OT - Replacing Water Heater

[TheBeav815]

Anyone know what size the natural gas line is running directly into a typical household tank water heater?

I need to replace mine tonight. I went to disconnect the gas and even with the valve shut off, it leaks gas a little. I'd like to buy an end cap at Home Depot and cap it off once I disconnect the heater so that I don't have to smell gas the whole time I'm working on it.

I think it's 1/2" but the pipe isn't marked. Looks like it's probably 3/4" coming into the basement, then it reduces to feed the water heater.

It also sits right next to the furnace and I'm not eager to play a game of "when is it safe to turn the furnace back on."

 

[Husker.Wed.]

It is probably a 3/4 coming in, reduced to 1/2" before the heater (like you suspect). Why not buy both a 3/4 and 1/2 cap and return the one you don't use next time you shop there? Don't forget to put a dab of pipe dope on the threads.

 

[jteten]

You gonna do this 220?

 

[TheBeav815]

You gonna do this 220?

220?

 

[jlb321]

how did the previous project go? -- sump pump??

 

[TheBeav815]

It is probably a 3/4 coming in, reduced to 1/2" before the heater (like you suspect). Why not buy both a 3/4 and 1/2 cap and return the one you don't use next time you shop there? Don't forget to put a dab of pipe dope on the threads.

Probably can't go wrong with that plan. Lord knows it won't be the first time (this week) I return stuff to Home Depot.

 

[TheBeav815]

how did the previous project go? -- sump pump??

Haven't had a chance to get to that one yet. Will require me to dig up the yard and before I had a day off at home to start in on that, my water heater failed and started dripping all over the floor.

 

[anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi]

Haven't had a chance to get to that one yet. Will require me to dig up the yard and before I had a day off at home to start in on that, my water heater failed and started dripping all over the floor.

Good luck. Hopefully it is not too full of deposits, or those can get heavy. Make sure and drain the bottom of those tanks once a month, and you will be surprised how much longer those things last.

 

[Hedley Lemar]

You gonna do this 220?

220, 221. Whatever it takes.

 

[PeliniTheCrutch]

220, 221. Whatever it takes.

I'm pissed you beat me to this. I'm also pissed that it's likely hardly anyone on the board knows what this is referencing.

 

[JohnRossEwing]

I'm pissed you beat me to this. I'm also pissed that it's likely hardly anyone on the board knows what this is referencing.

Mr. Mom...the Jack Butler method

 

[Hedley Lemar]

I'm pissed you beat me to this. I'm also pissed that it's likely hardly anyone on the board knows what this is referencing.

Who can forget the immortal words of Billy Blazejowski in Mr. Mom?

 

[anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi]

I'm pissed you beat me to this. I'm also pissed that it's likely hardly anyone on the board knows what this is referencing.

Not lost on me. Mr. Mom. About 6 guys in my crew say that every time 220 is brought up. Although technically 240 is more accurate.

 

[rowdy roddy piper]

1/2 pipe is about the size if a nickle, 3/4 closer to a quarter

 

[Husker.Wed.]

Good luck. Hopefully it is not too full of deposits, or those can get heavy. Make sure and drain the bottom of those tanks once a month, and you will be surprised how much longer those things last.

I had a water heater that came new with the house 25 years before. It got to where even one shower could not be completed before running out of hot water due to the tank having 90% sediment. I hired a guy to take it away. He backed his small truck next to it and we tipped it over into the truck using a rope over a rafter. When it was in the truck the rear springs were fully compressed. I estimated that water heater to be pushing 500 lbs.

 

[TheBeav815]

If you guys wanna know how bad I am at sweating pipe, basically it's exactly as bad as you'd expect...and then a little worse. Project is on hold til morning, I wound up having to take a lot of length off the pipes and the cold line has a big shutoff valve set way down near the end, so I had to cut out a section above it. Well, like the novice I am, I bought the wrong kind of coupling. So now I'm not done and I can't turn my water back on. Luckily my wife works from home tomorrow or she'd kill me if she got up in the morning and I'd turned it from no hot water to no water at all.

 

[N-sane]

If you guys wanna know how bad I am at sweating pipe, basically it's exactly as bad as you'd expect...and then a little worse. Project is on hold til morning, I wound up having to take a lot of length off the pipes and the cold line has a big shutoff valve set way down near the end, so I had to cut out a section above it. Well, like the novice I am, I bought the wrong kind of coupling. So now I'm not done and I can't turn my water back on. Luckily my wife works from home tomorrow or she'd kill me if she got up in the morning and I'd turned it from no hot water to no water at all.

Shark bite fittings are what you need, my friend.

 

[litespeedhuskerfan]

You gonna do this 220?

220, 221, whatever it takes....

 

[TheBeav815]

Shark bite fittings are what you need, my friend.

That's what I ended up going with after multiple botched soldering jobs. Shark bite shut-off valve and a new shark-bite connector hose. The area plumbers can rest easy, I'm not a threat to them. The DIY game is good for my humility when I get to thinking something doesn't look that hard.

Ultimately I learned a few things, got it all hooked up and it's heating water as we speak. Bad news is I'll have forgotten everything I learned in 20 years when this one fails!

 

[jteten]

220, 221. Whatever it takes.

I knew I could count on someone named Hedley Lemarr to catch a quote like that.

 

[mgbreis]

I replaced a water heater in my first house circa 2001, I bet the water heater I took out was 30 years old. Speaking of which, they sure don't make em like they used to. Anyway, that thing was so heavy I was afraid the stairs were going to collapse. Another bonus to working in that basement was that it was only about 6' deep, with a few beams that hung lower. I hit my head down there so many times, my wife said she thought people could hear me scream "MF-ER" from a block away. Good Times!

