Never a dull moment

[cjsmith]

No hot water today. You wouldn't BELIEVE the amount of sand we've gotten out of our water heater. I spent some time last night mopping it up out of my tub, until Rob finally opted to drain the whole darn thing and flush it.

O'course that means we slept with the alarm off and the back door open, last night, with a hose running down to the street pouring out water.

In other news, the entire house smells like "barbecue sauce reduction". (The air return for the heating system is just outside the kitchen.)

Last night I dreamed of breaking into restaurants.

OK, time to shower. (Water Heater #2.) I hope #1 is back on line in time to do dishes, 'cause I have people coming over at sixish. Maybe I'll feed them barbecue corned beef! (Kidding.)

Comments

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

O'course that means we slept with the alarm off and the back door open, last night, with a hose running down to the street pouring out water.

My first reaction to that was horror! I had just finished posting this entry (http://www.livejournal.com/users/sunnydale47/734709.html), and for a split second I thought, "Oh, no, they had to leave the door open???" Then my brain kicked in and I remembered that you're in California!

But I looked up the northern CA wx, and it looks like you're still in the mid-forties overnight, which is still awfully chilly to have to have a door open wide enough for a hose to fit through.

How did the sand get into the water heater?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Fortunately it was a door nowhere near the bedroom. The water heater (the main one, the original one for the house) sits in the garage, and we opened the garage's back door to send the hose out. The door between the house and the garage could stay shut, thank goodness! Otherwise we'd have turned off the furnace, to avoid heating the whole neighborhood, and just used a space heater in the bedroom.

Fortunately we don't get waaaay below freezing at night, just a tad below, even in the coldest months. Pipes never freeze. Hallelujah!

The sand is apparently a fairly normal phenomenon. Some is mineral deposits from high-mineral-content water. Some really is sand; it's in the municipal water supplies, because water comes from wells and reservoirs and lakes, often unfiltered. All this gunk collects in low points in the pipes. Every so often the water utility back-flushes the pipes to get them to unblock, and stuff burbles up and becomes free-floating. Over time it collects in the bottom of a water heter. Apparently -- I never knew this until now -- you're supposed to flush your water heater every year or so. We, uh, hadn't for a long time. :-)