water heater leaking!

Thread on a fitting and solder it up - for the water. Instead of using unions like a smart guy would. As for the gas piping, lots of guys work back from the water heater so the union is up ar ceiling hieght - makes it a bugger to make minor changes. My union is about 8 inches from the gas valve.

Reply to
clare
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Everybody here, even Homelessguy knows you were talking about the water connections.

I don't do it to save the unions, the cost of the unions, etc. I do it because it's faster, easier and less likely to leak. Unions are just another spot that can leak and don't really offer much. I avoid them unless they are really necessary and for the typical WH, they aren't. To get the old one out, you just run the pipe cutter around the pipe. Get the new one in, use a copper repair coupling, solder it up. Quick, easy, nothing to leak.

Homelessguy is clueless. He somehow thinks that only he knows that WHs have threaded fittings and that fact that they do means they can just go in, no solder, no unions, no other special fittings. Just screw the WH right into the rest of the plumbing.... go figure.

Exactly. Most times it can be a drop in where everything works out. But sometimes it's not. It's a big leap to make assumptions without knowing what the OP has. Or as I said before, how about if he has a soldered in old shutoff valve that should be replaced? If you have the skills and the tools, it's easy, but if you don't, another example of things you can run into. And if you don't have the skills and screw it up, flood the house, blow it up, is it worth it? Is Homelessguy going to pay to make it right?

Reply to
trader_4

And around here the inspectors do NOT like the stuff. I don't like the crap either.

Reply to
clare

Makes no sense? How in blazes do you expect to "unwind" the threaded fitting, whether it be gas or water, without a union? Or are you one of those Mensa types that uses compression fittings???

Reply to
clare

Mabee not NEVER, but it would be a very very rare occurrence..

Reply to
clare

Or using a match to find a gas leak - - -

Reply to
clare

Did you get to the pictures??? I didn't find them.

Reply to
clare

The water heater got replaced today. I watched what the guy did and am glad I didn't attempt it myself. I'm not a klutz with tools and can fix things, especially electronics or electrical things. I can build computers and make them work.

After turning off the water to the house and draining the thing, the two copper water lines at the top had to be cut off even though they were threaded into the water heater. The gas line was a different pipe of course, and that got unscrewed. The replacement water heater that came was a Ruud 50 gallon tall one which was not what we had ordered. The guy had to go get the 40 gallon version and come back later.

After taking out the old one and putting in the new one, he screwed in some pre-made copper extensions onto the water lines of the heater then he had to cut back some of the existing pipe to make everything match up. More couplings came out to make the proper connections and he then soldered them all together. Of course he had the torch, flux, solder, and some sort of pipe dope for the gas fittings that I didn't have. He also had to resize the gas pipe extensions and reseal all that a couple of times because of the gas leaking. He also bled the relief valve to let the air out of the tank -- something I would not have known to do.

Considering all the tools I didn't have, no truck to transport these water heaters, no curbside pickup in my town, a family that can't be without water while I try to figure out what I've done wrong, going back and forth to the hardware store several times, I think it was best to pay the professional to do the job.

Reply to
badgolferman

I'm glad I learned from my dad to be electrically and mechanically inclined. I've rebuilt Chrysler Slant/6 and 318 engines, done body work and welding, designed and built a speech synthesizer board for my IBM PC back in 1983 - all of that while I was still in high school.

Naturally I've done much more since then. It's hard for me to relate to men that can't do simply plumbing I guess...

Reply to
HomeGuy

An example from last month:

The fire broke out just after 10 p.m. Saturday ... He said the family had replaced the water heater Saturday.

Reply to
Wally W.

Yea, but it doesn't say if they did it themselves, or had a "professional" do it.

But there's a bigger issue with that story.

Water heaters are supposed to have safety valves.

Even if there were shut-off valves on both the inlet and outlet - and they were both shut off,

Even if the thermostat fails and calls for continuous heat,

The over-pressure valve is supposed to kick in and prevent a pressure buildup (and tank explosion).

Also note that it doesn't say if the tank is electric or natural gas.

Reply to
HomeGuy

Hi, What? I was looking at them last long week end. 40 Gal. 12 yr. one was almost 900.00.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Hmm, My Sears 40 gal. 9 year one is going into 13th year now.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Hi, Well, it seems he knows every thing.... His knowledge is rehashed from Internet, sounds like.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

You could make the first water connection by turning the WH round and round. :) The second one, IDK. And if he's talking about using a compression type fitting, you'd think he would have said so by now.

Reply to
trader_4

The point Claire was responding to was not that WHs can cause fires. It was the part about the insurance company denying the claim for a DIY install that later caused the fire.

Reply to
trader_4

I wouldn't take that short story to mean that the tank itself necessarily blew up. More likely it was gas and that caused the explosion and fire.

Reply to
trader_4

Good for you and thanks for being so observant. I especially like the part about the plumber having to redo the gas line to put it in. Exactly what many of us here were saying, that it's not always just a straight drop in replacement like the village idiot claims it is.

Reply to
trader_4

I also thank you for the detailed follow up. I may print that out, and show people who want to DIY.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Correction:

So even the contractor "cheepy" outlasted the 9-year warranty that your premium tank offers.

When we're talking about warranty and water heater, we're largely talking about the fact that it's a pressure vessel and it can fail by leaking. Other small differences (brass or plastic drain, anodes, turbulators) really don't factor into differences in cost when looking at 6 yr vs 9 yr warranties.

My heater is a GE "Smart Water" model GG40S06CVG, 36000 btu, plastic drain, brass hi-pressure vent/valve. I think it has a turbulator. There isin't much on the web about that model. I'm sure it's 6 years old by now.

The diff between 9 yr and 6 yr is inconsequential to me, and so is the

4K difference in BTU, so as far as I'm concerned you paid $92 extra for a brass drain valve and an extra anode (maybe - have no clue how many I have).

Would I pay $92 for a brass drain valve and an extra annode? Probably not.

Would I pay an extra $1000 for dual exhaust, power windows, FM radio with 8-track and air conditioning in the Impala vs Chevelle? Maybe.

For a stationary object that lives it's life without interaction (or even visibility) with people and can typically provide service for 10 to

20 years, I dare you to explain how anyone outside of the manufacturing and service industry can possibly have any idea how to appraise the VALUE of something like a water heater when browsing the various models in a retail setting like Home Despot, expecially when elements of it's construction that have a direct impact on service life (the pressure vessel itself) is not visible without significant disassembly or deconstruction of the item.

And it's been well established that these "cheap" heaters can routinely outlast their minimal 6-year warranty by a factor of 2 or more.

Your $92 is largely to f> Well, it seems he knows every thing.... His knowledge is rehashed

After years of consumer experience, you should have learned by now that selling extra warranty coverage is highly profitable for the manufacturer or retailer no matter what product we're talking about (cars, electronics, water heaters, etc).

Reply to
HomeGuy

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