Quick basic advice on a dripping gas 40-gal hot-water heater

Hello Donna, you seem to have learnt quite a surprsing amount for someone who has was a novice just a few weeks ago and who does not have a background in mechanical engineering.

I'm impressed.

Or i would be impressed if I could believe it but I am afrain I can't beleieve it.

What did you say was your line of work?

If you have time when you're not posting extended posts to a "quick and basic" question?

Reply to
John
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Donna, do you think the other people who have posted to help you actually suspect what is going on? :-)

Some must have realized it by now. Do you think they are just keeping quiet?

Reply to
John

Maybe, maybe not...but John, you're quite late with this post. Please do try to keep up. Bill does. :)

Reply to
cavedweller

Hello John, I wonder why intelligence bothers you so very much.

Reply to
Donna Ohl

You were right! It was the crud in the solonoid (plus a frozen motor)!

Thanks to everyone here, I was able to fix the dishwasher clog caused by all the debris that came out of the water heater repair. Complete pictures, as always, are posted.

For example, so the next person benefits, please see the updated pictures of the tremendous amount of dishwasher sand in the mesh filter cup inside the blue "solonoid" at the bottom left of the GE Nautilus dishwasher.See

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At first, I checked and cleaned the "air gap" as many recommended (this caused a flood as the airgap had a plug of its own that I forgot to put back once I got the dishwasher working). Without that cap on the air gap, water shoots up six inches all over the countertop as shown in the photos I uploaded so the next person benefits.

As for teh solonoid, I unplugged the power and removed the four 8mm screws holding the blue solonoid together and water splashed all over the place, this time on the floor as the water supply must be turned off. I got the camera all wet trying to take a shot of THAT fiasco for you boys!

Nonetheless, I did take a good shot of the horribly clogged mesh filter that was inside the solonoid. This wasn't the only culprit though. The motor in the middle on the bottom wouldn't start. I guess it has been turned off for so long it froze shut. I had to oil it and cajole it into spinning with a screwdriver but it finally worked and now the dishwasher has gone through two cycles and it seems to be repaired.

Thank God 'cuz I can't figure out how to remove it from the kitchen (see the photos of the screws that were holding it in that are tiled over on the top so they will never come out). Who builds these things that way anyway?

Donna

Reply to
Donna Ohl

It's always nice when someone can figure this stuff out and posted advice is useful. It's a change from the common response of "I'll just buy a new one".

Reply to
James Sweet

Or, all too often, there's no response at all. Then none of the advisors know how it turned out, and the archives offer nothing for the next feller that comes along with the same or nearly identical problem.

Jonesy

Reply to
Allodoxaphobia

Hi James,

Thanks. I go to a lot of trouble to respond and to take pictures and to post what happened, even with my mistakes (like not knowing the water would shoot all over the place in the air gap or solonoid!).

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The amount of sand in the water was astoundingly large!
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I would think we should probably clean these things out every year or so if it weren't such a pain to put the solonoid back together. The six bolts to remove it are easy enough to remove but to put it all back together with the rubber gasket and wire mesh screen is a pain. I accidentally let the screen fall out and ended up having to remove it a second time after testing that it worked.
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I would never have had the courage to try this unless you guys had advised me so I really hope that this will help the next person who reads this.

The two things I have left are:

- How to repair the rusted white wires inside the dishwasher that got rusted while it sat with bleach in it (to kill the mold) for the past few weeks.

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- How to unclog the bathtub where I can't figure out WHERE the filter is!

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Donna

Reply to
Donna Ohl

Hi Jonesy,

You just wait! A coworker of mine said he was gonna fill his welding tanks with oxyaceteline and cut apart my old water heater so we could see exactly what it looked like inside!

I can't wait to snap the pictures.

Right now, all we have are the anode and safety valve autopsies

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it's gonna be great to see inside the water heater for the first time!
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Donna

Reply to
Donna Ohl

One thing I learned is it's MUCH better to set the temperature lower rather than higher (as long as it's hot enough).

Why?

Because then there is less mixing with cold water so when someone flushes, it doesn't change the temperature of the shower water at all!

I learned this accidentally and I've never seen this hint (for this reason) anywhere, so, I'm proposing if, for no other reason, you can set the water temperature to EXACTLY the heat you want in the shower, you'll have more REGULAR temperatures because there is less mixing and therefore less perturbation when someone flushes.

BTW, we just found out today that, with this 98 gallon first-hour-rating water heater, Bill (who is disabled and has to take a bath instead of a shower) and I can run the newly unclogged dishwasher, new washer, shower, and tub at the same time, all with no loss of hot water for the two of us!

Thanks everyone for being so wonderful (well, almost everyone), Donna

Reply to
Donna Ohl

Yes. Massive lime/calcium deposits, I'd hazard to guess. Or, are you on a well? I don't remember that comment up-thread. In that case it probably would be sand.

You might want to install a water softener ahead of the H/W heater -- _just_ to serve the H/W side of the system.

I did that in the previous house for use with a solar H/W system that was in-line ahead of the existing domestic gas H/W heater. Both the (then) existing 50 gal. gas H/W heater and the 80 gal. solar H/W tank lasted over 25 years -- and they may still be going strong, FAIK.

(Of course the gas H/W heater did not run much, so it's tank did not get 'cooked' that often by the gas flame.)

Jonesy

Reply to
Allodoxaphobia

That's one situation.

If you have a lot of people and you don't want to run out of hot water for showers, you need hotter water so you don't use as much of it for one shower.

If the water isn't hot enough, and one accidentally halfway fills a tub with mixed water that isn't hot enough, the hot water isn't hot enough to make the tub warm enough.

OTOH, if the water is too hot, someone, especially a child, can scald himself. Not fun.

Reply to
mm

you can install a tempering valve, it mixes cold with hot at or near the tank effectively preventing scalds, and if you tap the dishwasher line before the valve it can be as hot as you want.

note the hotter the tank the shorter the life, thermal stress is tougher at higher temperatures

Reply to
hallerb

Which part fails in that case, when the water is too hot?

Reply to
mm

Oh. Good point. The way I have it set right now, the water is 120 degrees (at the set point anyway) which is just right at the shower or tub. I'm assuming (I didn't measure it) it's just above 100 degrees at the shower since I know 104 degrees is too hot in a hot tub or me but anything below

104 degrees is just right.

Is it normal to lose about 20 degrees in moving from the hot water heater to the shower?

Reply to
Donna Ohl

It's not uncommon, but I would not consider it "normal" either. Galvanized pipes have a lot of thermal mass and will take a while to heat up, until then they're cooling the water. Chances are they are also not insulated.

Reply to
James Sweet

the tank leaks sooner, hotter is tougher with expansion and contraction.

Reply to
hallerb

Thahks

Reply to
mm

If you can get to the pipe, add some of the molded foam pipe insulation to reduce the heat loss, and the cost of using the water heater.

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

Ther's probably a passage in the valve plugged. Shut off all water to the shower, and disassemble the valve, them flush it out by briefly turning the water back on, with appropriate precautions.

Reply to
Bob F

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