the house this afternoon. After installing a new burner assembly for the water heater, it fired up fine. I ran it through 2 heating cycles before leaving. The one point of concern was the cat litter box right next to the heater. The manufacturer said that the ammonia from the cat urine shouldn't affect the heater.

If admitting the misdiagnosis in a blog isn't good enough, maybe leaving your tool bag on the customer's front sidewalk is. I just got a phone call asking me if I was missing my tools! I'm too young to be having senior moments...