Any plumbers? Water heater input.

[Will L.]

50 gallon natural gas water heater is dead. Thought about welding it up- but know it will just fail again soon from the rusting. Dang Kenmoore didn’t make it 10 years.
Can not add 240v electric for hybrid, but do have 120v available. Can not go tankless.

So looking around and reading all I can-
Arguments across the board of box store units vs plumbing supply units. Not sure if its worth the extra few hundred bucks and waiting another week to get one from them.

Rheem (home depot) and AO smith (lowes) and Reliance (True Value) are my box store choices.

Pro plumbing supply options:
Rheem from Standard Supply. AO Smith from Ideal Supply & Kelly’s Pipe. Then Fergusons carries a lot of brands and I have a slim chance I can buy from them.

What say the experts?

 

[Will L.]

Really leaning towards AO Smith from lowes btw.

 

[MrMarty51]

My choice would be AO Smith or Rheem.
You have natural gas ?
I dont remember the brand of gas heater I have, IIRC it is a subsidiary of Rheem. Gas valve failed, first one was under warranty. Having home serve, they called an installer and that person installed a new WH of the same brand. A short time later and the gas valve on that heater failed. Installer asked if I could call that company and they would immediately mail out a new improved valve. I did. He came back and installed the new valve. All is good now.
The slick part about it it, the installer never came back to pull the one failed heater from the basement.
I’m going to call in the SN of that heater and then have a spare gas valve on hand in case the new valve ever fails.

 

[MrMarty51]

If this tank type water heater ever fails, I’m going to go in with two natural gas tankless water heaters. One just for the kitchen sink which seems to be ten miles from the WH and takes forever for the water to get hot at that location, and, the other WH to serve the bathroom sinks, bathtub and shower.
AAAANNNDDDdddd, I still can not figure why people calls them a hot water heater ?
If the water is hot, why have a heater for it ?

 

[jrsavoie]

When searching, back on my water heater thread. I found that the water heaters sold by the municipalities, electric and gas companies usually have a longer life expectancy.
The average life for my water heater was 28 years.
Check wall thickness and weight of similar units.

I think I was shopping at Ferguson's.

 

[jrsavoie]

Vaughn is The brand of water heater that on average lasts 28 years. Used by many utilities.
It has very thick walls.
A friend's natural gas direct vent water heater went bad.
We bought what we thought was the best available and it only lasted 5 years? Not sure.. About a month out of warranty.

I probably should have rewrote the receipt. They have no idea how long I had it, before I sold it to him.

 

[MrMarty51]

When searching, back on my water heater thread. I found that the water heaters sold by the municipalities, electric and gas companies usually have a longer life expectancy.
The average life for my water heater was 28 years.
Check wall thickness and weight of similar units.

I think I was shopping at Ferguson's.

In this city is Montana Dakota Utilities Co.
There was a real nice office here and a person could walk in and point to an appliance, it would be delivered and installed by MDU.
Corporate changed, new CEO, not enough bonus to management. Shut down our local office, no more home warranty through MDU, no more anything from the company except power and gas to customers.
So now it is home serve or some other home appliance warranty company and appliances is bought from retail stores.
There is a plumbing shop here that carries a large inventory. Furnaces, water heaters, plumbing supplies etc.
I always go to them for appliance needs if I have a say in where water heater etc is coming from.
Walk in the door and tell the owner, when i want the good stuff, this is where I come. If I want cheap, ACE is the place.

 

[jrsavoie]

In this city is Montana Dakota Utilities Co.
There was a real nice office here and a person could walk in and point to an appliance, it would be delivered and installed by MDU.
Corporate changed, new CEO, not enough bonus to management. Shut down our local office, no more home warranty through MDU, no more anything from the company except power and gas to customers.
So now it is home serve or some other home appliance warranty company and appliances is bought from retail stores.
There is a plumbing shop here that carries a large inventory. Furnaces, water heaters, plumbing supplies etc.
I always go to them for appliance needs if I have a say in where water heater etc is coming from.
Walk in the door and tell the owner, when i want the good stuff, this is where I come. If I want cheap, ACE is the place.

I'm definitely glad I bought the good stuff in 1994.
I have friends that have been through 3 or more water heaters since then.

I have a friend that has a few rentals. He started buying the cheapest replacement stuff he could find. He said the expensive stuff wasn't lasting any longer, or in some cases, as long as the cheap stuff.

Read the bad reviews. They're usually more accurate than the good reviews

 

[MrMarty51]

I'm definitely glad I bought the good stuff in 1994.
I have friends that have been through 3 or more water heaters since then.

