Funky Smells and Close Calls

For once, the strange smell in my home has nothing to do with my children…

Last night, about dinner time, we noticed a melting plastic smell filtering through our home. I just assumed something had gotten onto the burner of the stove without me noticing. It was a busy night with concerts, scouts, church activities and other appointments. So about the time, we all settled down at 10:30, we noticed the smell wasn’t just lingering but was active.

Nothing was on. Dishwasher, stove, washing machine, dryer… all off. We couldn’t locate the source of the smell. It smelled strongest in our garage-turned-family-room and in the laundry room, but we couldn’t locate the source of the smell.

Getting into bed, we figured it must have been an element or something that melted in the stove when I went to use it. Lights out and we tried to go to sleep. B had wandered up to our bed (again) and usually, we just roll over and let her snuggle. Instead, I got a distinct feeling to take her downstairs and look again for the smell.

After laying B in her bed, I went back into our garage and, while walking around, noticed puddles of water on the carpet and tile. I followed the trail which led me to the cause of the smell.

Our 23 year old water heater.

This thing was in bad shape. We had been told by our plumber it needed to be replaced, but had set it on the back burner of our mind while life happened.

Now, I was looking at our water heater, sweating water from the seams, into the electrical fixtures on the water heater. Not only that, but we had a TV, A/C unit and a couple other items plugged into a power strip that had somehow slipped into the oncoming trickle of water. The wires were short circuiting and causing the burning smell. I called Hubby in, and we were investigating further when he saw the sparks.

Quickly, with the help of our Next Door Angel (who just happens to be an electrician) we got all the appropriate circuits shut down and stabilized the situation until morning.

Our super cool plumber showed up within a couple hours of calling him and was able to replace our ancient water heater safely. He told me that he was surprised it didn’t start a fire the way it had been going. He also pointed out that even though we had a pressure release valve, it wasn’t hooked up all this time (we have been here 8 years). Without that in place, we basically had a rocket waiting to happen in our home.

I am grateful and humbled for the direction the Lord gave me. I am grateful that He watched over us. And SO grateful for a new water heater.

I took a look online and found a couple things of interest. The first is a photo of what happened when a water heater DID explode in someone’s house (actually here in AZ)



The video is of the Myth Busters seeing if a water heater really will explode. (should have just asked the guy from AZ.)



Anyway, listen to your plumber when he tells you to switch out the water heater. More importantly, listen to those feelings you get.