In 1985, the first year I was self employed, I took a full time job with a local plumbing company while I worked evenings and weekends to expand my own business, Brian's Plumbing Works. I worked as the journeyman plumber who drove the water heater truck for George Morlan Plumbing Co. here in Portland Oregon. They advertise themselves as "The Water Heater King". Through all of that year and the spring of 1986 I installed between five and seven water heaters a day, five days a week, with the aid of one helper. Many of those installations were change-overs, remove an electric water heater and install a gas water heater in its place or relocated. The change-overs were popular because of a gas company promotion at that time so I typically performed one as my first heater of each work day. I installed residential and commercial water heaters, I even installed the very early tankless models from time to time. I serviced water heaters as well, from that truck.
If you have perused these pages you may have come to understand that I am a person who pays attention on the job. Suffice it to say that I learned a great deal about water heaters in those five quarters of a year. Since then I have been diligent to serve my client's needs, diagnosing problems, servicing water heaters to save them when I could, and replacing them when asked to, both domestic and commercial. I have endeavored to keep up with the changing technology and codes regarding potable hot water production.
Having all of the latest water heater info has always been as much about being able to present the facts and options to my clients as it was about knowing what I was doing on the job. I am a service plumber, not a salesman. My job as I see it is to help the client make an informed intelligent decision based upon the client's needs and wishes.
It is now time to present my store of knowledge, my accumulated water heater info, on these pages. It is going to take time and it is going to be presented upon more than a few pages as I categorize the information to insure that it will be properly accessible. As always, questions and comments are welcome.
The water heater is quite fundamental to our modern lifestyle yet it is little understood. While there have been many changes in the complexity of water heaters over the years the basic storage type water heating vessel is as uncomplicated and reliable as a chest freezer. We ignore it while it performs its function tirelessly year after year, then one day there is a problem. We always know it is going to fail at some point, wouldn't it be nice to have an inkling how it works and have a plan for what to do. Wouldn't it be nice to know what has become available since the old work horse was installed fifteen or twenty years ago. My hope is that I might be of some assistance in those areas when that day comes, or before, by making the water heater info you are searching for available, accurate, understandable, and palatable.