hot water heater garantees


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Old 11-20-01, 10:38 AM
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Question eliminating trunk smell

Old post from 2001 and not in the water heater subject.
 

Last edited by majakdragon; 04-03-05 at 09:11 AM.
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Old 04-03-05, 08:24 AM
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hot water heater garantees

Whoops, I posted this under boilers by mistake and it belongs here.

My hot water heater is about 5 yrs old. It came from Sears and I did my own installation. At the time, I considered a generic unit from a big box, but Sears had a sale on it was a better deal. It also seemed to have better insulation. Anyhow, it's been in place for 5 yrs and it seems to be hot and cold, or better hot and warm.

Some mornings, I get in the shower and have to turn the hot down so my skin won't scald. Other mornings, I turn it all the way to hot and it's only warm and gradually gets cooler. By the way, the temp outside has no affect. It can be hot on a very cold day and only warm when the outside temps are higher. There is no pattern to it relative to time of year or incoming water temp. I get up at the same time every morning and no one is up using hot water before me. .

This is a gas unit and my bet is the valve / thermostat is bad. My garantee reads that all parts are covered for 10 yrs. Great, so all I need to do is replace the valve, as I am more than capable of doing this myself. However, even though the valve may indeed be bad, according to Sears, I am not qualified to assess whether it is bad or not. I must pay for a service call (about $75) for a service guy to come out and make the call) Even then, I am not sure if they will simply hand me the part or insist that they install it.

Aside from the inconvenience of hauling a new one home from Lowes or Home Depot, the service fee may equal the cost of new. If i found a dented one in the "quick sale" area, it might even be less.

How do you convince these people to hone a warranty without having to pay for their service?
 
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Old 04-03-05, 08:49 AM
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Your question had a reply in boilers which is correct.
You can't really blame a company for wanting proof that a part is bad. As Grady said, being intermittant is going to cause a problem with identifying the cause.
Most heaters come with a parts warranty that is much longer than the labor warranty (usually one year). Even if you don't consider any labor costs for you installing a new heater, you will still spend more than $75 for a new one. An inspection COULD also find something less expensive to cure the problem. Good luck.
 
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Old 04-04-05, 08:57 PM
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First, you have three chances that any service tech. would come to your house, troubleshoot the WH, and HAND YOU a new part. (1) slim (2) fat (3) none.

Next, the symptoms you describe could easily be due to a faulty shower valve. Tell us what brand and model you have.
 
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Old 04-17-05, 07:01 PM
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And, are you experiencing the same problem at the bathroom and kitchen sinks?
 
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Old 04-18-05, 05:46 PM
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yes, same problem at all faucets read my update.

and for the slim and none poster, read update also.
 
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Old 04-18-05, 08:26 PM
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I’ll assume that you are referring to me as: “the slim and none poster”.

As for reading the update, I’m not sure what you are referring to. I did find your original thread in the “Boiler” forum with some additional data, but nothing was said there about the problem existing at other faucets. Is there another update?

As a handyman/auto mechanic for over 25 years I’ve learned that the most important part of many repair jobs is the diagnosis. With the information given I don’t think it wasn’t unreasonable to ask about hot water performance at other faucets.


And Good Luck
 
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Old 04-28-05, 11:15 AM
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don't know what happened to "update" but here again

i was absolutely positive the gas valve was bad or intermittent. Paying $75 for a serviceman to come out just to verify my diagnosis was out of the question. I did check at Lowes and sure enough, they had a scratch and dent 40 gal tank for $80. I didn't buy it but instead went to Sears.

If something is gauranteed, there should be no need to pay someone. So, I "pressured" the local sears salesman. Wouldn't you know it? He had the service come out for free, verified that it was indeed the valve.

I figured he would give me some kind of voucher, etc so I could get the parts. Nope, he ordered them and came back a few days later to install them. Also, thought the water smelled a little funny and replaced the anode too.

It pays to be the squeeky wheel! Now, about this finger I found in my chilli.....
 
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Old 04-30-05, 02:08 AM
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First, I am happy to here that your proboem is resolved. It does show as you mentioned about the squeaky wheel. That does usually work at a big place like Sears, or the box stores. At HD, if you go to the return desk an throw a hissy, a manager will usually almost literally throw MONEY at you to make you go away! Personally, I don't enjoy having to do business that way, and I usually try to purchase a brand and quality where I will not NEED any warranty work. It is a commentary about warranties in general that companies don't want to have much to do with this issue, and warranty satisfaction in many cases is poor.

In defense of your WH manufacturer, you cannot really blame them for their policy. Can you expect them to just be sending out parts to any Tom Dick or Harry who calls up and says he needs a gas valve? And think of their liablilty of even suggesting or allowing untrained, unlicensed people to repair gas appliances! You were possibly knowledgeable enough to diagnose your problem; but they don't know you from adam. And in one sense you were just lucky. You used some appropriate logic, but had not actually done any actual tests of gas pressures, thermocouple voltages, etc. etc.

If I buy a major appliance and feel that I need warranty protection, I purchase "parts and labor" coverage, and make sure it is from the actual mfg, not some bogus aftermarket coverage. For example, on WH, HD offers extended warranty coverage by GE. I am sure Sears has something similar. These are reliable plans, and if service is needed, there is no argument about who's paying. In recent years, the only product I purchase warranties on is computers! I can't fix them, and you can't afford to pay what it costs to fix them!. So I evaluate how many years of service I want out of a unit and buy the warranty. Usually don't ever use it, but it has come up!

If you just want parts coverage, you cannot expect some service tech to show up unpaid by anyone to tell you what you need.
 
 

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