Water Heater Replacment
- Thread starter Arnav
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The WH was finally delivered to the store and I finally picked it up so hoping to install it this weekend. A few questions:
1. The supplied T&P valve on the WH is not pointing twards the cold inlet and the discharge line. Its pointing away from the front of the tank 90 degrees to the discharge line (see pics). Should I twist the T&P valve in the direction of the discharge line or use a 90 degree elbow and two more copper pipes to make it to the discharge line (which is embedded in the wall)? I am not sure if it is a good idea to try and twist the supplied / pre-installed T&P valve (i don't want to break anything). What do you normally do?
2. Should I use unions / coupling between the old and new pipes or have the elbows go straight to the old pipes?
3. Is there a minimum pipe length requirement between the WH and before the pipes bend into the wall? I would assume that less pipe is better but I also saw something called "heat trap".
4. I am assuming that for the cold/hot/T&P fittings, you use teflon tape like you do for all not soldered connections....
Thx!
1. The supplied T&P valve on the WH is not pointing twards the cold inlet and the discharge line. Its pointing away from the front of the tank 90 degrees to the discharge line (see pics). Should I twist the T&P valve in the direction of the discharge line or use a 90 degree elbow and two more copper pipes to make it to the discharge line (which is embedded in the wall)? I am not sure if it is a good idea to try and twist the supplied / pre-installed T&P valve (i don't want to break anything). What do you normally do?
2. Should I use unions / coupling between the old and new pipes or have the elbows go straight to the old pipes?
3. Is there a minimum pipe length requirement between the WH and before the pipes bend into the wall? I would assume that less pipe is better but I also saw something called "heat trap".
4. I am assuming that for the cold/hot/T&P fittings, you use teflon tape like you do for all not soldered connections....
Thx!
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Pipes are metal for 24" connecting to a water heater. After that they can be PEX or CPVC.
The T&P can be rotated. It's a thread on connection. We will put a pipe nipple in the outlet to prevent a pipe wrench or pliers from egging the female part of the socket.
I like using a union on the discharge from the T&P for future replacement. Tape works on the discharge pipe threads.
If you are connection the water heater with flex for the hot and cold, no tape is used.
If you are hard piping, then tape can be used for the female fittings onto the pipe nipples.
The T&P can be rotated. It's a thread on connection. We will put a pipe nipple in the outlet to prevent a pipe wrench or pliers from egging the female part of the socket.
I like using a union on the discharge from the T&P for future replacement. Tape works on the discharge pipe threads.
If you are connection the water heater with flex for the hot and cold, no tape is used.
If you are hard piping, then tape can be used for the female fittings onto the pipe nipples.
In the Seattle area, we use flexes, which have a union. It's 9.0 Earthquake country around here.
Unions on hard pipe are good too.
Stupid valve. I finished soldering, powered the WH, and all looked fine but now the cold supply valve is leaking. Not from my soldered connections but the valve itself. Doesn't seem to be from the stem but from where the two pieces meet. I thought I'll be safe if a pick a $15 valve instead of the $6.50 ones. Maybe I subjected it to too much heat. I tried tightening the nut at the stem but it didn't help.
Too bad I need to unsolder all the fittings again to replace. I'll try the watts one next instead. rrrrr
Too bad I need to unsolder all the fittings again to replace. I'll try the watts one next instead. rrrrr
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What a pain in the butt. To "save" time, instead of disconnecting the 3 lines, or at least just the cold supply, I decided to try and use a no-stop repair coupling. I simply cut the valve, put on the sleeve, and it was suppose to just slide over to the cut. Not! Maybe once you put on the flux it forms a vacuum, or maybe the pipes where not dead on. What ever it was, it refused to slide. I wrestled with it the whole night. It would have been quicker to do the whole tank over. Eventually I just used a regular coupling with a stop and nudged it in there. rrrr
New valve and coupling:
New valve and coupling:
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Assuming it is finally done, here is how it came out (same layout as previous tank). It would be nice one day to cut some sheetrock and make the lines coming out higher to allow unions to be used. I have added the cinder-block and pan like discussed at the begging of the thread.
Just in case it decides to act up at night, I put two leaker detectors in the pan...
One came with the tank (aduible alarm only) and one is from d-link that sends you an email and an alert to your phone...
Thanks as always for all the help
Just in case it decides to act up at night, I put two leaker detectors in the pan...
One came with the tank (aduible alarm only) and one is from d-link that sends you an email and an alert to your phone...
Thanks as always for all the help
