Anonymous wrote:How do you know when a water heater is getting close to replacement? Is it meant to have annual maintenance?

Ours made clanking noises for a couple of years -- the rods inside corroded and broke off, then banged around as the water heated.

Depending on how the dishwasher breaks, that could be messy too. Could it flood the kitchen?

My friend who is a professional landlord always says you replace them all at once then they break all at once.

When he first started buying small distressed sales fixer upper starter homes and condos he would replace everything right away before tenant. It came back to bite him hard as if Washer/dryer, fridge, microwave, oven, dishwasher, HVAC and Water heater lets say all replaced brand new in 2014 in 2026 he has a time bomb of everything going all at once. He started only replacing what needed replacing and let old fridges, dishwashers etc keep going till they died. Sometimes it was 5-10 years as the old stuff sometimes outlasts the new stuff.

Running joke was my house the realtor who sold my old house three times, the 1982 inspection said furnance from 1954 was end of life and may need replacing. She sold house again in 1992 said same thing, I bought house in 2000 and said same thing.

In the end basement flooded in 2012 in a major storm and took out furnance and insurance paid for new one. It never died on its own .

My current house has a gas heater furnance from 1977.

Anonymous wrote:How do you know when a water heater is getting close to replacement? Is it meant to have annual maintenance?

Ours began making a popping noise and we noticed it wasn’t heating as well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You build up a nest egg to address the breakages as they come?

The air conditioning for us is the really big one, because we still use the old coolant, and we have been told that when our A/C breaks down, we will need to replace all the ducts to be able to use the new coolant. Ouch.

The other appliances are comparatively significantly cheaper. We're considering a mattress from IKEA. Their top of the line is decent.

That is nonsense, so please make sure to get a second opinion from a trust HVAC person before doing this!

It is not nonsense.

The previous administration did this.

Well why hasn't your boy Donnie changed it back? WHYYYYYY?????

How do you know when a water heater is getting close to replacement? Is it meant to have annual maintenance?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You build up a nest egg to address the breakages as they come?

The air conditioning for us is the really big one, because we still use the old coolant, and we have been told that when our A/C breaks down, we will need to replace all the ducts to be able to use the new coolant. Ouch.

The other appliances are comparatively significantly cheaper. We're considering a mattress from IKEA. Their top of the line is decent.

That is nonsense, so please make sure to get a second opinion from a trust HVAC person before doing this!

+1. You do not need to replace all the ducts! We had to enlarge a return but that was it.

Thanks, I will. I'm sorry, I didn't meant ducts, I meant piping. Apparently the new coolant operates under higher pressure, and our old piping that was enough for the old coolant and its pressure cannot withstand higher pressures. But we will check with several contractors.

Just bumping this because OP corrected themselves. It’s not the ducts, it’s the piping (refrigerant lines). We did the same last time we had AC replaced as new refrigerant required new lines.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You build up a nest egg to address the breakages as they come?

The air conditioning for us is the really big one, because we still use the old coolant, and we have been told that when our A/C breaks down, we will need to replace all the ducts to be able to use the new coolant. Ouch.

The other appliances are comparatively significantly cheaper. We're considering a mattress from IKEA. Their top of the line is decent.

That is nonsense, so please make sure to get a second opinion from a trust HVAC person before doing this!

It is not nonsense.

The previous administration did this.

It is nonsense. The rule that mandates different refrigerant does not require either directly nor as a result of the new refrigerant new duct work. Older duct work may not be as efficient but there is nothing that requires new duct work.

As for the last administration comment, note the rule is implement the AIM Act which became law in December of 2020.

Anonymous wrote:Every year we realize we are on borrowed time with our trusty old air conditioner.

Our water heater has one more year of a 12-year warranty, and it’s already showing signs of wear and we worry it’s also at the end of its life.

Our dishwasher is giving its death knell.

Our fridge, washer, and dryer, were all purchased around the same time, 10 years ago.

We also need a new mattress.

All together, this would be around $15k or more to replace, and that’s being generous. We don’t have that sort of money to just drop all at once, so we need to prioritize.

What would you do first, and what next, so on and so forth?

You can do dishes by hand. You may not like it, but there is a work around. You can also take your laundry to the laundry mat--again, not idea, but there is a solution. Mattress is not critical. A/C makes your life in DC during the summer more comfortable, but you could get away without having it. You could use window units.

Water heater and Fridge are the items that you need to have and there's not a way to do without. Fridge doesn't have to be terribly expensive. I would prioritize the water heater and then the A/C. A/C may eat up your entire $15K budget.