Trying to fix a hot water heater

As a first time homeowner, I have to learn a new skill every week.

I do not miss living in a tiny, cramped apartment surrounded by neighbors cooking foul-smelling food.

What I do miss is having a landlord with a maintenance team that handled all the little problems with the place. If there was a power outage or a running toilet, I just called the front office. Those days are long gone, because now there is no landlord, so any problems that emerge I need to handle myself, or by hiring a professional. When my hot water heater broke down, I immediately turned to my most trusted resource – Youtube. I knew that calling a heater repair company would cost money just to get an inspection and an estimate. I could not afford that at the time, so I needed to suss out the problem with the water heater, and then determine if it was something I could fix. I spent a couple of hours watching basic tutorial videos online, so I could figure out what make and model of water heater I had. Then I got more specific, and watched videos about how to troubleshoot the most common problems associated with my brand of water heater. All of the videos I watched were sponsored by various water heater companies that showed ads about their newest models. I guess I got brainwashed, because after a while I stopped wanting to fix the old water heater, and thought about just buying a new one. I think a new tankless water heater would be nice to have.

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