Water heater recommendations?

[zolotiyeruki]

I noticed water dripping from the relief valve on our water heater this morning.  The inlet is all corroded and the paint is bubbling from rust underneath.  The water heater is original to the house as far as I know, which puts its age at 12 years, so I think it may be time for a new one.

Do y'all have any recommendations, or things to look out for when selecting a water heater?  I'd be doing the install myself, although I may get a plumber to inspect my work afterward.  It needs to be gas, at least 50 gallons.

[Plugra]

Only 12 years seems rather soon.  Do you have unusually hard water or high temperature, etc.?  You might check to see if the anode rod is used up.

[Clean Shaven]

I replaced a gas water heater myself once. Wasn't difficult - just a few connections to make.

I bought it at Home Depot - just picked a mid line one, nothing fancy.

Stuff I'd watch for: do install whatever strapping is required locally (earthquakes), do use proper gas line sealant on the threads (not teflon tape), do check for leaks at the gas line with a spray bottle of soapy water, do use the drain pan underneath in case of any future leaks. 

I think I added an insulation wrap blanket, even though the heater was internally insulated anyway - figured it couldn't hurt to keep it even more insulated. Also insulate the hot water line that exits the tank. (Every little bit helps.)

If you have natural gas, they should come ready to be hooked up. If you have propane, they have to be converted.

For disposal of the old one - my local transfer station accepts water heaters without charging. Old heater was easy enough to stuff into the back of an SUV and haul away.

This also might be a good time to consider a tankless heater and the pros and cons of each type.

[zolotiyeruki]

Thanks for the input. We are hoping to move this year, so I'm thinking a tankless wouldn't make sense financially, although our usage pattern would fit :)

When you say you got a mid range unit, what was that based on?

[Clean Shaven]

Thanks for the input. We are hoping to move this year, so I'm thinking a tankless wouldn't make sense financially, although our usage pattern would fit :)

When you say you got a mid range unit, what was that based on?

Price.  I bought the second cheapest one, IIRC.  I think it had a better warranty (10 years), for not much more $ than the cheapest one (5 year warranty?), so figured that was worth it.

[sokoloff]

When I had one fail on a Friday with European guests due in in a couple hours, I bought a replacement at HD. When shopping for them, if you are the believe the energy ratings sticker, the high-end, mid-range, and low-end ones all cost the same after some very short number of years. Since I expected to be in the house way longer, I went with the high-end one.

Install tips: understand if there is a galvanic isolator on the inlets and if so, don’t destroy it with soldering right on the connection or by hooking things up wrong.

If there’s any plastic on the inlets, solder the pipe connectors elsewhere and then screw on. The old tank’s connectors might be reusable or at least consider using the old tank as a ready-made holder while you solder up new stubs.

If there’s ANY water in the lines, you can’t solder them with giving the steam someplace to go. If that someplace is through the joint you’re working on, you’ll get spatter while soldering and a leak afterwards.

I don’t bother with unions on the water line for copper, preferring to just cut the pipe next time as well, but some people put them in. For your case (moving soon), I wouldn’t take the time nor expense.

You should have a union on the gas line. Figure out how it works and put a smear of gas sealant on it when re-assembling. You should also have a T and a drip/sediment leg; if you don’t, you may get flagged on the inspection (now or when selling), so address that now as well.


Also note that if the problem is just a bad T&P valve, that’s replaceable but itself. It seems like you’ve determined the tank is actually bad, but be sure...

[Fishindude]

The average life expectancy of a water heater is about ten years, time to replace yours before you have a big problem.
A simple tank type efficient water heater is fine, cheapest to purchase, easy to install and will work just fine.   Personally, I'd call a plumber, but if you consider yourself pretty handy it is not all that tough of a job.   You'll need a to dispose of your old one too which will require a trip to the dump.   A plumber will get rid of the old one for you as part of the deal.

[zolotiyeruki]

I'm pretty confident in my DIY abilities. Although this will be my first foray into gas piping, I've done plumbing, electrical,  framing, drywall, car repair, HVAC, etc.

Are there any specialty tools I'll need other than a large wrench for the connections on the tank?

[tyler2016]

If you can, go tankless. I love my tankless heater. There is a catch. You may need get a bigger gas meter and line. This will increase your cost by a LOT. Before going tankless get the gas specs from the heaters you are looking like and verify that your system can support it.

[Clean Shaven]

I'm pretty confident in my DIY abilities. Although this will be my first foray into gas piping, I've done plumbing, electrical,  framing, drywall, car repair, HVAC, etc.

