[Frankie the Fink]

So, my new homeowner's insurer requires a house inspection and the guy found a small leak on the hot water nipple of my 18 year old traditional two element electric, water heater in the garage. Tried all the tricks and that corroded rusted, nipple is not budging - time to replace the unit.

Appears everyone has gone to heat pump/solar hybrid systems and those, for an 80 gallon tank, are $2,500 and up. Go to Lowe's and want a turnkey installation, install new system and remove the old one, they say OK our "assessor" will be out to give you an estimate.

Guy shows up with a thick gold bracelet and neck chain and a spiral notebook full of glossy laminated pictures of solar and hybrid heaters, cost savings projections, blah, blah, blah ( prob an ex timeshare salesman ). Bottom line, the solar install would be over $13,000 and the hybrid (heat pump based) system $9,000 (veteran's discount prices) - I couldn't show him the door fast enough. Even with the Federal income tax credit of 30% it is ridiculous.

WTF ? Lowes is now underwriting some huckster to browbeat me into spending megabucks for a common maintenance item ?

I found a traditional two, element, non hybrid, stainless steel tank water heater (had to REALLY do some searching) and will install it myself - lesson learned.