Can I haul a new water heater home on its side?

snipped-for-privacy@rochester.rr.com wrote in news:8f9de4ac-f912-4f14-bf65- snipped-for-privacy@m45g2000hsb.googlegroups.com:

Tie it upright to the front bumper like you're haulin' home a trophy buck that you just shot.

Big_Jake wrote in news:2e7c4728-1b5d-4a3c-803b- snipped-for-privacy@s50g2000hsb.googlegroups.com:

Maybe if you hauled it properly, you wouldn't have to keep re-installing new ones.

Idiot.

You actually get "cold" water from the taps in Texas? I would think that the water coming into the house there would be "tepid".

JK

re: I have never seen so much BS in a thread on this group.

What BS?

If my math is correct, 99% of the responders either said it was OK to haul it on it's side or made a joke about it. The only one who said to haul it upright missed the part where the OP said he had a cap on his truck, and then corrected himself.

Where's the BS you mention?

I know this is a question, but c'mon, the anode is a metal rod

Yeah, 30 years ago. Someone else already caught this.

This sounds like good advice, but the box actually protects it pretty well. The worst you might do it put a dent in it. Again, I load them by pivoting the carton all the time, and have never damaged one. But the real danger is pivoting it on the gas control, which is relatively easy to damage.

Respect to aem, who posts all the time, but again, the heater is in a heavy carton. Also, there is a layer of insulation between the tank and the jacket, which makes the heater harder to dent or kink. Unlike a file cabinet or refrigerator, you aren't like to see the dent you put in a heater, since they are usually installed in closets, basements, attics, utility rooms, etc.

JK

Never had to replace one that I installed.

Well, that's constructive and beneficial to the group.

JK

What's worse, if the preheated water leaks below a certain level, air gets into the extrabulator, and oxidizes the catalyst. The catalyst in a HWH is almost the complete price of the entire unit, to replace. So, maybe you'd best have a plumber out to do the install?

OTOH, just put the HWH tank in your truck, smile, and be done with it. Please use lead free solder.

re: I know this is a question, but c'mon, the anode is a metal rod

Not BS, just an ignorant (but not stupid) question.

re: Yeah, 30 years ago. =A0Someone else already caught this.

Not BS, just an ignorant (but not stupid) belief

Semantics perhaps, but not BS

You said it yourself: "The ONLY thing that you have to watch out for is that you don't smack the gas valve while transporting it"

He said stress, you said smack. You say tomaaato, I say tamotto.

(Now *that's* BS - I don't really say tamotto)

re: 4)Avoid kinking, like a cheap file cabinet or fridge...

Even if we grant you this one as a possible BS candidate, IMO a single instance doesn't measure up to "I have never seen so much BS in a thread on this group. "

Not this time of year, I don't. It starts out chilly, then warms up after I use up the water that was sitting inside the walls.

re: ... after I use up the water that was sitting inside the walls.

You really should get that fixed.

I thought about it, but life is too short to live in a house without walls.

No, but heating it does take less energy than heating cold water. People do it to save on their energy bills.

I've always carried them laying down and have never had a problem. I was once told that the only reason that statement is on the box is to keep people from laying it on the side that has the controls on it.

Whatever.

I suspect that it also stops people from laying it on its side and then piling another stack of water heaters on top of it.

My air compressor had a similar warning on the box.

I concede and bow to your greater patience for lame answers to newsgroup questions.

JK

It's a cold water heater, a hot water heater is a boiler. *snicker*

I was told years ago not to transport water heaters horizontally because their long internal Magnesium anode rods are fragile suspended out supported only by one end.

In the real world, I've transported 8 or 10 new ones horizontally through the years, but have always been extra careful of road bumps, and to not to mechanically 'shock' the heater while on it's side.

If you do break a rod, you won't have any way of knowing, and it won't 'rear' it's ugly head till the tank rusts through pre-maturely...

Erik

You wouldn't hear the broken rod rattling around in the inside of the heater as you installed it?

JK

How water heaters are for those who like to cook in the shower :-)