I'd also recommend putting one of those plastic water catch pans under the new one, if the old didn't have one. It depends on where it's located as to how much benefit it is. But even in a basement, it can be useful. They have an outlet that you can connect a piece of hose to so that water goes where you want it, ie French drain, sump pump pit, etc, instead of wherever it would wind up if it leaks on the floor.
BZZZ. Wrong.
The gas inlet is threaded pipe. The water inlet and outlets are also threaded connections. Nobody makes gas water heaters with that don't have threaded connections.
You show me a water tank that has short lengths of raw copper pipes sticking out of the top. You won't, because you can't.
Same goes for the gas inlet. NO TORCH OR WELDING REQUIRED to hook up the gas line, like BGM (the OP) claims.
Even if I did have to rework the iron gas line, it would be a simple matter of screwing a few short lengths together, a 90-degree elbow or two. But I don't see why you would have to - unless you wanted to relocate the new water tank. It should have lined up with existing pipes as-is.
-1
Show me a natural gas hot water tank made in the last decade or two that doesn't have threaded connections for water and gas supply.
around here lots of people are using the flexible brite yellow gas lines originally designed for gas dryers and gas stoves...
Just because the tank has a threaded connection doesn't say anything about what it's connected to. Very typically it's connected to a copper male adaptor which is then soldered to the home plumbing system Claire told you similar. But then being you, I know it's hard.
After shoehorning a new water heater into place, I recall a sense of amazement that the damn thing lined up exactly with the existing plumbing. U figured it was going to be another adventure in modern plumbing.
Yea - that's something I didn't think of.
Your water heater doesn't move around, shake or vibrate like a clothes dryer does. The use of a short flexible link to connect a gas water heater is a much safer application of those flex lines than any other gas-using consumer device.
(-: That's pretty outrageous for a flippin' water heater. I have to decide now whether to buy one now on sale and store it or just bite the bullet and pull the old one out *before* it starts leaking. It's about as old as yours, but it sees fairly light use. Nine hundred dollars. You'd think it was a self-powered polonium core unit with gold filigree.
What - do you expect every joint and elbow in the water distribution lines in house is going to have threaded connections?!
What kind of bone-head are you?
The point of this discussion is that you people are claiming that it's hard, oh so hard to connect a new hot water tank yourself because you have to break out the torch and welder, because nobody uses threaded connections, yet you completely miss the point that the most crucial location (and really, the ONLY place you need or want to have threaded connections) is on the friggin device or appliance itself. Why you would want threaded connections or unions anywhere else makes absolutely no sense.
And if you want a threaded joint somewhere in a water pipe where it currently doesn't exist, you cut the friggen copper pipe and solder one on. If you can't do that, then what the hell are you doing reading and posting to this news group? You should be reading rec.crafts.sewing or baking or similar.
A common internet meme ...
... that has never happened in real life.
You did right. No hassle for you. It's within the range of a typical plumber install. And you trust them. Sometimes it's best to have somebody else do it.
Hold on, there is some truth to it.
While there is no known case of an insurance company latching on to a DIY repair to avoid paying a valid claim,
there are MANY cases of a DIY'er accidentally burning the house down while tackling a repair beyond his level of skill.
Just saying.
Just for the hell of it,
No, but apparently you do.
You're lying. I never said any such thing.
It makes perfect sense. The WH I have and the other ones that are typically installed here, are like Claire told you. There is a male copper adaptor that is screwed into the tank. Or many of them come with dielectric nipples, so you use a female adaptor. From there copper pipe with solder joints connects it to the system. That is a very typical install. Capiche?
http://designhome.pics/how-to-drain-a-water-heater/42/drain-your-hot-water- heater%E2%80%A6/
Got it now?
Alternatively you could have uni "Then you unscrew the couplers and move the old tank out of the way. "
Well, if there is no coupler on the old system, ie it's soldered in, then you can't unscrew it, idiot.
No shit Sherlock. But the OP said he doesn't have a torch, doesn't know how to solder, doesn't want to work with gas, etc. Is that so hard to comprehend? You claimed no soldering was involved just screwed connections. Make up your mind.
A lot of people come here looking for advice on how to proceed with a repair project that may include using a pro. They don't need your insults, especially when you don't know WTF you're talking about.
use the flexible gas line if needed
use sharkbites with PEX or copper.....
No sweating of pipes necessary
Unless you live in earthquake country (most of the continental US can be subject to earthquakes, albeit rarely).
Like Claire, I didn't assume anything. No one knows how the old WH is connected. No one knows for example if there is an old shutoff valve that should be replaced and that is soldered in. The old tank could be soldered in, no unions. And for the benefit of Homelessguy, no I don't mean the tank itself is soldered in. You typically have a threaded copper adaptor there and then it could be solder joints from there on.
OP said he doesn't have a torch, never soldered, etc. This is a fairly simple job, if you have the right skills and everything lines up, like it may. But if the OP doesn't have the skills, isn't comfortable screwing around with gas connections, etc, then he shouldn't be made to feel bad for using a pro.
True, especially soldering. Once you know how, it is really easy. If you've never held a torch it is very intimidating. Sharkbite fittings though, make it possible for many people to do plumbing they never could before.
OTOH, there are many people that should never attempt to change out a water heater. Chances are, they have other skills that I'll never have, such as singing and dancing. .
The vega and the impala came out of the same factory too, and both were chevies. Was the extra thousand or so for the impala a rip-off?
There ARE differences between the cheapest and the best water heater of the same brand - and I bought mine, a GE (made by rheem) 3 years ago. It has the brass drain valve, not plastic, and 2 anodes as well as the turbulator tube - which the cheep ones did NOT have.
My last one, a 9 yr warrany GSW, lasted well over 20 years ( I believe it was 24), compared to the contractor installed cheepy that lasted something like 12 years.
I NEVER buy the cheepest of anything that matters, and seldom the most expensive. It's called buying for VALUE, not price.
Current cost is $494 at my local Home Despot, plus tax = $558 including HST here in Ontario. So I wasn't very far off saying $600. The warranty is 50% longer, for a difference in price of $92 - or less than 25% - and it DOES have the brass valve, double anodes, and the turbulator tube. It is also 40,000 BTU compared to the cheap one at
36000 for faster recovery.I'd say I got value for my $92. You don't think so? That's YOUR problem, not mine.
I was referring to the WATER connections. Sorry.
But the average plumber, and most DIY installers, cheap out and thread the connector to the water heater with pipe soldered to the connector, then solder that pipe right to the water pipes in the house. Saves them 2 unions at something like $10 each, and saves them
2 solder joints.Didn't say they did. But they don't have unions on them either.
Different brand of water heater - and 24 years later. New one has different gas valve and piezo ignitor, about 15 degrees of rotation from the original in reference to the water pipe connections. About 6 inches difference in height too if memory serves me correctly - and different diameter - so EVERYTHING had to be modified. No problem - I had it changed in just over an hour - this wasn't my first prom!!!
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