Product Review: Westinghouse Tankless Water Heater

In the past 12 months, we have had to replace several appliances (on top of the tornado damages.)  New refrigerator, new clothes dryer (not really necessary normally, but the husband and I both had major surgery last fall, and for about a 5 month period, neither of us could lift.  Replacing the dryer made it much easier on us than hanging the laundry.)

The last disaster, was our hot water heater.  We found a small leak shortly before we left for a trip.  So, my husband turned it off.  This was during a very cold snap.  When we came back, a week later, he went downstairs to relight it.  Instead he found a flood.  It was the original hot water tank from when my husband built the house, back in the early 90's.  So, it lasted well beyond its expected life span.  It went out with a fight however.  Evidently when she went, she sent water sprays every direction, including up along the vent through the wall.  That water, then ran back down, and onto the office ceiling.  So, now we will need to replace sheet rock in the office and repaint.

We started doing our research on hot water heaters and decided to go tankless.  We settled on a Westinghouse 11.5 gpm propane unit.  So far, we love it.  It hangs on the wall, takes up much less space than the old monster tank did.  We had a local plumber install it for us.  According to the information provided by Westinghouse and our propane dealer , it is an energy saver unit and should cut our operating costs in about in half.  It was slightly more expensive, in the $900 range before taxes and shipping. It went on sale, bringing it down to $800.  The Missouri Propane Association has a rebate plan and we will get $200 back on that.  After all that is said and done, the price came out to the same price as buying another tank.

It would take the water less time to reach the faucets if we had put it on the main floor (we are in a 3 story house), but we decided to put it in the basement.  Per code, it has to be mounted against an exterior wall.  It was a lot less work to put it in this unfinished part of the basement than it would be had we put it elsewhere.  We chose an area right below the path of the gas line and waterlines.

It takes the hot water about 90 seconds to reach the main floor, and around 2 minutes to reach the top floor.  But, once you use it the first time of the day, it seems to take less time thereafter.  It is louder, but we only noticed the noise the first couple of weeks.  Now, we don't.  We are planning on building a cabinet around it, and we will insulate the cabinet, then the noise will not be noticeable.  The noise only runs when the burners are on, and the burners only kick on when we run more than 3/4 of a gallon of water from the hot faucet.

It has a digital display screen on it, and is easy to change the temperature on--with the old one, we had to get on the floor and turn a hard to read knob. 

It will need to be flushed once a year.  Some people complain about that--but if you read on a regular tank hot water heater, they are also supposed to be flushed once a year.  Our plumber said next year, he will come flush it and teach us how.  After that, we can do it.

Ice Storm 2018

Monday night we were hit with sleet and  ice.  It  kept coming down for about 10 hours.  As a result, there was no school yesterday.  Last Friday we  had no school due to teachers workday and Monday was  Presidents Day.  On Wednesdays, my building doesn't have class so my kiddos won't be back to school until hopefully tomorrow (Thursday) IF we don't get more ice, which the weatherman says we might.....

As a result of the ice, many were without power, phones, and such.  There were also many auto accidents.

We had no phones or internet, as our internet comes in through satellite, and our satellite dish was filled with ice, and our phones run of of our internet because AT&T has bad service in our area, as well as most of the other carriers we have tried.  Thats one of the joys of living in the country.

These are some pictures I took yesterday and this morning.

This last picture makes it look very gloomy and hazy outside.  It was actually like this for a few hours.

New Gates

This winter we did have a few (very few) warmer days.  We had an area where we had 2 fence panels up separating 2 pastures.  For 2 years we have been saying we were going to put a couple of gates up in that spot.  The cows have constantly knocked it down, and we keep wiring it back up.  I finally had enough of it, and we had a warm day so we went and got 2 gates.  It took us a couple hours to get them up.

I knew as soon as the cows figured out what we were doing they would be upset....I was right.  It is very thick with clover on that side and they like to get over there.  One by one they had to come inspect what we were doing.

 

 This bull (Junior) was the first to inspect.  Almost in disbelief as he just stood and stared at the project for the longest time.  Cows are actually a very intelligent animal, and it did not take him long to figure out what was happening.

 Soon a few more came to inspect.  For awhile we wondered if they were plotting to overtake us...

The finished product.  The tractor, mower, baler and trailer will still be able to fit through this gate.  Later in the spring we will put a blade on  the tractor and come down to level out the ground under the gate. The right side of the gate is further off the ground due to how the ground has washed away.  A few passes with the blade on the tractor will take care of that.  Cows can not get through it, but a preemie calf might be able to.  The gate is securely latched to keep it closed.  Cattle are pretty good at opening gates and also at lifting up the handle on hydrants to turn the water on.

 

My Valentine Present

Meet Miss Socks Valentino.

Socks arrived on Valentines Day in the morning.  She is the most lively calf I have ever had.  She is always moving.  Even when she is nursing, her tail is swishing back and forth.  She has 4 white socks, white belly and white on the tip of her tail.  She also has a white patch on the top of her head that is longer than the surrounding black fur  and it tends to stick straight up in the air.

Socks was a surprise, as I did not think she was due for another month.  My other shorthorn was larger than this ones momma, and I thought she would calve first.  Now, I am wondering if the other one may possibly be having twins.  I hope not, as they usually tend to be free-martins, which I don't want.  Free-Martins is when twins are born and one is male and one is female.  In this case, the twins share the placental membranes and as a result, the female is sterile.  If both calves are male or both are female, is ok.  But, one of each results in a sterile female.  The female calf also tends to have more male characteristics.  I guess thats ok if you want them for the deep freeze, but if you are wanting to build up your herd, its not good.