 

[TheBeav815]

I replaced a water heater in my first house circa 2001, I bet the water heater I took out was 30 years old. Speaking of which, they sure don't make em like they used to. Anyway, that thing was so heavy I was afraid the stairs were going to collapse. Another bonus to working in that basement was that it was only about 6' deep, with a few beams that hung lower. I hit my head down there so many times, my wife said she thought people could hear me scream "MF-ER" from a block away. Good Times!

There were plenty of moments that needed "Yakkity Sax" in the background over my course of replacing the thing. Like when I discovered that somewhere in the house there must be a mixing point for cold water to sneak into the hot water lines. I'd had the cold supply to the old heater shut off for two days and carried bucket after bucket of water up the steps to dump out of this thing. I finally disconnect it and find out there's been water running back into it through the hot pipe the whole effing time.

I figured that out when I came back from making a 45 mile round trip to a distant Home Depot that their website CLAIMED had the exact heater I wanted in stock. Well, they didn't...so rather than go to the one a mile from my house I go all that way and come back to a floor full of water again.

 

[johnm17]

Dude they have people that do these things for a living.

 

[TheBeav815]

Dude they have people that do these things for a living.

They certainly do, and those people ask for money in exchange for doing these things. They're pros and they deserve it, but I flat out don't have a few hundred extra to pay them to make it pretty. Home warranty wouldn't cover this one, either.

So either my effort holds up and I save some money, or my effort fails and I end up paying a pro anyhow.

 

[tpmcg]

pics or it didn't happen...

seriously, I may be swapping one of mine out on my own and wonder how the shark bites work.

 

[TheBeav815]

pics or it didn't happen...

seriously, I may be swapping one of mine out on my own and wonder how the shark bites work.

Time will tell how they hold the seal, but in terms of ease of installation, I'm now an ordained minister of the First Church of Shark Bite connectors. They also have Shark Bite shut-off valves. If I'd gone with them on the first try, I would have been done hours sooner and I'd be feeling pretty fat and sassy.

The torch and solder really put me in my place lol

 

[mgbreis]

I used shark bites to install a new water softener last year after failing miserably with sweat fittings. It was frustrating because I've sweated a lot of fittings in the past with no trouble. Like you, I couldn't seem to stop a constant trickle of water that kept screwing me. The opinions really seem to vary on the shark bites, with most naysayers thinking they COULD fail. No one seemed to be able to say they had actually seen one fail. We'll see. I have pretty high line pressure at my house, so I may regret it.

 

[TheBeav815]

I used shark bites to install a new water softener last year after failing miserably with sweat fittings. It was frustrating because I've sweated a lot of fittings in the past with no trouble. Like you, I couldn't seem to stop a constant trickle of water that kept screwing me. The opinions really seem to vary on the shark bites, with most naysayers thinking they COULD fail. No one seemed to be able to say they had actually seen one fail. We'll see. I have pretty high line pressure at my house, so I may regret it.

Yeah, the videos make it look like you just point the torch at it a few seconds, touch the solder to the pipe, poof you're done. I think I wasn't getting enough heat concentrated at the fitting, probably because in the videos they demonstrate on a little section of pipe that isn't connected to anything.

Well on real pipe that's connected into a long run, that heat transfers like CRAZY and it's tricky in a tight space with obstacles and things you don't want to light on fire to get intense, even heat all the way around that fitting so the solder will just magically wick up into place.

 

[Husker.Wed.]

I used shark bites to install a new water softener last year after failing miserably with sweat fittings. It was frustrating because I've sweated a lot of fittings in the past with no trouble. Like you, I couldn't seem to stop a constant trickle of water that kept screwing me. The opinions really seem to vary on the shark bites, with most naysayers thinking they COULD fail. No one seemed to be able to say they had actually seen one fail. We'll see. I have pretty high line pressure at my house, so I may regret it.

If the trickle is from the house side, sometimes opening all the faucets in the house, especially on the second floor and waiting for 30 minutes will stop the drip. If the trickle is from the street side, the master valve is not working right and needs to be replaced. Or, the water can be turned off by the street before the master valve. That probably will require a "T-wrench" tool. I have done the above before and still had a drip, so heated the pipe as much as I could, then jammed a couple hunks of white bread up the pipe with a screwdriver, continued to heat the pipe until glowing, and completed the soldier. One time I did that was before the softener and I assume the bread was absorbed by the softener and eventually flushed. The other time I did it was after the softener and found some bread residue in the aerator screen in one of the bathroom taps.

 

[TheBeav815]

If the trickle is from the house side, sometimes opening all the faucets in the house, especially on the second floor and waiting for 30 minutes will stop the drip. If the trickle is from the street side, the master valve is not working right and needs to be replaced. Or, the water can be turned off by the street before the master valve. That probably will require a "T-wrench" tool. I have done the above before and still had a drip, so heated the pipe as much as I could, then jammed a couple hunks of white bread up the pipe with a screwdriver, continued to heat the pipe until glowing, and completed the soldier. One time I did that was before the softener and I assume the bread was absorbed by the softener and eventually flushed. The other time I did it was after the softener and found some bread residue in the aerator screen in one of the bathroom taps.

Hah, that's genius. In my case it was on the house side, so I shut off all the supply and opened the taps on the top floor.

I'll try to remember to post some pics later. I haven't even seen the little critter that hooks the fridge water line up before, I'll post a picture on that and try to understand correctly how it wants to go back on so we can continue to have ice and I don't ruin all last night's work.