Yesterday we had some fun and games as the geyser/boiler burst the night before and we caught it in time so it did not damage the ceilings. The drip tray did it's work for once and the water poured out the overflow outside. This is the first time we have been so lucky as normally it floods the interior wrecking the ceilings and whatever is below.
Owning a house you have to have buildings and contents insurance as you just never know what is going to break next. The spend never stops and is just an ongoing never ending money pit.
The last time this happened which was about 5 years ago we never had a stop cock and it flooded the entire bathroom and the adjoining bedroom. Lessons learned and this time it was just a matter of stopping the water flow and turning off the geyser switch. As you can see from the above image there were a couple of cracks where the geyser burst open.
This was reported to the insurance company in the morning and by 4pm we had a team arrive to fix and replace. There was no fixing so the driver had to go and fetch one leaving his guys behind. The exact same model is now a bit wider/fatter so it was not an easy fit and they damaged/broke the ceiling trap door entrance which they have to come back and replace.
I was not expecting a same day replacement and for once cannot fault the insurance company or their service providers. This is how things should be done and rarely are in South Africa. When i phoned the claim through I was given a list of excess fees that needed to be paid if there was more than the geyser damaged like furniture and ceiling boards. In the old days going back 20 years this was all done under one claim and one excess fee and not separated individually like they do now.
The replacement via the excess only cost R1000 or $50 so it was something that could have been a lot worse. They say bad things happen in threes so this hopefully is the end of the bad luck following my dog and laptop in the last few days. I am not superstitions by any means, but if this is the third incident then i will take it.
We had load shedding last night and they only left here at around 7pm which had them slightly confused as our house was slit up like a Christmas tree, The driver mentioned normally they would have to come back the next morning to complete the job and we were the first house they had experienced load shedding in the light.
The plus side is the new geyser seems to have fixed the water pressure we had been experiencing for many years and could not find the root cause of the problem. We believe the plumbers who replaced and fitted the last one put the pipes the wrong way around which apparently can create a problem.
I find it amazing these days that nothing ever lasts and kind of know this will last 5 years and no longer. Every house we have been in we have been replacing geysers continuously on a regular period of time which is about 5 years. These are not made to last and why the companies are always busy knowing there will be a constant demand due to their poor quality products.