#olderisoftenbetter

[catsshadow]

Here, here! I just moved back into my parents' old farmhouse (inheritance!) and suddenly realized that the water heater is from...well, no one knows! It was here when my parents bought the place in '77 and it's STILL trucking along just fine. Keep in mind that our well water is pretty rusty and there's only a basic sediment filter on the system! Pretty sure the heater is from the 50s or 60s, but since it's soooooo old, I don't want to touch it for fear of breaking or disturbing something. We're having a new house built with a tankless water heater, so it just needs to hang on for a few more months. Once we move into the new house, I'll see what I can find on the old beast because I really want to know just how old it is! I don't remember my dad ever having to do any maintenance on the thing....

We also had the well pump upgraded this summer--the guy who came out to give us a quote took one look at it and said, "Well, that's illegal". It was a belt drive system and oil had leaked all over the concrete pad it sat on. Dad never changed it because he preferred the belt drive (which you can't find anymore). If the power went out, we could manually turn the drive wheel and pump the water ourselves (y'know, in case the world flips over/society goes to hell and the electrical grid crashes). When they replaced it, their BEST GUESS is that it was from the 1950s. It was still going strong but we had to upgrade per the County Health Department because we're connecting it to the new house. The well is 200 feet deep with 5" diameter cast iron pipe that has 1" thick walls. The guys told us whoever installed the well DID IT RIGHT.