Are there any specialty tools I'll need other than a large wrench for the connections on the tank?

Not that I remember. I had a copper sweated joint for a drain line from the pressure relief valve, but I just hacksawed through the old one. Everything else was just big wrenches. IIRC I had a flexible line for the gas, and flex hoses for the cold and hot water connections too. So the actual connections were very easy.

My heater was in the garage so spillage didn't matter. Hopefully yours is somewhere easy too.

[sokoloff]

I'm pretty confident in my DIY abilities. Although this will be my first foray into gas piping, I've done plumbing, electrical,  framing, drywall, car repair, HVAC, etc.

Are there any specialty tools I'll need other than a large wrench for the connections on the tank?

You "need" two pipe wrenches for any black pipe work. I put it in quotes, because you can try to get by with one and some pliers or other nonsense, and if you're only taking apart a union, you will likely be OK with just one and slip-joint pliers. I'd calculate you're saving more than $300 by doing it yourself and buy the second $15 pipe wrench if you need to do any black pipe assembly and can't borrow one. Get gas compatible pipe dope as well.

Slip joint ("water pump") pliers are probably good enough for the water inlet/outlet connections. Worst case, use the pipe wrench and it'll just chew up the connections a bit but will work. Wrap with a rag to minimize the chewed up look (which will look like crap to a home inspector).

Copper piping needs emory cloth, flux, solder (lead-free!!!), a torch, and a wet rag. You can use white bread (no crusts) in the pipes to soak up a little bit of water.

If you need to do any work on the exhaust (maybe you can't find a perfect drop-in replacement), you might need a tub of refractory cement and you might need sheet metal screws to hold the exhaust together.

Consider adding ball valves to the water lines, at least the inlet, if they're not already present. Even if it's another cut and solder, I'd want to be able to shutoff the water to a leaking tank without killing the water to the whole house. In your situation, it will allow you to restore water to the rest of the house while you finish up the job.

To check for gas leaks, you can use soapy water. Others will use a match or your propane torch. (It will change noticeably in the presence of a natural gas leak.)

Take close-up pictures of the gas line T, drip leg, and gas inlet pipe. That's probably hard-piped and you might need to adjust the leg (with different sized nipples) if the height on the new tank is different. Take a shot from the floor to the gas inlet with a tape measure.

Take close-up pictures of the exhaust outlet and sheet metal chimney. Measure from the floor to top of existing tank.

Try to match those measurements or at least have a plan for deviations.

With your DIY experience, I think this is well-within your abilities. I measure DIY projects in "expected home center trips". This one is a "two trip" job, but it's not particularly difficult. :-D

[Clean Shaven]

^^^ All excellent suggestions. Definitely some things I overlooked / forgot...

[zolotiyeruki]

I'm pretty confident in my DIY abilities. Although this will be my first foray into gas piping, I've done plumbing, electrical,  framing, drywall, car repair, HVAC, etc.

Are there any specialty tools I'll need other than a large wrench for the connections on the tank?

With your DIY experience, I think this is well-within your abilities. I measure DIY projects in "expected home center trips". This one is a "two trip" job, but it's not particularly difficult. :-D

Thanks for the tips.  After watching a This Old House video on the topic last night, it seems a lot easier than I was expecting.  There's a valve on the inlet, but not the outlet, and I'm tempted to add one there even if we're hoping to move in the near future.

I like your measurement system :)  By that measure, building a deck last year was a serious undertaking!  It sounds like I have all the tools I need, with the exception of a pipe wrench, but that's just an excuse to buy a new tool, right?

The exhaust on our current water heater is a forced induction/power vent model, which unfortunately drives up the cost dramatically (why does adding a blower motor add $350 to the price!?).  The cheapest model I see at our local big box stores is nearly $800.  That puts it in the realm of tankless water heaters.  The least expensive tankless unit is about $900.  Our gas line is 1" all the way until it splits into two 1/2" lines next to the water heater and furnace (which is 120,000 BTU).  That may make it marginal on capacity--according to this chart, 80' of 1" pipe (which is pretty close to how much pipe is actually there) can carry 193 cubic feet/hour of natural gas, which wouldn't be sufficient for both the furnace and water heater at the same time.

On closer inspection, a couple notes:
1) The water lines already have nippes. Yay!  That'll make installation easier and cheaper.
2) It's possible to simply replace the anode ($20) and the relief valve ($15), which might be a better (certainly cheaper!) solution.