Remove Water Piping From Heater

[Eflickinger]

Hello,

I'm trying to inspect / replace the anode rod on my Bradford White water heater. I see that the water piping has a combination of PEX / CPVC and unions, but i'm not that familiar with the connections. As I started to turn the hex nut at the bottom to loosen and remove the hot water outlet it seemed like the whole water pipe was twisting. What I am doing wrong here - do I need to disconnect something else first? Sorry for the potentially trivial question.

Thanks!

 

[Helper Dave]

Those aren't unions per se. They're transition adapters glued on to the cpvc.

Snip those zip ties off, then loosen the nut on the nipple going into the water heater. There should be enough play with the pex to allow it to thread up and pop off. That whole pipe might spin, but that's just the nature of pex connections.

Getting the nipple out is a whole other challenge. They don't give you much to grip on. Prepare to wreck the threads.