The Pontoon Water Heater

Well, this was interesting…

The Northwoods of Wisconsin is a unique place to do business. We mentioned last week that in our early years, it was was not uncommon to take plumbing supplies to a job site via boat.

Well, it turns out, sometimes we still have to do that.

We received a call early last week from a family in need of a water heater for their cabin. The A-frame cabin on Cranberry Lake (in the Eagle River Chain) was built by them and their families as children back in the 1960’s. They had spent their summer vacations coming up to Eagle River and building these family cabins by hand. Vilas County had put in a sewer line for them under the water supply and they had built most of the cabin’s mechanical aspects themselves. Yet, as with any Northern Wisconsin residence, the time to modernize the home had come. The water heater on the property was nearly 2 decades old and was in dire need of replacement. When they called, we told them we’d be happy to put a new high efficiency water heater in for them.

BUT, HERE’S THE KICKER: THE CABIN IS ON AN ISLAND…WITH NO ROAD ACCESS.

Naturally, because we’ve done this before, we knew we could take it (and all the tools to install it) on a boat. As it so happened, they had a pontoon boat ready to go.

The happy home-owners driving boat with the water heater, Josh – Frasier’s service technician, and owner/plumber Phil Frasier to their cabin on Cranberry Lake – Near Eagle River, WI

Figuring out how to best unload the water heater on to their dock.

We’re experienced with water heaters on unloading docks and unloading water heaters on docks.

After the install of this water heater, we discussed some of the other areas of the home that need to be brought up to speed. Water pressure is often an issue with island homes, due to hob-job installation. In the coming weeks, we will continue bringing this Eagle River lake retreat’s plumbing up to speed. Every family deserves to be comfortable in their own home – no matter where it is!