Hot Water Heater Question

[phi1l]

It's an easy (if expensive) job, especially since the HWH is in the garage. I just replaced mine about 3 months ago. Mine is in the basement so it really is a 2 man job. but since it's in the garage, you can really do int yourself. Here Menards sells a complete HWH replacement kit that has all the water & gas line fittings you need. The whole thing only took about 1 1/2 hr, & that included draining the HWH a bucket at at time, so the two of us could get it up the stairs & out into the snow. Yours should be much easier. Get one that comes as close to the same dimensions as your existing one. If the height of the new one is significantly taller than the existing, you may need new flu gas ducting. If it's shorter, you can always put it up on blocks to get it to the height of the original

[Kristofor]

Let me know if you need some labor, Steve. It's an easy project, but requires two men.

JR

Ha! I always knew I was worth two men!

Okay, maybe not, but I did spend a chunk of the tax return on a replacement 50 gallon water heater a couple months ago. The new one was easy to move downstairs. The old one (full of sediment) was MUCH heavier.

I never did any maint. on the previous one, which likely contributed to it's short lifetime (9 years of life on a 6 year warranty heater). However, part of the issue was that when I learned you were supposed to do such activity I was totally unable to loosen the annode rod to check it, and several folks recommended not trying to flush sediment if you hadn't been doing so regularly from the start.

So, on the new one I pulled the annode rod out before installing (this was the hardest part). Even with a 3' cheater I didn't think it was going to come out without breaking, but it did and after wrapping the threads with teflon tape I'm hoping it will be much easier in the future. Then I also replaced the plastic drain valve with a brass 1/4 turn ball valve to make flushing easier in the future. 10 minutes of effort and $5 in parts seemed fair to hopefully make this one will last longer.

[scmhogg]

Thank you all for your input. I replaced the 50 gal monster yesterday. I had a friend help me with the lifting. HWH in the garage have to be on a platform. Lifting that sucker on the platform was the only difficult part.

I was really surprised how much they had gone up since my last one. I paid in the low $300's around ten years ago. This time it was $550. I think part of growing older is ones inability to keep up with inflation.

Steve

[jdon]

Any recommendations from the assembled multitude re: good brands/values of HWH? (natural gas, energy efficient, 40-50 gal)

SHMBO and I moved into a 10 yr old house, with original water heater. No problems yet, but I'd like to be prepared (finding local distributor, prices, etc) when the moment of crisis does arrive, to minimize downtime and last minute scurrying. The last time I had to replace one, it was the weekend before Christmas, with 14 family members about descend for several days, and I'd like to avoid similar stress with a little uncharacteristic prior planning.

[Chris_B]

Any recommendations from the assembled multitude re: good brands/values of HWH? (natural gas, energy efficient, 40-50 gal)

Check this site: www.waterheaterrescue.com They give tips on what to look for in a new water heater.

Note that with minimal maintenance, water heaters can last indefinitely.
The keys are:

a) replacing the sacrificial anode(s) & safety valve every 10 years or so,
b) annually flushing sediment from the tank.

The only tricky part for me was getting sufficient leverage to remove the original anodes.
A long pipe on a big wrench eventually did the trick.

After that, the rest was quite simple - certainly compared to woodworking! I installed dual anodes in each of our heaters to extend the maintenance cycle, but that is probably overkill. Ours are now going on 15+ years and working great.