Quick basic advice on a dripping gas 40-gal hot-water heater

Nope.

Reply to
Rod Speed
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if the OPs home is galavanized its time for them to buy a PEX tool to replace their plumbing, PEX is cheap and super easy to work with.........

Reply to
hallerb

Strange, what few gas explosions I hear about are in jurisdictions that require permits (my city, the 4th largest in the nation) does not.

A 1/2" disconnected gas pipe in an average house (18,000 cu ft) will cause a low explosion level (LEL) in about 5 hours. This is sufficient time to evacuate to the next STATE, no matter where the house is located.

As the article from which I gleaned the above points out, a broken water heater gas line in a typical gargage will reach LEL in only six minutes. But it's only the garage...

Reply to
HeyBub

It would be worthwhile to check the local plumbing codes, there's a national code, but additional requirements vary by location.

Assuming the original heater was properly installed, you should be fine to do the new one exactly the same way. 3/4" seems awfully large for a water heater, all those I've dealt with were plumbed with 1/2" gas pipe and 3/4" water pipe. I'm not sure why the ball valve for the gas is being replaced as well, isn't there already a suitable shutoff valve? If you mess with the gas plumbing ahead of the shutoff, you have to pressure test it and have it inspected. Assuming the original plumbing is not damaged, I would leave the ball valve and everything ahead (closer to the gas meter) of it alone. Take care to hold the pipe so that it doesn't rotate and cause leaks at the joints when you disconnect it from the valve. Replace the flexible pipe between the heater and gas pipe in the house, you may or may not have to rearange the pipe from the heater to the flex depending on the location.

I can't speak for your area, but here the standard setup is black iron pipe in the house, with a 1/2" branch split off for the water heater. This goes directly to a ball valve to shut off the gas to that appliance, and out of that is a short length of black iron joining to a stainless flex which then connects to another short piece of black iron, occasionally with an elbow or two to change direction and connect up to the gas valve on the heater. Older houses often lack the stainless flex and instead do the whole thing with black iron using a ground joint union between the ball valve and the heater to let you put it all together, but I like the flex better, it's a lot easier to get things lined up.

When you do the flue vent, sometimes it goes straight up through the roof, in that case you'll probably have to get up on top and remove a screw or two through the roof jack to allow you to push the pipe up through the ceiling to let you slide the heaters in and out. If it goes off at an angle and tees into the furnace flue or goes through a wall, you can usually flex it enough to work. Take extra care to get the vent right, a gas leak you'll smell, a water leak you'll see, but an exhaust leak will just kill you.

As for insulation, often the water heater will come with some sections of pipe insulation to take care of the flex lines in and out of it.

Reply to
James Sweet

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Wow, that's a nasty filthy clogged up evaporator. I bet your A/C bill was a lot lower after cleaning that as well, and it probably kept the house a lot cooler.

Reply to
James Sweet

Very much so, the good ones anyway.

Reply to
James Sweet

It's mostly a matter of preference. When using teflon tape, there's yellow stuff rated for fuel use which is what you should use on gas lines, or you can use pipe dope. A book I have on plumbing which is written by a long time plumber recommends using both, and indeed I've started doing that on gas lines and have yet to have a leak. Put on a thin coat of pipe dope, wrap a couple layers of teflon tape tightly, then brush a little pipe dope over that and screw it in. Make sure the tape stays on the threads and doesn't scrunch back when you thread it in, and screw it down tight enough but not too tight, I know that's probably not very helpful but I don't know how to describe it. Use a pipe wrench, they're cheap. I use a pair of vice grip pliars to hold the existing pipe so I don't unscrew it while unscrewing fittings from that.

Reply to
James Sweet

You don't have to take the water heater anywhere. As I said, when my State had the thermocouple fail, all I did was call State up. They looked it up on their database, determined it was under warranty, and I had a replacement on my doorstep in 2 days. No charge, no sending parts back.

Now, I don't know exactly how they handle the case where you have a leaking water heater. Perhaps they have a local rep or dealer take a look at it. But I'm sure they don't want you shipping the water heater back to them.

- and - the

If the water heater fails, then you need a new one, don't you? Without the warranty, you're out not only the labor, but also the cost of buying a new water heater, which is ~$400.

