Furnace blew up, water heater's blew up... updated first post

[Joemonkey]

yeah so... i'm at work today and my wife calls around 3:51pm, says she's on her way to wal-mart before she goes home, asks if i need anything. i tell her some stuff, she says "why don't i just go home and we'll go when you get here" knowing that i hate going grocery shoppping. I figure i'll pick up some "husband points" and say "sure we'll go when i get home"

she calls around 4:10pm and says "honey i just walked in the house and the smell of gas about knocked me over, what do i do???" i say "don't turn on any lights, go outside and call the gas company on your cell phone, call my sister (who works in engineering at a hospital about 2 minutes away from our house... i work about 30 minutes away) and have her come over and see what we should do"

she calls back at 4:30 crying hysterically, "honey come home now, the water heater is spewing water everywhere!!" so i say "OK" and hang up... look over at my boss and say "hey if your wife called you crying hysterically for you to come home, would you just pick up and leave?" he said "well yeah" so i said "ok bye then!" and started for home...

I got home and the fire department was there, the gas company was there, and the water company was there. They shut off the gas and water. Guy that works w/ my sister said he would try to fix the furnace. He couldn't, there were cracks all through something like the gas compartments... i don't know a lot about furnaces.

So, I'm at my parent's house since we have no gas or water. It's supposed to get down to 7 degrees tonight, and my 3 cats are still at my house. Not to mention tomorrow my 8 year old niece is having surgery on both her collapsed ear drums. What a great weekend this will be!



cliff notes: read the thread title


UPDATE: back in the house with new water heater and furnace. Took about 3 days for the guy to install the furnace (about 3 hours each day), he had to run new gas pipe and a new exhaust. The outside condenser is still not hooked up, but we'll worry about that when we get a warm day around here. The new furnace is TINY compared to the old one, and it's 92.6% efficient, so that should lower our gas bill a lot since the old furnace was probably around 60% efficient.

 

[wedi42]

go home and get the poor kitties.

don't worry about the house.
thats what insurance is for.

 

[Maleficus]

Wow that sucks im sorry man.

 

[Joemonkey]

the kitties will be fine until morning... the insulation in the house will probably keep it above 60 for 2 or more days, and they have plenty of stuff to snuggle in to.

and i don't think homeowners insurance covers water heaters and furnaces going out, but i'll sure as hell find that out tomorrow!

 

[MrYogi]

sorry man.
that is one terrible week for you.

hope everything gets better for you soon.

 

[Ornery]

Well, that sucks, but not nearly as much as your topic title led me to believe. I thought your niece got hurt by the exploding furnace!

Honestly, I'm relieved to read what really went down. Count your blessings!

 

[ViperMagic]

I read the thread title, and I thought your furnace exploded and messed up your neice.

Even still, thats rough. You'll make it through ok, just watch.

 

[Kadarin]

I hope your niece doesn't blow up too!

 

[Joemonkey]

ugh yeah i guess the thread title needs to be edited... for those who came in late it used to say "<FONT face=Verdana size=1>Furnace blew up, water heater's bottom blew out, 8yo niece having surgery tomorrow morning..."
</FONT>
wow i have the makings of a country song don't i

 

[Adul]

i thgouth you niece was hurt to. I am glad she isnt.

 

[NokiaDude]

Where was the furnace and wter heater located? I hope they where in the garage and not the house, that's going to take alot of $$$ to clean up and repair if they where INSIDE the house....

 

[PowerMacG5]

I would still get your kitty's, especially with water on the floor. My house has great insulation, but if I shut the heater off at night in freezing cold, the temp drops pretty quickly. Plus if you said your wife was almost knocked over my the gas, check on your cats. Good Luck, and am sorry for what happened.

 

[Joemonkey]

They are in our basement. It's half finished, with the furnace, W&D, water heater, and workshop being in the unfinished part.

Luckily enough, 2 owners before us used to have a HUGE flooding problem in the basement when it rained, so they had a sump pump and multiple drains installed.

1 owner before us had the house B-DRY'd and the warranty transferred over to us

It's never flooded/leaked since we've been there, but the water heater exploding just got a few dirty clothes wet and the rest went into the drain/sump pump

i think we'll go with an electric water heater now, and get our gas furnace entirely replaced. Luckily the A/C was new in 1998 so it's in great shape still

 

[Joemonkey]

Originally posted by: KraziKid
I would still get your kitty's, especially with water on the floor. My house has great insulation, but if I shut the heater off at night in freezing cold, the temp drops pretty quickly. Plus if you said your wife was almost knocked over my the gas, check on your cats. Good Luck, and am sorry for what happened.

like i said, water was in unfinished part of basement which is closed off from the rest of the house, kitties sleep upstairs and if need be in the finished attic where our roomate lives.

gas is out of the house, we opened windows until the CO reading went down to acceptable levels.

Kitties will be checked on first thing in the morning

 

[AU Tiger]

That new furnace is going to be pricey, water heaters aren't too bad. You can get a good one from Home Depot/Lowe's and get the install down through them if you want. Do your research if you haven't already on water heaters before buying an electric. My experience is that gas water heaters heat the water much faster and have quicker recovery when you use up all the hot water.

