Good morning.
All the nasty "winter" stuff left and it is back to being the warmest winter I've ever seen out here. Dry, too.
That made it easier when the home repair demon struck here...
Turn on tap, to do the dishes, and no hot water appears in the usual 2 seconds it takes. Doesn't get there in 2 minutes, either, so I right away know it is not the circulation pump failing to deliver.
Step outside to the tiny (2'x3') water heater closet and the full extent of the situation becomes evident: water is running out under the door, which leads me to the conclusion that no, the wind did not blow out the pilot light.
It doesn't take great powers of detection to see where the water is gushing out of the top of the heater.
Fortunately, when I built this little system 10 years or so ago, I included a shut-off valve for the water supply right there in the room. It being dark by now, I turn off the water and call it a day.
Next morning it takes a few hours of telephony to locate the correct new heater, which will be available the following morning 95 miles away, and another hour or so to get the dead heater removed and the little room cleaned up.
There are 2 water pipes, in, and out, an overflow pipe, the burner exhaust vent pipe and the propane gas line feeding it to disconnect and then reconnect the next day after the trip to town. Takes about another hour to get it all together and fired up.
I do all of this myself, except for some help in actually moving the old unit out and then getting the new one in. Weighs about 80 or so pounds and it is a tight squeeze to get in the door and up on its stand. I am delighted to find that I have everything else I need right there in the shop: tools, sealant and a spare copper flex line to replace the old one that looks iffy.
Because this heater also heats the bathroom, via a loop of tubing in the floor that circulates hot water when the thermostat calls for it, I need an extra-strength heater, one with a larger burner than normal. The tank is 50 gallons; the old burner was 60k BTU but I had to settle for 50K BTU this time because I had to have it now. Even so, this special need costs an extra 300 bucks.
I don't know what this job would have cost if a pro came out here to the boonies to do it, but I am pretty happy to still be able to do all this stuff for myself at age 65.