The day after the Holiday, the 5th of July. Our independence established, back to work! I arrived at the home I was inspecting yesterday to find the buyer’s agent already there... 15 minutes early! That in itself is amazing! I love you guys, I really do... but what percentage of agents are early or on time? :-) Anyway, the house was vacant, still a few things left behind but nobody was living there. The agent opened the door only to find the burglar chain was hooked on the door so the door only opened about 3 inches. Nice. Evidently, the owners chained the door and left through the garage. The agent tried to reach in and slide the chain over to the spot that it would unhook.... that wasn't happening because unless someone installed it incorrectly (Uncle Bob) they are made to prevent exactly what the agent was trying to do. So, the agent said, "Can you cut it or break it?" I said "Are you talking to me?" "Noooo, Fred breaks nothing" The agent proceeded to tell me that they would take the blame for it, that it was ok with them. I said "I don't think so... been there, done that" "But I will step back and watch you break it!" with a grin on my face. I got a picture of it that, :-) it shall remain in my safe unless there are suggested repercussions. Anyway, we got inside!
So anyway, now to the good stuff. The house was in pretty good condition, except for the broken burglar chain on the front door... When I got to the garage to look at the stuff in 
there, the first thing I checked was the water heater. It was a natural gas heater, up on a pedestal like it's supposed to be, drip leg on the gas line, vented correctly, but I knew there was a problem as soon as I seen it. Can you see it without reading on?
The hot water side, or return, was dripping at the sweat soldered seam. It's not that hard to sweat solder a joint, if it's done correctly it is very effective. Not this one. It was dripping pretty steadily, and you can see where it is landing... on the top
of the unit. It had rusted the top and corroded all the other joints. Who knows how long it's been doing that, I would bet that a good portion of the insulation inside was soaked as well.
Taking into account that the unit was already 13 years old, and the problem that was obvious... can you hear it? In the background, very faintly... but it's getting louder.
It's Taps for this unit! RIP!
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