 

[badmouse]

Wow, what a day. Hope surgery goes well and all of your appliances get fixed without further mishap.

 

[0roo0roo]

just remember, a water heater is a water heater. don't go for something pointlessly fancy.

 

[DrPizza]

Unless utility costs are a lot different there... Gas waterheaters are more economical than electric water heaters. Installing a hot water tank is usually a piece of cake... ask them at Home Depot or somewhere for instructions if you don't already know how to do it. (cold water in, hot water out, some sort of anti corrosion fitting (IIRC), gas line, emergency pressure relief pipe, andd snap the vent in place, use plenty of teflon tape to make sure your connections won't leak. Probably less than 1 hour if you're handy and it's your first time. Get a friend to help carry it!

And, as an emergency job, it'll probably cost extra $$$ for the furnace.

Suggestion: temporarily use one of those vent-free furnaces. (furnaces that don't require a chimney or venting of exhaust to the outside). You would probably be able to install it yourself, and those furnaces only cost about $200. They're great for taking the chill off a room when it's really cold out. That'll buy you some time, and protect your house from freezing temperatures.

 

[DrPizza]

double post... strange, I don't remember clicking twice...

 

[mattlear]

Originally posted by: Joemonkey
yeah so... i'm at work today and my wife calls around 3:51pm, says she's on her way to wal-mart before she goes home, asks if i need anything. i tell her some stuff, she says "why don't i just go home and we'll go when you get here" knowing that i hate going grocery shoppping. I figure i'll pick up some "husband points" and say "sure we'll go when i get home"

she calls around 4:10pm and says "honey i just walked in the house and the smell of gas about knocked me over, what do i do???" i say "don't turn on any lights, go outside and call the gas company on your cell phone, call my sister (who works in engineering at a hospital about 2 minutes away from our house... i work about 30 minutes away) and have her come over and see what we should do"

she calls back at 4:30 crying hysterically, "honey come home now, the water heater is spewing water everywhere!!" so i say "OK" and hang up... look over at my boss and say "hey if your wife called you crying hysterically for you to come home, would you just pick up and leave?" he said "well yeah" so i said "ok bye then!" and started for home...

I got home and the fire department was there, the gas company was there, and the water company was there. They shut off the gas and water. Guy that works w/ my sister said he would try to fix the furnace. He couldn't, there were cracks all through something like the gas compartments... i don't know a lot about furnaces.

So, I'm at my parent's house since we have no gas or water. It's supposed to get down to 7 degrees tonight, and my 3 cats are still at my house. Not to mention tomorrow my 8 year old niece is having surgery on both her collapsed ear drums. What a great weekend this will be!

Bruce Almighty?

 

[Joemonkey]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Unless utility costs are a lot different there... Gas waterheaters are more economical than electric water heaters. Installing a hot water tank is usually a piece of cake... ask them at Home Depot or somewhere for instructions if you don't already know how to do it. (cold water in, hot water out, some sort of anti corrosion fitting (IIRC), gas line, emergency pressure relief pipe, andd snap the vent in place, use plenty of teflon tape to make sure your connections won't leak. Probably less than 1 hour if you're handy and it's your first time. Get a friend to help carry it! And, as an emergency job, it'll probably cost extra $$$ for the furnace. Suggestion: temporarily use one of those vent-free furnaces. (furnaces that don't require a chimney or venting of exhaust to the outside). You would probably be able to install it yourself, and those furnaces only cost about $200. They're great for taking the chill off a room when it's really cold out. That'll buy you some time, and protect your house from freezing temperatures.

must be nice where you live! where we live a licensed plumber is the only person who can buy/install a water heater, and then we have to pay the city to come out and inspect it. It's going to cost like $270 for a 50 gallon gas water heater, $35 for the inspection, and $50 to have it installed.

Furnace OTOH is going to run around $3000

And niece's surgery went fine! She said to my sister "Mommy, now it sounds like we're at a football game all the time, everything is so loud!"

 

[TwinkleToes77]

Originally posted by: Joemonkey
the kitties will be fine until morning... the insulation in the house will probably keep it above 60 for 2 or more days, and they have plenty of stuff to snuggle in to.

and i don't think homeowners insurance covers water heaters and furnaces going out, but i'll sure as hell find that out tomorrow!

Homeowners may not cover the heater and furnace going out.. but it sure as hell will cover the water damage caused by it.

 

[DaWhim]

this sucks to happen on a friday. good luck

 

[Joemonkey]

Originally posted by: TwinkleToes77

Originally posted by: Joemonkey the kitties will be fine until morning... the insulation in the house will probably keep it above 60 for 2 or more days, and they have plenty of stuff to snuggle in to. and i don't think homeowners insurance covers water heaters and furnaces going out, but i'll sure as hell find that out tomorrow!

Homeowners may not cover the heater and furnace going out.. but it sure as hell will cover the water damage caused by it.

luckily no water damage... drain about 2 feet from the water heater, and sump pump about 5 feet from it in case it got out of hand!

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

wow. sorry to hear all that.