In hot water - again

... and am I thankful for it too! :)

We recently started smelling that sort of  "burnt dust" type smell coming from the basement. The three of us (myself, Michelle, and her Mom who is visiting from Regina) couldn't isloate the smell and figure where it was coming from. This morning I noticed in the shower that the hot water was on full, and I wasn't jumping around due to what would be the usual burns. Nor, was there hot water coming up at all from the kitchen nor main floor bathroom sinks - both of which are much closer in their piping distance from the hot water tank. That added more weight to a theory forming in the back of my head - heating elements of the hot water tank causing the smell. Over the last year, we've noticed more and more of our neighbourhood  houses with old hot water tanks out on their lawns for garbage pickup. Assuming ours was built around the same time, figured our time was getting close.

Called Colby / Forest Hills Plumbing and Heating at about 2:30pm today and they said they'd do their best to have someone drop by. Well, someone did by 4:30 and shortly afterwards had a new tank installed, filling with water, and warm water heating up. Not the best way to spend a junk of change, but now my family has hot water again, and the smell was most likely explained (and will hopefully dissapate over time). Chock it up as a home owner experience gained.