Hot water back upstairs
A twelve-year-old heater that two firms had offered to replace. It needed a thermocouple and a flush.
The bath on the top floor had been running lukewarm for a month, then cold. Two firms had looked at the heater in the basement and quoted for a new one.
What we found
The pilot would light and then drop out, which is a thermocouple, and the tank had never been flushed. A foot of sediment sat on the bottom, so what heat there was never reached the water.
What we did
New thermocouple and a cleaned burner
Tank flushed until it ran clear
Anode rod checked, with about three years left in it
Half a day. We told the owners to expect to replace it in three or four years, not this one.
