Converting direct vent gas water heater?

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Larry Johnson

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1st question: My sister-in-law and her husband just moved into a 2005 condo. When they had the inspection done the previous owner had stacked all their packed belongings around the water heater and the inspector could not get near it. Then the sellers asked if they could have the rest of the day after closing to move their stuff out. She agreed. After a few days she noticed the water heater was leaking. There is rust around the seam in the metal near the bottom. Can this happen in less than a week?
2nd question: Her plumber said that it would be $2200 to replace the water heater because it's a State direct vent gas water heater. They've spent everything they have getting her into this condo. Her husband has stage 4 lung cancer and is very weak and cannot deal with this. I'm wondering if a tankless gas water heater would be a cheaper option. I have installed regular water heaters and have done many other plumbing jobs at my home and family members' homes but I've not installed these. How difficult is it? There are 3 open slots on the electric panel which is about 12 feet away and on the same wall. I am open to gas or electric, tank or tankless. Any ideas what the best option would be? Thanks!
 

Dana

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Water heater jackets can look rusty well before they actually leak. They can spring a minor leak at any time even if they don't look rusty. Were the sellers hiding something? Maybe, but if they knew it was leaking they'd be taking the risk of a major flood by while they were still there if they put it off. I'm not sure if there is a legal case to be made for compensation here (the buyer's inspector should have flagged it), and it's probably best to just move on.

A tankless will almost always cost more than a replacement gas-fired tank, since it usually requires major re-plumbing for fatter gas lines to support the much bigger burner (and sometimes it even needs upgrading the gas meter.)

The cheapest way out from an up-front cost point of view is replacing it with an electric tank type hot water heater. The operational cost of an electric tank will usually be quite a bit higher for high volume water users, but for a 2 person household there's no way to rationalize the up front cost difference in that situation. A discount hardware store closeout or (scratch'n'dent but new) 40 gallon electric hot water heater can sometimes cost less than $200. A brand new 6 year warranty version from Sears runs about $400 (and for low-volume households there's no worry about it lasting "only" 6 years- most will go at least a decade no matter what.)
 

Larry Johnson

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Water heater jackets can look rusty well before they actually leak. They can spring a minor leak at any time even if they don't look rusty. Were the sellers hiding something? Maybe, but if they knew it was leaking they'd be taking the risk of a major flood by while they were still there if they put it off. I'm not sure if there is a legal case to be made for compensation here (the buyer's inspector should have flagged it), and it's probably best to just move on.

A tankless will almost always cost more than a replacement gas-fired tank, since it usually requires major re-plumbing for fatter gas lines to support the much bigger burner (and sometimes it even needs upgrading the gas meter.)

The cheapest way out from an up-front cost point of view is replacing it with an electric tank type hot water heater. The operational cost of an electric tank will usually be quite a bit higher for high volume water users, but for a 2 person household there's no way to rationalize the up front cost difference in that situation. A discount hardware store closeout or (scratch'n'dent but new) 40 gallon electric hot water heater can sometimes cost less than $200. A brand new 6 year warranty version from Sears runs about $400 (and for low-volume households there's no worry about it lasting "only" 6 years- most will go at least a decade no matter what.)
I'm thinking that might be the simplest way to go. We did think that the rust on the heater and the floor below wouldn't prove anything, and it's best just to move on as you said. I don't know how much an electrician would cost to run the 220v from the WH to the electric panel, but I guess that's for another forum. I would rather not work with 220v so I have to factor that cost into it, too. Thanks for you suggestions. I think we may go that way!
 

Gary Swart

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Running a 220 circuit from the panel to the heater would not overly costly. It would of course depend on where the panel and water heater are located, but still far less than all that would have to be done to ramp up the gas for a tankless which are not cheap themselves.
 
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