PLUMBING WEDNESDAY +
As I was skimming the headlines this morning and found ~50 headlines about bad water heaters and sink drains. Is this a slow news day? I know, the editor just went on vacation. The assistant editor has a stack of articles ready to go. Tomorrow is Catsup Thursday? 35 articles on the best catsup brand (“four experts agree”). Friday is “scare-’em-silly” with articles about infections that have been around since before we took over America (“more cases than hospitals have seen in 19 years” … so, … we HAVE seen it this bad or worse before? I guess I don’t have to sell my home and move into a hidden mountain cabin in Alaska! By the way, we have known about the Lonestar Tick since before I was born. An infection it can carry makes eating beef and other products impossible.)
Eight different types of water heaters were headlined as failures. I’ve even owned some of those brand names. O.A. Smith was a decent one in my house. Five family members and we rarely got a cold shower and never had to replace the monster (we lived there for 25 years). The furnace held up fine, too. Started out with 20-year-old washer and dryer set. Kept the dryer until we moved and replaced the washer with a efficient model (which got lots of use). I will say that we could not seem to keep a dishwasher very long, though. Our 22 year old fridge began icing up just before we moved…probably needed a Freon refill.
The articles suggested that modern water heaters (both electric and gas) have only an eight year lifespan. With modern technological advances that hardly seems a “given.”
The refrigerator in our house as I was growing up survived long enough to require two new door seal kits (probably 30 years). It was a Frigidaire. In fact, that is what I called any refrigerator for many years after I left home. Now some claim the brand represents hunks of expensive trash that crap-out almost as soon as they are unboxed and plugged in.
When we bought our present home, my wife and I bought a dehumidifier. (A smart investment for the home.) Strangely it has continued to work well long after some brands are known to die. A dehumidifier is a simple device whose job is to take moisture OUT of the air. That’s it entirely. Two main benefits: a) Lower risk of mold and mildew. b) Fewer spiders and insects in the house. A deal for the cost.
I do look at the cost of things. One major cost is the hassle of replacement. It can take a couple months to buy one and arrange delivery. You have to be HOME for 4-6 hours waiting. Then you have delivery men who may or may not be competent with the English language with whom you are attempting to find an answer to a simple question (How do I reverse the opening of the door on this thingy?) They don’t know whether you are talking about the thingy or how to prevent your mother-in-law from using it. Then I have to look up online instructions and find that it takes a special tool ($49.45 at the big box store). It won’t matter anyway because I’ll need a new thingy in two or three years and the special tool won’t work for that one. Too bad we can’t rent the tools for that thingy from the big box store. At that level of emotional cost I want a thingy which I can count on to last 20 years or more.
Last week all the stories were about the “spare” royal returning to his country. This week started with the Dolly stories. It is not nice to say there were TOO MANY stories about those things, but honestly there is a limit to how much a sensible person can take. Why doesn’t someone write a book I can ignore? But that is how the Press does its thing … too little and then too much. Don’t tell me why I should grieve, or that I must feel bad. Once you’ve achieved retirement you’ve already lost more folk, pets, and friends than you can endure. If you are normal there are people you should have known that passed on and you never did get to know them. The world forgets most of your beloved ever existed two seconds after you heard of his or her death, and often long before his or her passing. True grief is personal.
I ASKED THREE FELLOW EMPLOYEES THEIR FAVORITE FROZEN PIZZA BRAND
They couldn’t agree.
That’s reality. In the real world, if you ask 3 or more people the same question the answers WON’T be the same. Since that is true, why do so many “food” articles start with “and they all agree?” There are two correct answers.
Answer #1. They asked 7, only 3 agreed. They threw out the other 4 answers as “outliers.” That’s how statistics are used.
Answer #2. They asked no one. There weren’t 7 who were asked and there certainly weren’t 3 who agreed. They made it up because that is so much more logical than any 3 people agreeing about anything. I go with probabilities. Chance of 3 random experts agreeing to the best tomato paste: 4%. Chance the reporter asked no one: 22% (statistics “Press” imagined).
The “best of” food articles I actually trust are blind taste tests with 7 average people and 7 actual products. Each person responds “It tasted (bland, too spicy, dry), etc” to every product. You get 49 actual responses. The worst product becomes obvious quite quickly. The best is usually a toss-up. Sometimes an icky product has one person who likes it. That’s reality.
Did you know that it is almost impossible to get over 80% “I like it” rating on any product! True even with cars which have had great numbers in “best of” articles. 10% automatically don’t like Toyota no matter the ratings. Another 10% don’t like Honda. At least 12% don’t like Ford. (percentages not researched, but likely). I don’t like either monster-size trucks driven on the way to an ordinary office job or micro-cars driven by silly people who have no sense of risk/reward.
Copyright 2026 Donald Whelpley
[PLEASE NOTE that Don is always open to discussing the thoughts and opinions he shares here and welcomes comments as shared in the comment section. He doesn’t use other social media platforms and won’t see whatever you’d like to share with him if you post it elsewhere.
ALSO, Don is always open to offer his thoughts on various topics. If you have a specific request, you can let him know in a comment; he reads – and replies to – them all. ~ Sherry]
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