question on water heater venting (orphaned water heater)

[harveymasons]

you guys are the pros and hoping you can hep me with this issue....


had a home inspection done on a house we are looking to buy, turns out owners put a new direct vent furnace in 6 months ago so basically the water heater is only gas appliance venting through original chimney now. There was no liner added either. How do I know if this is ok or not? from what I understand there could be issues b/c the current flu is most likely too big to just vent water heater alone and can cause some negative pressure issues?


Lastly the water heater is 14 years old so I am trying to get owners to replace it with a direct vent model based on it's age as well as how it is currently venteed now.......


owners are saying that it is a functioning water heater with no issues...


any help is greatly appreciated.


regards,

harvey

[wallskev]

My opinion is that if you are buying the house, and the system is working and did not get a failed or failing rating fromt he home inspector, they do not have to make a change of technology to please you if they do not want it and in my area, you cannot pullout of the deal if they refuse to make the change.

You should only be able to request changes that are a safety , or "non operating mode" and not just nice, new engineering changes.

regards;
Kevin

[hj]

Unless you are locking into the purchase with an offer, you can request anything you want, and they can refuse any of those requests that THEY want to. