Sorry to abuse this group - but I've yet to find another that has the right "mentality" for doing things right. Something about a WW that implies a certain character trait for striving for perfection, albeit with a certain degree of cost consciousness.
ok.. onto the question
I am replacing my water heater. It's taller than the old one, so I need to make some plumbing changes. The flue should be fine, and I plan to use the existing gas line (black pipe into the heater - with a short run of new flex - then into more black pipe (with a shutoff). I'll wipe off the threads and apply a new batch of dope.
For the water lines, the old one had solid copper down to the heater, with a compression fitting of sorts right at the heater. I don't believe I can salvage that fitting. The new heater has male threads,
3/4" I believe.Should I plumb with solid copper? The most challenging solution? Or should I use some form of flex? Presumably I'd sweat on a male thread connector to my solid copper and then use a flex line between solid and heater. Is there a preference on flex? At HD, I see corrugated copper and some form of stainless steel. The stainless can be "pinched" and would seem to be "thinner" which to me implies more likely to fail.
Any help much appreciated.