Water Heater Replacement Help - Picture Attached

[r_ventura_23]

I have to swap this out this week, and all my tools are over 100 miles away. All I have is a pipe cutter. Hot is easy enough, using the shark bite with one end that goes to the heater and the other end to the copper pipe, but what about the cold side? I feel like I would be twisting it two much. Any suggestions?

 

[Master Plumber Mark]

call a plumber

 

[Sponsor]

 

[r_ventura_23]

LOL. He wants $1300. I can install in, just don't have my tools.

 

[Standardairconditioner]

LOL. He wants $1300. I can install in, just don't have my tools.

LOL on you.

Well, then go get your tools.

As Mark also put it, best suggestion is to call the plumber.

 

[r_ventura_23]

Thanks. I will just buy new tools. Much cheaper than paying someone $600 an hour.

 

[Reach4]

Hot is easy enough, using the shark bite with one end that goes to the heater and the other end to the copper pipe, but what about the cold side? I feel like I would be twisting it two much.

It seems odd that Sharkbite does not publish a minimum bend radius.

 

[Terry]

Thanks. I will just buy new tools. Much cheaper than paying someone $600 an hour.

You won't need many tools for that. Though if I were doing the job, I would wind up soldering and not using a sharkbite type fitting. Most of the time, the relief line needs some work too. You will need to work on the venting too. I wish I could hire you, doing that in one hour sounds good to us. You're making me feel slow now.

 

[Dana]

+1 on fixing the venting. As installed it appears to have negative slope between the ells rather than constantly ascending from the water heater, and it's a bit cockeyed where it meets the draft hood, and may not even be attached.

 

[Master Plumber Mark]

How come you think I make 600 per hour???
Just where are you getting that idea anyway>>>???

I think that you are unjustly profiling me....
I only make 250 per hour

 

[hj]

YOu want a heater with the T&P valve on the top, because the opening in the wall is too high for one on the side of the heater.

 

[hj]

It makes no difference. The plumbing company is in Indianapolis and the customer is in New Jersey. The travel time, alone, would be a deal breaker.

 

[montelatici]

On the side, is it a relief valve or does it go to a heat exchanger/radiators somewhere else in the house. I don't see that any required bends for the hot and cold lines on top would be a problem for the Sharkbite flex connectors that come in various lengths.

 

[Dana]

Is your heating system running off the hot water heater? (Rare, but it happens.)

Most homes with radiators would have a separate boiler for the heating system, but in those homes it's usually higher net-efficiency to set up an "indirect" hot water heater operating as a zone off the heating system than to have a separate stand-alone atmospheric-drafted beast like the one in the picture. It's more money, but it's more efficient, and much better overall hot water performance.

The valve on the side is a temperature & pressure relief valve to avoid the exploding water heater problem should something go wrong in such a way that the burner never turns off. The plumbing out the wall is probably the outlet for that valve, but the picture cuts off the likely connecting plumbing.

 

[montelatici]

The reason I asked the question is because I have a rental property that has such a system. A system where the gas water heater sends hot water to a heat exchanger that heats the condo via forced air when the outdoor temperature is too low for the heat pump. It doesn't look like a relief valve to me and it seems crazy for that line on the side to be connected to a pressure tank somewhere else. The pressure tank would be installed near the water heater not somewhere else behind a wall.

 

[Dana]

The valve on the side in the picture is definitely a relief valve- you can see part of the manual lever for opening that valve pretty clearly. This is what a side-mounted relief valve looks like close-up and personal:

 

[hj]

How about a GOOD picture of the relief valve AND the piping from it to the wall?