The Homestead Springs a Leak . . . Again

Saturday evening, Aly walked by the water heater, and pointed out a puddle around it.

The homestead has sprung a leak once again.

We’ve been here a couple of times before. We currently use our third Aguaheater, a Mexican made wood-fired hot water heater that no one seems to manufacture anymore. We lost the first one to leaks; the second one, we patched often (see The Homestead Springs a Leak) before a hard freeze that came while we were traveling destroyed it (see Danger and Opportunity). The third one served well for about five years before this new leak.

We knew this would happen eventually. We bought this heater used, and expected its use to be limited as a result.

water heater repair

“Now, you may feel a slight cramping…” Michelle prepares to go in with some furnace cement to patch the leak (Photo: Sarah A. Zeiger).

Looking up into the burn chamber, we found a couple lines of drip coming down from somewhere up above. Later exploration indicated that the leak comes from near the base of the auxiliary outflow, luckily, within reach of the firebox hatchway.

We immediately saw a flaw in our previous re-plumbing of the water heater (see Comfort and Joy): we failed to include a cut off that isolates the water heater from the rest of the system, allowing us to continue to use cold water in the sink. Luckily, we had everything we needed from the previous job, except the Pex pipe crimper, which we got from one of the hardware stores in town. In short order, I had a new cut off valve installed.

water cutoff

The new cutoff to isolate the water heater (Photo: Sarah A. Zeiger).

Unfortunately, I wrenched the connectors together without thread tape, despite Michelle’s recommendation. The connection leaks, and cannot be re-tightened. I’m working on caulking them.

More importantly, Michelle reached into the heater and cleaned the leak area, then plastered it well with furnace cement. Working mostly blind, and by feel, we hoped she hit all the leaks!

The next morning, I made a small fire in the box to heat and cure the cement. We then turned on the (leaky) water, and tried to heat some water in the heater. It worked, although we’re still watching for problems.

water heater repair

Michelle up to her elbow in water heater repair (Photo: Sarah A. Zeiger).

If our repairs prove successful, our next step will be to take a proactive stance on replacing this heater in the near future. We will likely put out an ad for yet another Aguaheater—it’s worked before—but also look at several other options, such as different wood heaters, a woodstove/water tank tie-in system, solar (as an adjunct; we can’t depend on it solely) and even LP hot-water-on-demand. We’ll see what we end up with.

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