Water heater rough-in

[jander!960]

I doing some renovation to my home, which has 2 water heaters. In order to better allocate water usage between the 2 heaters, I am reassigning the water heaters so that each supplies water to either the upstairs or downstairs of by 2-story home.

The first image show the current hookups which go into the wall at the back and supply part of the upstairs. I am removing the upstairs supply and connecting this heater to supply the downstairs. I have already run PEX from the downstairs supply lines up the chase which is just to the left of the heater (the corner of the chase is visible on the left edge of the image). The second image shows how I want to connect from the PEX to the water heater.

My problem is that there is a lot of open space between the wall of the chase and where I want to connect the flexible supply lines (there will be one on the hot side too). I will need to make a 90 deg turn from the chase toward the water heater.

How would you all suggest that I anchor my plumbing between the wall of the chase and the water heater? I will probably use copper here, although I am open to using PEX with 90 deg elbows or using a bend support bracket. I want the ends of the plumbing where they connect to the flexible supply lines to be firmly anchored so I need some sort of support bracket. Suggestions?

btw, this is my first post here. Thanks for taking me in and thanks in advance for your sage advice!
Jim

 

[Jadnashua]

Someone will confirm, but I think you need to maintain the first 18-24" or so of pipe from the WH as metal. You aren't supposed to have plastic within some minimum distance of the outlet.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[jander!960]

I am aware of the requirement. I didn't sketch it correctly, but both hot and cold with have 24" of flexible connection hose before connecting to PEX. (the current PEX connection to the T joint does not satisfy the requirement... it is temporary.) I want to have the connections setup so that I can maintain the heat trap loop in the flex pipes.

I just haven't figured out a best way to put in some kind of blocking between the 2 walls to anchor the piping to. I've considered uni-strut, 2x4's, etc. Any other suggestions?

EDIT: I clarified the second image to show how I plan to have both hot and cold connected via a 24" flexible steel-braided connection.