…got me an unexpected Fathers Day gift yesterday. My water heater decided to stop heating water. My wife brought this to my attention shortly after her cold shower turned out to be a short one. So we followed the instructions on the tank on how to re-light the pilot and everything worked for about 40 minutes then it went out again. So we repeated the steps and voila it fired back up again. The little red light that’s supposed to flash, flashed. Took a shower and all was good with Fathers Day again and decided to celebrated by picking up a couple of steaks for the grill. Naturally the first thing I do when I get back is check to make sure the water heater tank light is still flashing. Well, not only is it not flashing but the water heater is making a hissing sound. Figured I better shut this thing down and realize I’m going to be getting a new water heater for Fathers Day. I wrote the date on the tank of the day it was installed. 6-17-12. Exactly 7 years ago today. I looked on line what the average life expectancy of a water heater is and it said 8-12 years. I didn’t even make it to 8. They say that the life expectancy varies with the location an design of the unit. Hey it’s in the basement where you supposed to put it. it also said the quality of installation would be another factor. Hey theirs no gas leak no water leak its all electrical when it comes to the pilot. I think they may have gotten us on the maintenance, never did a water flush and only cleaned the filter yesterday but again, I don’t think that has anything to do with the fact its an electrical problem. Well I guess I could use a new water heater and it was Fathers Day and all but would for the first time would have rather had a tie instead.