The warrantee seems absolutely useless to me, after the first

It fails in year seven. With a 10 year warranty, you get a either free parts or a new tank. Without it, you get zippos and the labor is the same.

Well, what did you expect? That sounds perfectly reasonable to me. If the thermocouple, valve, burner assembly, etc go, you get those parts. If the tank goes, you get a whole new unit.

Who said you have to bring it to the store?

Do people really remove their

If you read my previous post, I told you exactly how State handled my warranty claim.

Does anything in the warranty say you have to use a Sears plumber? My State warranty had no reqt as to who had to make the repair. I made the repair myself and State had no problem simply supplying the parts.

I didn't drive mine anywhere.

Even if it were true that you had to bring the water heater back to where you bought it, your statement still wouldn't be true. Let's see. Water heater is spewing water from a shot tank. It's under warranty. Either way it has to be removed. Once it's out, under your scenario, you could take it back to where you bought it and get a new one for free. How does it cost $400 to take it back? Or you could go buy a new one for $400 and then do what with the old one? Many places you have to take it somewhere anyway to get rid of it. If you're getting a new one, it seems you could certainly take the old one back to the store. But I don't think this is a realistic scenario. They aren't going to expect you to drag the old one to them and they don't want it.

Reply to
trader4

i was selling a home and the jerk home inspector failed the brand new hot water tanks gas valve, and required it be installed by a licensed plumber.

the tanks manufacturer sent out a whole new controller within 2 days.

the plumber reported no leak on the original one, just a home inspector wanting to justify his fee.

plumber who i know said that sort of thing is common

Reply to
hallerb

its happened here a cable crew hit a natural gas line and left the area.

later some kids came home, turned on light and BOOM.

schools should be required to have a safety class, on all sorts of hazards, smell of gas, dont use electric around a pool, touch downed power lines, etc etc

Reply to
hallerb

I guess I must be lucky, the guy that did our home inspection was very nice and the only thing I can fault him on is the stuff he missed, and all of the stuff he missed he couldn't have seen without removing cover plates, moving ceiling tiles, etc. which he probably couldn't have done.

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

This has been a very informative thread. I didn't appreciate that our

15-year old water heater (61 gallon - State / 0.55 ER) is likely on borrowed time. The first one in our home was replaced after just 8 years (previous owner). As someone pointed out, now is probably a good time to start researching a replacement.
Reply to
clams_casino

i take a different view, after having one start leaking with house guests coming right before christmas.

i replace mine at the time of my choosing, on my schedule.

peace of mind and lack of hassles plus no worry about water leak damage, and can shop around for best deal, and get better efficency from new tank and i went larger with a high output tank.

do you wait for everything you own to totally quit before replacing?

hot water tanks are low cost.

my current one is 7 years old. its on borrowed time

Reply to
hallerb

Generally speaking, yes. I tend to drive cars until they get to the point (providing regular maintenance) of requiring significant repairs (as a second car, always maintaining a good first car).

I don't expect to replace appliances (vacuum cleaner, dish washer, stove, refrigerator, washer, dryer, toaster, etc) until they are in need of repair. It's at that point when I typically determine if its cost effective to replace or repair (typically it's best to toss at that point). I also wait for light bulbs to burn out, etc. My three lawn mowers each last about 15 years... till they died.

What other items do you replace on a regular basis?

Reply to
clams_casino

If your pipes are galvanized you don't need di-electric fittings Right and you are who certianaly not a plumber just a Mike Holmes wannabe, if you conect copper to galvenized you better use them but then Iam only a master plumber so what would I know

Reply to
jim

Thee are some codes as to what materials can be used. I doubt your job will be better.

We're waiting to hear the results though. Bill should have taken his "first" hot shower hours ago.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

I have repaired machines my entire life, i am 51 my vans are mid 90s but try to maintain them I dont buy new vehicles. I prefer to fix non critical appliances

mostly i have 2 of everything so when one breaks i use the back up.

