"If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" That's a standard guideline for many things in life. Normally it applies to water heaters, as well. But as you know, in contemporary society many items are replaced as a matter of course before they actually break. For example, aircraft engine turbine blades. And the timing belt on the engine of your car. Why? Because they are considered critical parts. If they fail, the whole system may go down — in some cases, literally.
In this post, I will discuss a case in which a water heater appears to be a critical part — and therefore warrants replacement even before it fails.
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” For my mother’s Honda Accord, the manufacturer’s maintenance schedule says: Replace the timing belt at 84 months or 105K miles, whichever comes first. That’s because if it breaks, it can not only leave you stranded on the road, but also cause a chain reaction of issues due to the disruption of your plans. Furthermore, its breakage can cost a lot, to repair the damage to other parts at the moment of its failure.
When might a humble water heater, otherwise sitting unnoticed in a closet, similarly need to be ultra reliable? When it supplies hot water to a preschool.
The Mishkon preschool needs hot water as a matter of course, both for hygiene and for cleaning purposes. The water heater in question sits in a closet located off of a narrow corridor outside the kiddie restroom — where diapers get changed. If it were to fail, several days might well elapse before a plumber actually gets in there to replace it. In the meantime, the staff would have to work around the lack of an important resource. And on the day that the replacement is actually made, the preschool would need to close, because the bathroom cannot be accessed during the four hours needed for replacement. (So the Director has informed me.)
The costs of such a scenario may be intangible, yet they are nonetheless significant. They include:
- Reducing the morale of the staff;
- Reducing the confidence of the parents;
- Reducing the reputation of the school; and
- Disruptions to family schedules due to the unplanned closure.
In short, reliability has a value.
The present water heater was manufactured in the year 2000. It is 21 years old. According to our 2019 property condition assessment, this water heater is now beyond its expected lifetime.
Furthermore, it apparently has never received the annual maintenance that the manufacturer recommends, in order to keep the unit in good operating condition. (So Ruben tells me.) Indeed, it was installed in a way that such maintenance is difficult to perform. Not only longevity but also safety is at stake.
In the case of this particular water heater, it is also a fact that a new water heater would be 30% more efficient than the existing one (188 versus 272 therms/yr). That’s partly because the present unit is oversized. The resulting savings to Mishkon would be about $80 per year. That may not seem like much, yet it amounts to more than half the cost of the water heater over its expected lifetime. In other words, an investment now in a new water heater amounts to a net expenditure of about $70 per year.
UPDATE 3/18/22:
Certainly the above arguments are worth considering, yet they are not conclusive. According to our president, the preschool head is not as concerned as I'd expected about the prospect of shutting down for a day in the event of a leak. That changes the calculus regarding the value of reliability. So for the time being, we'll wing it — and put our scarce capital to other uses.…
UPDATE 5/12/22:
See now the further discussion HERE.
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