I am always a little uneasy when other people/technicians come and do work around my house. I always feel like I should be the man doing the work, so I should at least be out there and suffer and sweat as much as the guy doing the work. This past week, I had three different guys come to the house. The first was the A/C guy that I called and he explained to me everything in a nutshell about the Heat Recovery Unit that started the whole mess when it developed a leak. I guess, if anything, I pick up a couple of tidbits of information. I did not have any idea what the box he labeled Heat Recovery Unit did, but he explained it and it made sense. The only problem was that since it did not have anything to do with the A/C systems, he was not allowed to work on the unit per his license and bonding. He suggested I call a plumber. Guy number two was from Reliant and he was a nice guy, other than the raping on the price, which is something set by the company, not him. He fixed the leak and in doing so, fixed it so I wouldn't know any better and figure I would need a new water heater. I don't know if it was intentional or accidental, but he forgot to turn the power switch back to on and considering the water heater had been drained of water to do the work he did, he might have meant to wait around until it filled to switch it back on or tell me to do it, but neither of those things happened.
At night, I noticed we barely had lukewarm water at best, I told Wife "well maybe the tank was drained and it takes it all night to heat the water back up." By the morning, the Hot water was the same temperature as the Cold. It was Sunday, and considering the unit was 13-14 years old, I figured we were better off buying a new one. We got all that done at Lowe's, and Tuesday I got another guy at the house. This one worked in the garage and although I was outside with him, he was in that closet with the water heater and the man was soaked in sweat. I ended up giving him three Gatorades, he was a husky older guy and the sweat made me feel bad for him. He was the one who said, "oh yeah, you have no heat because the power switch is off." I figured I had already paid for the heater and him to be there and our unit was old, so I told him "oh well, let's put the new one in anyway." He was talking me through what he did and again was generally friendly too. I liked this guy, he came out the gate telling me how much they paid him, he had been moved to dispatcher but recently put back on a truck where his hourly rate went from $20 something to $30 something, so I told him that was great. At one point he joked "I am getting too old for this..." I kind of joked back "well, they always have a spot in the office for you as dispatcher." He laughed and kind of nodded as he continued working in that small ass water heater closet.
I know most people would just go inside and not bother talking with these guys, but I feel weird doing that. I feel I learned a thing or two, so I don't see it as a waste of time and at least for now, I think our house is good again. I know the A/C units are next, I am at least hoping it isn't until next year that we will have to replace at least one unit. Those things run hard all summer. That is hopefully, another problem for another day.
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