2 washers, 2 dryers, 2 vans, 2 lawn mowers, spare tools, spare everything. if it werent for space i would have 2 hot water tanks, and 2 dishwashers

my basement where the hot water tank lives is my shop for my business, i sell and service office equiptement.

so i really dont want a basement full of water even a foot would be bad, and the moisture ruin inventory.

having had a hot water tank fail on christmas eve, in a snow storm with family coming to stay i would much prefer to replace a tank early in the morning on a spring day:)

warm dry comfy. no stress.

now lets look at the economics of tank replacement:)

DIY a 400 buck tank thats replaced in 8 years nets a cost of 50 bucks a year.

thats less than a decent candy bar a week...........

plus the new tank has better efficency and doesnt boil when heating. my current tank has started doing that......... wife doesnt like the noise, it can be heard upstairs.

did you know a person who buys a brand new mid priced car every 5 years, in a lifetime spends about $250,000 just on new car purchase.

now does my 400 buck purchase compare?

incidently we have some tough to get at light fixtures here, when one bulb burns out i replace them all. I prefer all fixtures to have multiple bulbs, when one burns out theres still enough light to see

Reply to
hallerb

All this talk about water heaters and I came home today to find I had no hot water. Went out to the garage and found a puddle around the heater and the flame was out. Fortunately it seems this time it was just a leaking joint on the flex pipe but it's a reminder that I need to start looking at replacements.

Reply to
James Sweet

Hi everyone,

Please take a look at the photos uploaded earlier today.

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Let's learn from this half-day effort replacing the water heater. We had to make a whole bunch of compromises we had not planned on! Would our final work pass your inspection? Why or why not (let's learn from this)?

By the way, just as you guys predicted:

- The drain valve snapped off while the tank was full of hot water

- The plumbing was corroded and broke in multiple places

- The water heater (still full of hot water) tipped over on us

- The anode had dissolved away to the bare steel rod

- The galvanized plumbing was almost completely clogged with rust

- The plumbing retrofit for the much larger heater was difficult

- The dialectric fittings and check valves were useless etc.

And, a few things you guys didn't predict:

- We found an ancient machete hidden behind the water heater!

- Trying to save the box to put the old heater in isn't worth it

- The cold water leaked due to thread corrosion even tightly screwed on

- Hot water leaked back into the heater when the cold water was shut

- The overflow pipe wasn't installed yet due to a question for you

- We loosened sandy sediment which clogged our showerheads etc.

Now that we're done, we have MORE QUESTIONS to ask (and hopefully we can all get the answers together).

Take a look at the photos uploaded earlier today:

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Let's learn from this half-day job. Would this hot water heater R&R pass your inspection? Why or why not?

Donna & Bill

Reply to
Donna Ohl, Grady Volunteer Coo

ote:

Generally, yes.

I guess I take a different tack; probably has to do with my upbringing (whole family is from rural PA, very, um, frugal...) I figure inspecting the anode regularly will tell me what I need to know about the tank condition and I can make an informed decision from there.

You may recall from my previous posts that I just replaced the anodes back in November on two ancient (80's) water heaters in my basement; it turns out that they were both still in good shape despite the solar one appearing to be near failure - the outside shell is very rusty and looking to be in poor condition but the anode was still intact enough that it appears it was never unprotected on the inside. Also I had thought that the solar one was leaking intermittently but it now appears that that was due to dry rotted condensate drain lines in the furnace and the slope of the floor (solar HWH is located near a low spot) repairing the furnace drain seems to have fixed the issue.

Basically, when you live in an area like I do where the housing costs are so high, you can't afford to simply replace stuff on a schedule, you replace it when it really needs to be replaced. I'll continue flushing and inspecting the anode; when this anode is gone (if I'm still living in the same place) then maybe I'll consider replacing the tank, as it'll be 30-40 years old by then :) (and hopefully I'll be making enough money by then that the mortgage won't be eating up half my take-home every month)

Yes, I "shop" for light fixtures and other supplies in the "free" section of Craigslist as well, and just bought a couple paneled doors for $12 each from the home salvage place up in Edmonton.

I'd like to think that when it does come time for me to move out of this house, despite the fact that I'm replacing very little, that the new owners will still find far fewer problems than I did upon moving in simply because I do address problems as they arise, and I do everything I can myself so I know it's done right.

nate

(officially licensed and certified cheap b*****d)

Reply to
N8N

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