Dammit, need a new water heater

Post #319,322 by drook 12/30/09 11:37:41 AM Reply	Dammit, need a new water heater This one's 15 years old, so way past its rated life. But still annoying and unplanned. -- Drew
Post #319,324 by boxley 12/30/09 11:58:28 AM Reply	:-( hope you can do it yourself
Post #319,330 by Another Scott 12/30/09 12:52:08 PM Reply	Ditto. Good luck.
Post #319,333 by folkert 12/30/09 1:16:02 PM Reply	$400 is he can't. That blows. My next one and I can get rid of the chimney. I'm getting a "H-E" water heater next time. My Furnace is H-E, but the water heater is not. Once it is, the Chiment can come down and I can re-claim the 26"x26" floor to ceiling "box" in the bathroom.
Post #319,335 by Another Scott 12/30/09 1:46:46 PM Reply	Tankless sounds great... But the idea of having to run 50-150A service to each bathroom (and a new main breaker cabinet - http://www.gotankles...requirements.html ), or new gas lines to each sink (and possible exhaust), isn't terribly appealing. I saw a "how it's made" show on TV that showed these A.O. Smith HE tanks being manufactured. Neat stuff, but spendy - $2k! http://www.hotwater....idential/gas.html I have no idea how long it would take to pay for itself (it probably can't), but natural gas isn't going to be getting cheaper... Cheers, Scott.
Post #319,337 by boxley 12/30/09 1:54:11 PM Reply	te funnay someone takes a radiator concept puts it in a round case and gets 2k
Post #319,339 by Another Scott 12/30/09 2:11:32 PM Reply	There's a little more to it than that... ;-) Compare the manufacture of a conventional water heater with the HE: Conventional: http://www.youtube.c...tch?v=1ofSyXUW0TY HE: http://www.youtube.c...tch?v=6nLuRvM1iMc A.O. Smith will probably have to have competition from LG or Samsung to be forced to reduce the price. :-( Cheers, Scott.
Post #319,332 by Andrew Grygus 12/30/09 1:15:39 PM Reply	Water heater replacement is always unplanned. You first notice you have a problem is when the floor is flooded. Unfortunately they've gone waaaaaay up in price over the years (I'm on my third one now). Replacement is easy, except for wrestling the weight. Around here disposal is really easy. I just leave the old one in the driveway and Mexican scavengers will spot it within days and come knocking at the door. The last ones that come around got more than they bargained for. They'd spotted an old communications cabinet. They left with that, three large copy machines, a huge and ancient Xerox laser printer, heaps and piles of old computer cabinets, and much more. Their big stake bed truck was full.
Post #319,344 by drook 12/30/09 3:16:48 PM Reply	I didn't get the flood Last night we smelled something burning coming through the heater ducts. I shut down the furnace and water heater, since I couldn't identify where it was coming from, and shut down the gas to both. Figured it was already past midnight, throw an extra blanket on each of the kids and deal with it in the morning. Today, sent the kids to their grandparents while I fired the furnace back up. No smell anywhere. Hmm. Fired the water heater up and no smell. Checked the exhaust and it was drawing just fine. Hmm. Called the guy who does our heating stuff to come check it out. He re-did what I did: Shut everything down, turned on one then the other. When the water tank fired up, the flame shot out the access port a little bit. It's got a metal shield that goes over it, so I had never worried about it. (It's done that before when I had to relight the pilot light after a blew out.) He showed me the faint smudge of smoke above the T&P valve, which means every time the burner was lighting it was singing the insulation and venting through the opening for the T&P valve. Which is far enough away from the exhaust to not get drawn up, but right next to the inlet for the furnace. So if the water tank lights up just before the furnace kicks on, it draws in the burnt exhaust smell. So even if the tank itself is still good, the regulator on the burner is shot. And it's 15 years old. And the gas line leading up to it is no longer up to code. I ain't working on a gas line. He's downstairs right now putting in a high-efficiency Rheem for $600. Which is about what I could buy the tank for retail. I looked at the tankless, and best estimate is it would pay for itself in 15 years. I don't plan on still being here by then. -- Drew
Post #319,342 by crazy 12/30/09 2:47:12 PM Reply	My bro's recent experience Brother's father in-law calls. They have a house in the Poconos that they JUST put a new boiler for the radiater heat, and it doesn't work. Can he please check it out? Brother lives 10 minutes from the house. Who put it in? Buddy. Buddy? You let Buddy put a heater in? WTF is wrong with you? Oh, so he checks it out. Really low heat high efficiency boiler. It refuses to run. The sensors say it is dangerous. Huh? This thing is designed to have a 30 foot chimney over it, so the exhaust draws itself out via heat. It cannot simply be exhausted out the wall a few feet away, which is what the guy did. My brother, who is blind and does not drive, does the research to what the manufacturer requires. He finds out you can add in a series of exhaust fans that are controlled by the furnace, but it is very expensive. At least for them to do it. He tracks down the parts and installs it. It takes 2 minutes and 3 or 4 devices to all work correctly (talking to each other as well) and fire up. Kind of scary. I can see where a joint hardware / sensor failure could create a dangerous situation, but I have no idea what the reliability of these components are.

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