"willshak" wrote in message
...
(PeteCresswell) wrote:
We've been getting these insurance offers from the local water company
to the effect that the service from the main to our house could fail at
any time and that we should pay a few bucks per month to avoid repair
costs.

My kneejerk is that this is a cash cow for the water company.

This neighborhood was built in the mid fifties. I've never heard of
anybody's service failing. Is there an average lifetime for this
stuff?... Or are there different
constructions/water compositions that make comparison impractical?

Depends upon what material your pipes are made of.
It could be that your area has pipes made of tarred wood fiber which was
made by the Orangeburg Pipe Company up into the 1970s when PVC pipe took
over as a material for pipes. In recent years, this fibrous pipe began to
fail due to crushing, roots, and other wear and damage.

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
In the original Orange County. Est. 1683
To email, remove the double zeros after @

You're right, of course. The folks offering the pipe "insurance" have
calculated the chance of failure for your area and have set their rates
accordingly. They'll do just fine.

If you're concerned about pipe (or any other) similar failure, the best way
to finance possible repairs is to self insure by putting the so-called
payment into a savings plan of some sort. Then you control it, make a
little on the savings and have it when you need it. Since you haven't heard
of any pipe failures, chances are you have time to accumulate enough money
before your particular chance of failure goes up.

But, it's hard to do and hard to keep up enthusiasm for the idea -- just
like setting up college funds, retirement funds and the like.

Tomsic