I am really good about paying attention the different appliances in my home.
- For instance, when the dishwasher broke, I immediately contacted my landlord to have it repaired.
I also change the air filter to my A/C every 3 months. However, a water heater is not an equipment that I think about. In fact, I didn’t realize that I should be performing maintenance on a water heater, similar to what we do for HVAC systems. It is recommended that we perform service on a hot water heater at least once per year. This will extend the life of the equipment as well as make it more energy efficient. Well, I have lived in my apartment for about 3 years now, and my landlord has never serviced the unit. So, when it malfunctioned it shouldn’t have been a surprise to him. He contacted a plumber because he assumed that he could get it repaired. Unfortunately, the plumber was unable to repair the unit. Instead, my landlord had to purchase a brand new hot water heater and had the plumber install it. The entire process took three days to get resolved. So, I didn’t have hot water for almost three days. Thankfully, it happened in the middle of the Summer, so it wasn’t too bad. Anyway, after the plumber installed the new unit, he gave my landlord instructions on how to perform a yearly maintenance on the hot water heater. The good thing is, no plumber is needed to perform the service. It can be done by my landlord. I hope that he does perform the yearly service on the hot water heater because it will help to extend the life of the equipment.