VTXdude
New Member
Bradford White being installed next week...if in market for WH avoid SEARS!!
A plumber that I trust will be coming over next week to install a Bradford White Short 40 gallon natural gas water heater and will be removing the Kenmore and putting it in my garage until Sears (hopefully) comes to pick it up. He will also be changing out the copper feed I have for the gas and be putting in new black iron piping. When I said I had a copper run for my gas he almost dropped the phone..he said good thing I requested to change it out because he would not do the installation with the copper line in place. The good thing about changing out the feed is I'll now be able to go higher on the initial vertical run above the draft hood before the first bend to the horizontal run if I want to. I was limited on the height because f clearance of that copper gas line.
hope I am making the right call here...makes no sense why other water heater works fine, Kenmore goes in and all hell breaks loose
I think I have a pretty strong case on why Sears should take back this heater....horrible installation, 1st plumber tells me to relax about cleaning floor before he puts heater in, tells me he installs these on dirt floors so obviously he has no clue about FVIR. He jacks up my copper piping.instead of adding length to it he cuts and bends piping over..nice huh? So "made" connections fit........when heater starts having combustion issues he blames it on bad heater , rips it out, see's soot all over flue baffle..says bad heater.....guarantees new heater will not have issue....um new heater install just as bad...and proceeds to put a nice crease and dent in the 2nd heater..instead of putting 1 new long piece in for hot or cold he adds a hole bunch of small pieces of copper solder sloppy,, drip and globs of it everywhere...oh and still bad combustion odor with ne heater..call Sears to complain and they send Sears service tech out..he says he can't help because new install...gotta call Sears and get installer back out..no way am I having 1st plumber back out I call Sears and they send out different plumber...he says need 4 inch venting that what issue is...says he need to get Sears to ok and he would be out Monday..take day off and he never shows as Sears drops request and needs it reentered....miss day of work for nothing...miss next day as they come and put in 4 inch pipe..he brings new guy with him who has done plumbing for 3 weeks..he proceeds to tie in 4 inch pipe to T by putting it OUTSIDE of T and wraps it with foil tape??? So all that heat travels up T and outside of Type B pipe..nice huh? could have started a fire big time with that move....
Finally had enough with Sears...hire my companies HVAC guys who come in and reroute pipes...drafting works great except for awful adhesive smell from the second plumber from Sears taping up all the connections with fouls smelling foil tape...need to have HVaC come out and replace all the venting because of this..now even with good draft still seems like yellow flame sometimes and sooting,,if I look in view port looks like soot on bottom of tank and also in flue....
So in a nutshell....horrible 1st plumber trashed my copper piping by just pulling and bending...crap soldering job, no pride in work...didn't jnow how to diagnose any issue othet than saying "bad WH let's try another" Sears service tech was useless, could not help at all and bitched he had a doctors appointment and had to leave, 2nd plumber redid venting but created a dangerous situation by putting piping OVER B vent connection instead of in it and the used the stinky foil tape that stunk the cellar and ducts up...finally after missing umpteen days of work I got sick or rolling the Sears dice HOPING I'd get someone competent I had to go out and hire an HVAC group to fix what Sears could not fix...now the venting works right but WH still burns like crap and I can't live with it in my house like this I have pictures of the shoddy work these guys did....you have seen a smattering of them in differnt post
So if anything else, I hope this serves a wake up call to anyone thinking of using Sears as an installer..they just don't pay these guys enough to give a crap...guys just want in and out as fast as they can and damn you the homeowner if you discover any issues after they are gone...
I think I have a legit case with Sears and better be able to recoup some if not all my dough...if they balk which they will I will initiate a chargeback so no $$ for them until case resolved..if at very least i shoulkd get back my 300 dollars for a "professional install" as it wasn't even close..it was a mess and still is..my cold water pipe is pretty loose now and shudders with washing machine going off and on now..never did that before
To whoever read this Please don't make the mistake I did..get a competent independent plumber like you see on this board here and have them install a Bradford White or Rheem...stay as far away as you can from Box stores to have this work done..they just don't pay enough..both plumbers bitched about it and would not answer any questions I had.....
