Hi All,
My water heater is sitting in a drain pan. I don't see how I can drain it without elevating it above the lip of the drain pan to attach a hose. It was that way when I bought the house. Any advice on what to do appreciated.
James
4 letter word - HOSE
If your water heater "lets loose" and dumps 40 gallons of water, the drain pan is not going to do you much good. I'd just cut a channel in it to get at the spigot. I have no idea why they'd put a drain pan in an area to block it. OTOH: Why do you want to drain it?
Connect a drain pipe. Is it a round drain pan, intended for water heaters? There should be no need to elevate anything. If it's not round, it might just be a pan.
Every drain pan I've seen has a place close to the floor to attach a 2" drain pipe, plastic or something. Have you looked around the whole circumference?
You're right. Without a drain pipe, it will just drain four inches from where it would have without a pan. Although I think I have seen such an installation.
I missed this. Why do you want to drain it? I can't imagine a good reason.
My advice about connecting a pipe (or hose) was for when it starts leaking. .
Attach a hose and portable pump and dump the water in the nearest drain.
Cut a hole in the side of the pan, and patch the hole later?
Four letter word - READ Scroll up, and read the part in [brackets].
If the drain connection is so close to the lip of the pan that nothing else will work, that's the best option I see, if it has to be drained. If there is enough room to get a 90 deg hose fitting on there, those are available in the garden section.
If the need is just for routine maintenance, if it came to cutting the pan, I think I just wouldn't drain it. Another factor is, how old is it? If it's a 10 year old gas heater and it hasn't been drained, it's nearing typical end of life point anyway.
Most water heaters develop a small leak at first. That's what the drain pa n is for.
Hi, Do you have normal IQ?, LOL!
Or a bigger leak if you route the drain on the pan to someplace where the water can go without creating damage.
I've always had a water develop a leak right at the drain after trying to drain it - IMHO, there's no need to drain them unless you have really bad water issues.
My water heater is inside the house in a "utility closet". They don't always fail catastrophically - when my water heater failed, we noticed not as hot water as normal for an evening shower (exceptionally cold out - figured that had something to do with it), and almost no hot water the next morning. When I went to look at the water heater in the morning, the pan was just starting to overflow - si it was a slow drip. I turned off the water, used my shop vac to suck out the water in the pan, and hooked a garden hose up to the water heater and drained it to the outside.
The original pan had a drain to the outside, but the guy that installed it originally had a backflow preventer in the drain line - installed the wrong way - so the pan simply overflowed !
I had the guy that replaced the water heater reorient the drip pan under the heater and put a drain fitting in the side of the pan (without a backflow preventer) that tied into the condensate line for the AC - that line drains to the outside, too.
I believe what he is saying is that the pan edge is so close to the drain connection that he can't get a hose on it. That's why I suggested a 90deg elbow that's available in the garden supplies might be an option.
On Thu, 6 Feb 2014 11:15:44 -0600, snipped-for-privacy@optonline.net wrote (in article ):
It's in an inside closet along with my washer and dryer no floor drain or anything :(
I just did an image search. Not all hose bibs are that high up. I have no idea how old this unit is, but there were other images of low hose bibs. Just sayin'...
That works fine if you're home to see t he small leak, and not away for
2 weeks.It works okay if not home when the big leak starts your WH is in the basement, near the sump pump, and not in an apartment with cement floors under the carpet and padding, so that the 40 gallons doesn't spread to the rest of your apartment.
It works mildly well if you're not home and the WH leaks into the apartment downstairs, ruining the ceilings and who knows what else.
Most people take 2 week vacations once a year so that's about one in 26 people who won't be home when the the small leak starts.
Right.
On Thu, 6 Feb 2014 08:03:09 -0600, snipped-for-privacy@optonline.net wrote (in article ):
There is actually a hole in the pan with a pvc fitting in it but it's turned at an angle to the heater spout and the spout points downward so it doesn't look like there's enough room for an angle fitting.
On Thu, 6 Feb 2014 12:33:42 -0600, snipped-for-privacy@optonline.net wrote (in article ):
That may not be possible in this particular situation but the pans are cheap so if I have to kill it I won't be pissed. Never lived in a house that had a drain pan under the water heater so I was kinda surprised. I thought draining the water heater periodically was proper maintenance to remove sediment in the bottom and it will need to replaced eventually anyway. In reality it will have to be drained at some point, so I do not understand the snide remark or the questions about why I want to drain it. I'm here to learn things.
Thank you for trying to be helpful :)
On Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:33:23 -0600, Oren wrote (in article ):
The hose bib is only about 2-1/2" from the bottom of the tank :(
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