It's not rocket science... Water can flow through a pipe in either direction. Use a T with the vertical part going into the tank. One side of the T is your supply, the other is the drain. Inline shutoff valves on both sides.
Lets see. Now, if you open the drain, the water flows from the cold water supply, through the Tee, and out the drain. So, tell me how you get the sediment out of the tank, since the cold water goes right out the drain, without going into the WH?
With the conventional setup, the water comes in through the dip tube, and out the drain. at least the conventional, water flows through the WH during sediment draining.
In my area water heaters typically last at least twice the age of yours. It may be difficult to replace the tube, particularly if there is little headroom over the water heater, but woukd be worth the cost savings if you could get another 8 or more years out of the heater. Why do you think it has "failed?" It is just a piece of tubing or pipe. The only one I have ever seen was one unintentionally removed when unscrewing a fitting from a heater I was replacing. It was made of plastic. I can't imagine what would make one fail.
I didn't say it was the smart way - only that it was possible. :) Presumably any sediment gets carried out by gravity.
The only reason I could see plumbing the tank this way would be a short term work around to a broken dip tube, so maybe sediment isn't a concern...
Reading this discussion, I am wondering what the need for the dip tube is in the first place. Why not have the cold water inlet at the bottom of the WH? Perhaps an inch or two above the bottom so it could flush any sediment. The drain could be set 90º or so away from the inlet. There probably would have to be a backflow preventer before the inlet, but I don't *think* that would be a big deal.
Makes too much sense. No one would build such an intelligent design.
Maybe they like both pipes being at the top, near the ceiling.
I didn't know dip tubes failed, so maybe they should reconsider.
dip tubes today rarely fail, after some bad times years ago when they first went to plastic dip tubes, previously they were copper.
plus the swirl shape of most dip tubes helps keep the bottom of the tank clean
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