Thanks so much for everything guys...hope the BW works out...I think it will as the amount of air it lets in looks so much better than the ones with just the small bottom flame arrestor plates
Thanks for listening guys
work done..they just don't care
A plumber that I trust will be coming over next week to install a Bradford White Short 40 gallon natural gas water heater and will be removing the Kenmore and putting it in my garage until Sears (hopefully) comes to pick it up. He will also be changing out the copper feed I have for the gas and be putting in new black iron piping. When I said I had a copper run for my gas he almost dropped the phone..he said good thing I requested to change it out because he would not do the installation with the copper line in place. The good thing about changing out the feed is I'll now be able to go higher on the initial vertical run above the draft hood before the first bend to the horizontal run if I want to. I was limited on the height because f clearance of that copper gas line.
hope I am making the right call here...makes no sense why other water heater works fine, Kenmore goes in and all hell breaks loose
I think I have a pretty strong case on why Sears should take back this heater....horrible installation, 1st plumber tells me to relax about cleaning floor before he puts heater in, tells me he installs these on dirt floors so obviously he has no clue about FVIR. He jacks up my copper piping.instead of adding length to it he cuts and bends piping over..nice huh? So "made" connections fit........when heater starts having combustion issues he blames it on bad heater , rips it out, see's soot all over flue baffle..says bad heater.....guarantees new heater will not have issue....um new heater install just as bad...and proceeds to put a nice crease and dent in the 2nd heater..instead of putting 1 new long piece in for hot or cold he adds a hole bunch of small pieces of copper solder sloppy,, drip and globs of it everywhere...oh and still bad combustion odor with ne heater..call Sears to complain and they send Sears service tech out..he says he can't help because new install...gotta call Sears and get installer back out..no way am I having 1st plumber back out I call Sears and they send out different plumber...he says need 4 inch venting that what issue is...says he need to get Sears to ok and he would be out Monday..take day off and he never shows as Sears drops request and needs it reentered....miss day of work for nothing...miss next day as they come and put in 4 inch pipe..he brings new guy with him who has done plumbing for 3 weeks..he proceeds to tie in 4 inch pipe to T by putting it OUTSIDE of T and wraps it with foil tape??? So all that heat travels up T and outside of Type B pipe..nice huh? could have started a fire big time with that move....
Finally had enough with Sears...hire my companies HVAC guys who come in and reroute pipes...drafting works great except for awful adhesive smell from the second plumber from Sears taping up all the connections with fouls smelling foil tape...need to have HVaC come out and replace all the venting because of this..now even with good draft still seems like yellow flame sometimes and sooting,,if I look in view port looks like soot on bottom of tank and also in flue....
So in a nutshell....horrible 1st plumber trashed my copper piping by just pulling and bending...crap soldering job, no pride in work...didn't jnow how to diagnose any issue othet than saying "bad WH let's try another" Sears service tech was useless, could not help at all and bitched he had a doctors appointment and had to leave, 2nd plumber redid venting but created a dangerous situation by putting piping OVER B vent connection instead of in it and the used the stinky foil tape that stunk the cellar and ducts up...finally after missing umpteen days of work I got sick or rolling the Sears dice HOPING I'd get someone competent I had to go out and hire an HVAC group to fix what Sears could not fix...now the venting works right but WH still burns like crap and I can't live with it in my house like this I have pictures of the shoddy work these guys did....you have seen a smattering of them in differnt post
So if anything else, I hope this serves a wake up call to anyone thinking of using Sears as an installer..they just don't pay these guys enough to give a crap...guys just want in and out as fast as they can and damn you the homeowner if you discover any issues after they are gone...
I think I have a legit case with Sears and better be able to recoup some if not all my dough...if they balk which they will I will initiate a chargeback so no $$ for them until case resolved..if at very least i shoulkd get back my 300 dollars for a "professional install" as it wasn't even close..it was a mess and still is..my cold water pipe is pretty loose now and shudders with washing machine going off and on now..never did that before
To whoever read this Please don't make the mistake I did..get a competent independent plumber like you see on this board here and have them install a Bradford White or Rheem...stay as far away as you can from Box stores to have this work done..they just don't pay enough..both plumbers bitched about it and would not answer any questions I had.....
Thanks so much for everything guys...hope the BW works out...I think it will as the amount of air it lets in looks so much better than the ones with just the small bottom flame arrestor plates
Thanks for listening guys
work done..they just don't care
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