Water heater woes....
Whilst putting on a door from the kitchen to the laundry room, I went down to the basement to see if I had a circular saw still. I noticed there was an awful lot of water on the floor and in the wrong place (there's usually water down there). Turns out, there was water running DOWN my hot water heater. At first I thought a fitting was leaking -- then I realized the leak was from in the HWH itself. I turned off the cold feed and the pilot -- someone turned on the water upstairs and I heard it sucking air in through the top of the tank (never a good thing). SO, this Christmas just got more than a tad dicey. A new unit will be just about $300 (we need a shorty forty). The real kicker? The new units cost MORE to operate than the 6 year old model we have now! How on earth is it that we're 5-6 years later and the EnergyGuide numbers are higher than back then? <Grumble therms/btus, recovery rate, and so forth are on this other model so I'm guessing that would account for the difference but it's gotta make ya wonder!!! James
But would it be as pointless as your response? Probably not.
The Hot water heater is shot,gone kapoot.
That's an understatement. The issue at the moment is whether we need to power vent for a horizontal duct going from the water heater to the chimney flue. Seems folks are of differing opinions -- some say you always need to power vent with horizontal connections while others say you do not as long as there is a reasonable rise to the flue. Unfortunately, I couldn't get anyone at the inspectors' offices this afternoon -- evidently they are only in their offices during the early morning.
If I may make a suggestion, there are these whole house on demand water heaters that are supposed to be just great as far as cost to use is concerned but the up front cost is a bit steep. They are relatively small but require the dual pipe venting and a serious gas pipe. The best time to get them is when you have to replace. It's been a while, but I know that at least one of the manufacturers has a web page with all the technical specs and installation instructions. Just a suggestion. John
Nice idea but not quite an option here at the moment -- we're busy remodeling and repairing so.... :) The original goal was to put in a tankless (Takagi) next year and move all of the mechanicals to the laundry room -- of course, this somewhat moves the schedule forward on that replacement. :) There's no way we can get the tankless unit though, so we're just going to have to go with what we can manage at this point in the rennovation. The pipes are pretty messy down there so I'll be pulling them all out I think. I have a copper bonding agent that supposedly takes the place of flux and sodder, so I'll be giving that a spin this time around (think of the ease of hooking PVC together but with copper instead). That alone will greatly speed up the entire process. I'm also going to use this as an opportunity to put in lots and lots of valves so I can shut off flow to any of a number of water units when needed.
On Thursday, Dec 16, 2004, at 14:57 US/Eastern, secornell@... If you don't heat hot water, it eventually becomes cold water. -- --jmowreader High quality hot dogs come eight in a package. If you're wondering why hot dogs come in packs of 10 and buns in packs of 8, it's because you're a skinflint.
And considering that the original poster's problem was a heater that didn't work, he didn't have ANY type of water heater at all .. hot water heater or otherwise. :- - Ela
I don't know why the bickering is going on, as I am pretty sure we are all adults here and could handle this as such; rather than petty derogatory comments. Flame must be busy with the holidays and that seems to be the only reason this little back and forth is able to be kept up. I for one have always liked that non-constructive arguments are not let to drag on and on in this group. Aren't you? Let it go, sheesh! Kati In Iowa