Adventures in water heaters..

The old water heater tank sprang a leak on Saturday morning. Came out to the garage, and heard a high-pitch whine, and water all around the heater.

It appears the water heater was about 15 years old, and it was the cheapest unit they could find to install..

Of course, like all things in this house, they messed up the install.

Good news, the replacement gets kicked out of the garage, and is much smaller and better! Yahoo! I can finally fill the jacuzzi tub with out draining the water heater! Yes, I'm already planning on getting the 30% tax credit (not deduction - a CREDIT!).

 

[section525]

Is that the 74 Outdoor unit? I miss my tankless.

 

[tdavis]

Is that the 74 Outdoor unit? I miss my tankless.

6.6, from Home Despot.

12 year/5year/1year warranty.

Got it for $899, regularly $999.

Got change out a portion of the gas line, put in a earthquake valve (actually, this it's an excessive flow valve) and few other things.

 

[gmanpaint]

These are from yesterday. A home owner was changing his water heater. The report is, he swapped out the old with a new one, left for the day, and the gas was leaking all day, till KABLOOEY!!

The explosion was heard for miles away, leveled the home, damaged 15 homes around it that have evicted the owners because of structural damage, windows on homes & business as far as 12 blocks away shattered from the blast wave.

Remarkably, no one was hurt from this.

I am not trying to scare you Mr. Davis, but this freaked me out!
Bottom line, take care when dealing with gas.

 

[tdavis]

You see that short little pipe in the 2nd picture, near the yellow flex line?

That prevents what you just posted. If there is too much gas flow, it will cut off the gas.

Remember I said it's going from the garage, to the outside of the house. The garage is already open to the elements - yes, it's not insulated, and actually has a vent cut into it. No gas line inside the house will be touched, or in an enclosed area.

Last, I'm not an idiot. I know what natural gas can do. I did a complete remodel of my house, doing all the electrical, plumbing, structural, drywall, painting and finish work. It even passed a complete code inspection from the City..

 

[gmanpaint]

Ok OK. Did not intend to make you feel like I was calling you an idiot, really. Our neighborhood was just thru a horrific ordeal, and I seen replace water heater and wanted to share is all. I have no doubt your fully competent in your repairs. Sorry for that, apology accepted?

 

[SVO]

Hmmmmmmm








Jeff - :navajo:

 

[techieman33]

Wow that explosion makes the mythbusters water heaters look like childrens toys. Your going to love that tankless hot water heater. I know I love Jon's. It's nice to know that after a couple of other people have used the shower you don't have to worry about running out of hot water.

 

[Stic-o]

My father-in-law has a double water heater set up in his garage. If one goes out he still has reserve till he can replace the other.

In one of the houses I'm trying to see we have a tankless water heater in it. Not really impressed with it. takes awile to get up to speed if you will

 

[tdavis]

Steve - I'll bet it's not the tankless if it's slow to get hotwater, it's the location. Most tract homes have badly located water heaters - they don't think of how quick to get the water to where it's used, but where can we stick this dang thing so it's out of sight..

gmanpaint - don't worry, I didn't blow up the house..

Proof!

It's in and working. The gas line took a little bit of work - I removed a big loop from inside the garage, but I don't have a pipe cutter or threading tools, so I had to do trips to the despot to get the right size pipes.

So far, it's a winner! Total cost is about $1300 in parts. I was quoted $2200 and up to do it by a professional.

 

[tdavis]

This thing just rocks.

I love the fact I can turn on the shower, and not worry.

The temps have hit freezing here a few times in the past few weeks, and zero problems to date!

 

[BrooklynBay]

I have the Bosch tankless water heater from Lowe's for 2 1/2 years. http://www.explorerforum.com/reviewpost/showproduct.php/product/302/cat/all I had a 30 gallon & 40 gallon tank before this which took up a lot of space, and didn't last very long. The tanks are hard to get rid of since they are heavy. The tankless system is lightweight, compact, and efficient. I save about $8-$16 a month on my bill.

 

[DirtyDog]

Amazing. I have never seen a water heater installed outside and believe me I've installed a few. I'm glad to hear that there are people out there who like their tankless water heaters but I believe that depends on your location and water hardness.

For us here in Alberta, out water is hard and it can get fairly cool coming into the house. The cooler the water entering the heater, the more it has to slow it down to bring it up to temp. The slower it is, the fewer the hot fixtures you can run at one time.

At work, they are money makers. We have replaced heat exchangers in units as little as 1.5 years old. We are replacing one a month on average on ones that are the smaller residential sized ones to the bigger commercial ones. I believe this is due to a lack of maintenance. The reason for the funky valves on the inlet and outlet on the unit is to be able to clean them with acid to remove the scaling that is building up in the heat exchanger.

I'm not trying to discourage anyone from getting one I'm just letting everyone know that there is another side. I'm sure if you maintain it properly it will give you years of reliable service.