"Missionaries teach the natives to use the vacation position".
(I know... not funny, Chris....)

The vacation position will use more gas. I don't see any real
advantage. Having a neighbor check the house every couple days is
excellent idea. If there aren't a lot of flowers, maybe the neighbor
could bring a jug of water from home as needed. Then you could shut
off the water. Much safer having the water off. Less likely to have a
pipe burst, and flood the place.

This from experience: One friend of mine, caretaker for a relative's
house which had the power off, during the bitter cold winter. We
drained the pipes, and put antifreeze in the traps. He shut off the
valve to the toilet, and the pipe from the valve to the toilet still
had water. Froze, burst. Not a big deal, but reminds us to leave the
toilet valve open when draining pipes.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"Questor" wrote in message
...
Upon returning after 6 mo. the only major problem was the water
heater
pilot was out. I left it in the pilot position when we left. My
neighbor
pointed out it has a vacation position. Is it better to use vacation
position, leave it in pilot position or turn it completely off?

Learned our lesson with the water softener last year, left it on
vacation,
it lost it's setting with a power failure and reverted to the default
cycling three times a week on power up. Unplugged it this time and
reprogrammed it on return.

If I could just get the wife to go with plastic plants we could turn
the
water off and not have the neighbor watering them.

Wish I could talk he into cleaning out and shutting off the fridge
also.

There was a temperature sensor out there that calls a phone when the
temp.
goes down. Anyone use one of these?