Water Header: Dielectric fitting too, or just the bonding cable

[JayN]

I'm having a new water heater installed soon. I'm told my state (NJ) requires a bonding cable be installed between the hot and cold water lines.

I'm wondering if there is any benefit to also requesting a dielectric fitting be installed intstead of standard copper fittings. If a bonding cable is used, does this make the the dielectric fitting unnecessary if my goal is to prevent corrision at the connections? Is there any benefit to also requesting the use of a dielectric fitting?

Thanks,

Jay

[ransley]

A fitting to consider is a thermal break so you dont loose heat out the pipes

[Jeff Wisnia]

If your place is plumbed with copper then you'll do best to stick with all copper/brass right up to the heater tank's cold and hot ports.

Rheem stopped recommending dielectric unions on their water heaters a few years ago:

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but about four years ago when I last replaced our electric water heater, I slavishly installed a pair of dielectric unions at the inlet and outlet ports, replacing the all copper ones which were there before. I used a pair of short iron nipples between the tank ports and the iron sides of the unions. Those nipples clogged with soft rust and one of them sprang a leak in just a few months.

Here's the leaking nipple, after I sliced it down the midline and scraped out most of the rust:

I thought things through and realized the dielectric unions were effectively "shorted out" because the heater tank was grounded per code as was the copper piping in our home, so they weren't helping at all.

I replaced those dielectric unions and the iron nipples with all copper/brass fittings and things have been fine since.

The insides of the iron nipples took the brunt of the galvanic corrosion because they were electric field wise "out of sight" of the sacrificial anode rod in the tank.

Jeff

[John Grabowski]

The bonding jumper is required so that the hot and cold water pipes are at the same ground potential. It does not have to be at the water heater, it's just that it's the easiest place for the inspector to find it. Use at least a #6 copper wire, but I prefer #4.

Dielectric fittings are used to help reduce corrosion of your water heater.

A plumbing permit is required to replace a water heater, but this can be applied for after the installation due to an emergency. I've had a few customers tell me that when the gas water heater was replaced, the exhaust vent had to be enlarged due to the higher BTU rating of the new gas water heater.

[JayN]

"NOTE: To protect against untimely corrosion of hot and cold water fittings, it is strongly recommended that di-electric unions or couplings be installed on this water heater when connected to copper pipe."

Jeff

[hallerb]

per. =EF=BF=BDI had

I would follow the manufactuers recomendations, dis similiar metals do wierd things

have you looked at the very high efficency gas water heaters tank type the 96% efficency ones?

upfront costs are higher but first hour ratings capacity etc are excellent

[trader4]

I've never used dielectrics on mine and have gotten normal life, ie 13 years or so, with no failures that were obviously attributable to the connections.