Being in business for yourself isn't fun

At my bowling center we have been having problems with a large gas heater for a couple weeks. It heats the pinsetter area and actually provides about 30% of the heat in the center. The past few days it has needed to be reset and restarted everyday just to run.

Worried that something in it is malfunctioning and could be unsafe, I called in the gas company to have them take a look at it today. Their guy checked it out, red tagged it, and told me that the heat exchanger has "lived its life and is now dead." He recommended replacing the whole unit, as replacing just the labor involved with replacing the heat exchanger will cost about the same as a whole new unit. A new unit would also be much more energy efficient.

After a lot of calling around and confirming the gas company guy's recommendation I've found the best price on a replacement unit and also a Heating and Plumbing contractor that could remove the old unit and replace the new one today.

Long story short this will cost me upwards of $800 to get fixed. There goes my plans for buying a TiVo 2 next week.