A little search can save you big

My hot water heater went kaput recently — or so I thought. The pilot light went out and wouldn’t come back on. Being the novice home repair man that I am, I figured I might be in need of a whole new tank. There might have been a noticeable sweat line on my forehead just thinking about the costs that come along with that. Before jumping off the deep end I decided to turn to the trusty ol’ Internet first to gather a little insight.

A quick Google search revealed that the main culprit is often a little $8 part called the thermocouple. Sounds like it’s from the Jetsons, right? I called a plumber to see what they thought. They agreed with Google’s logic and told me they could replace it today for just $140. Once again, I got to thinking.

I hit up YouTube and did a search for replacing the thermocouple on your hot water heater. I found a few great videos. Then I went into the basement and found out that my particular hot water heater has a sealed compartment. So I performed another query and stumbled upon another video that detailed exactly how to replace this gadget in my specific scenario. A half hour later, with just a few more twists and turns than the handyman in the video, I had my new part installed.