I have a friend that has a few rentals. He started buying the cheapest replacement stuff he could find. He said the expensive stuff wasn't lasting any longer, or in some cases, as long as the cheap stuff.

Read the bad reviews. They're usually more accurate than the good reviews

Yup. A lot of the good reviews, or at least the lying share of them is when people buy, then, soon as the item is tried or fired up and works, fill in alla the good about what a wonderful experience and item.
Six months down the time trail, the item fails and then its too late to change.

 

[SnowDrift]

All back together, Will?

 

[Will L.]

Not quite back together. The 4” high wood platform it was on since 1973 was toast. Ripped it out so now it sits on the concrete. So had to run to hardware store for a bit more exhaust length now. Once that is in I can fire it up. Already tested for water and gas leaks- thats all good.

Something I learned from natural gas plumbers in industry about a decade ago:
Telfon tape should be done with 4 wraps. Their code book actually says between 3 and 5 wraps- so attempt 4 and your in the happy zone.
Also natural gas and propane you have to use the yellow tape, white is only for water or air, not combustible gases. If you use pipe dope- there is two different types for that as well.

Ended up getting the one from Lowes btw.

 

[SnowDrift]

Check out Blue Monster. I buy from a local HVAC shop. Glad you're making progress.

Here's the pressure switch I was working on when we talked yesterday morning.

 

[Will L.]

Yeah- blue monster is the favorite of those gas guys. More expensive but good stuff.
iirc homless despots sells that now. I am still using up my stock pile I’ve had for years of white and yellow. Just don’t use it often anymore.

Iron oxide is good for your blood, not good for your pressure switches…

 

[ak diesel driver]

Hopefully the concrete your referring to isn't your garage floor.

 

[dbrannon79]

I was curious what the reason was for not wanting a tankless natural gas unit. 50 gallons is a lot of water to keep hot and ready. but then again in this day in age the prices of natural gas is up there. I don't blame you for not wanting something that would use a LOT of gas if you have several folks using water for showers and what not.

 

[jrsavoie]

I was curious what the reason was for not wanting a tankless natural gas unit. 50 gallons is a lot of water to keep hot and ready. but then again in this day in age the prices of natural gas is up there. I don't blame you for not wanting something that would use a LOT of gas if you have several folks using water for showers and what not.

My reason for not going tankless was the excessive maintenance and others have told me they didn't like their tankless as much as they thought they would.

One neighbor really likes his small electric tankless units at the ends of his long runs.

I ended up repairing instead of replacing my water heater.

I'm hoping it will outlast me.

But then again, I'm hoping not.

 

[Will L.]

Hopefully the concrete your referring to isn't your garage floor.

Yes it is. Please educate me. The upstairs bedroom was added at same time as the garage was added to the house in 1973.
There is a set of stairs that is adjacent to the garage, so they poured the concrete all at same time (it looks like anyways) and built a wall separating the garage from this under stairs area. They relocated the water heater to this location from the kitchen.

So it is in it’s own “little room” where previous owners also had a water softener.
Air is drawn in under the wooden door for the unit.

When I bought the house a decade ago- there was a 2x4 (on edge) platform with 1/2” plywood on top that held the water heater 4” off the concrete.

I can do pics tonight…

 

[WarWagon]

What say the experts?

Flush the hot water heater out 1X per year at least. Inspect and/or replace as needed the anode rod every year. Likely replace it at 50% of the warranty time on the HW heater. They do make electronic anode rods but electronics ... Worth a look.

Residential

Corro-Protec Powered Anode Rod is a long-term & durable solution for Water Heater compared to the existing anodes on the market.

www.corroprotec.com

 

[ak diesel driver]

current code is 18" off the floor IIRC. The idea is that if there is a gasoline leak from your vehicle or lawnmower or.... that the vapors are close to the floor and the platform being raised gives you time to catch that something is going on before those vapors get to the pilot light or ignition source. Of course the other side of this is that also allows for a bigger boom when it does happen

 

[MrMarty51]

current code is 18" off the floor IIRC. The idea is that if there is a gasoline leak from your vehicle or lawnmower or.... that the vapors are close to the floor and the platform being raised gives you time to catch that something is going on before those vapors get to the pilot light or ignition source. Of course the other side of this is that also allows for a bigger boom when it does happen

Code is the same here too.
Same distance to ash pan when installing a wood/coal stove in a garage or shop too. Any installation where volatile vapors can reach an open flame.