We’ve all got a mate who loves to tell you what a sweet deal they got. And it usually goes along the long lines of, “Hey, I’ve got a hot water system installed in the weekend, guess how much I paid for it?” And then when you low ball them and say, “I don’t know. 50 bucks?” They usually get quite upset and say, “Well, how can a hot water system be installed for 50 bucks? You know, be realistic.”
Look, there are three questions you can ask them, especially when they’re dealing with a licensed trade, like electrician or a plumber, that can make them understand really, if they’ve got a good deal or not.
The Three Questions
- Did you get an invoice?
- What about a receipt?
- Did you get a completion and compliance notice?
Because if you didn’t get those three things, then they’re probably the one who have been ripped off.
Here’s a situation the hot water system is not working and it’s leaking. So we’ve come out to have a look, to see about replacing a new one. Now, if you look online, it’s usually around $1500 but the trouble is, back in the day when they did it, they didn’t do it correctly. There was no receipt, no invoice and no compliance badge or anything on the job.
The Issues
Here’s what’s wrong with it. From the meter box to the hot water system is about 18 meters. And in the middle of the house, there’s a kitchen and this patio that has been built in. It’s been extended out and there’s a fairly new 900 commercial-looking stove in there, which is about 40-50 megajoules. So it’s quite a big stove in there. And then you’ve got the Bosch 10H out here that’s about 89 megajoules.
So in total you’re looking at well over 130 megajoules. But, if you have a look at the gas main, it comes out in some weird size 18 or something like that. And then it drops down to the smaller pipe, goes down to a tee that feeds the stove on the other side of the wall. And then the smaller pipe goes up and turns to 18 copper, then up to 20, and then goes into the hot water system. As you can see in the video, there’s no gas valve on it. There’s no isolation valve either. So what we’ve done temporarily is we just put an electric one in while we’ve got a couple of days to get it all sorted.
Not So Good Deal
That pipe sizing from the meter box to the hot water system and the stove, because it’s such a small pipe, it only allows for like 30 megajoules while they’re running over 130 megajoules on it. So this hot water system has never worked correctly. The stove has never been hot enough. And the owner doesn’t know especially with the stove if it’s hot enough because they have got nothing to compare it to.
So whatever they paid wasn’t enough because they just got ripped off. And it’s going to catch up to you in the end. Either you will have to replace it and get it sorted out properly, which is what we’re doing today. Or if you sell the house, the next person’s going to cop it in the neck. So it’s never a great deal. Make sure you get those three things and we show you what we set up in the video.
The Solution
We hooked up the gas line to the new stove. We also installed restraint chains that we bolted to the wall. The owner has five grandkids. So if there’s a big pot their grandma’s cooking on the stove and they’re out here by themselves, they could pull the oven door down and stand on top to have a look inside. And imagine how terrible that would be if that whole pot of water or whatever was tipped onto them.
But now with that chain there, no matter what they do, that stove’s not moving or coming forward. So it’s very important that the chains are always installed. The hose behind the stove also has to be on a nice loop, so with the chain there, it can’t be pulled any tighter. Now even when all the large four burners are going, there’s still plenty of gas pressure out to the hot water system.
Underneath the meter out the front, because it’s only low pressure on the street, we’ve run a 32 mil main up into the roof, run it right across the top of the roof, and then down towards the hot water system. And then we’ve dropped down into 20 mil just for the last two meters.
Then there’s a line that goes through the gas stove all hooked up with the chains and everything. We also installed new gas isolation valve and new water isolation valve. We got rid of all the old tees and dodgy pipes and everything.
Now, as you can see in the video, the hot water system is less than 300 mil from the door next to it. Before we get a phone call from one of you gas plumbers who know what you’re doing, the door has three metal bars that are screwed in there. So there’s no way they can open this door. It’s been sealed off so that’s all fine.
Future Proofed
And as said earlier, even with this hot water system going and three of the biggest burners on the stove inside working, it’s still at bulk pressure. It’s even got the old regulator in there that’s still working well.
We’ve really future proofed it. We also provided them with their invoice, receipt, and also their completion and compliance certificates. So everyone knows that it’s by us and we’re liable for it and that’s been done right. They’re stoked and safe again and got a hot water system that actually is working correctly.
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