Water heater placement

I live in MN and just bought a new WH to replace a leaking one, so it's a bit urgent as we have no hot water right now for showers.

The current placement of the powervent WH is near the furnace and the basement floor drain. It's not convenient in the fact that there's a long PVC tube for the exhaust running the length of the ceiling to the outside wall as well as it takes just that much longer for the hot water to get where it's going.

I'd much like to place the WH right above my sump pump hole (with a supporting bench for the weight) which pumps outside. I'm not sure if this type of thing is allowed by code where if there is a water leak it doesn't go down the drain to the city sewer. Instead any water would be pumped outside by the sump pump.

It's a lot more work for me to make this change as there's lots of copper I'll have to rework, but when I get around to finishing the basement, I'll reclaim a lot of headroom lost by that PVC pipe.

Thanks,
Jeff Braun

Reinstall it now where the old one was because you need a plumber to relocate it for you. Relocating it will require moving not only the exaust and water lines but the the gas also and you need to have it inspected.

heater

Once the heater is over the sump pit, how will you get the pump out of it? There are a lot of ways to handle any eventual leaks, but your way seems to be the least desirable way.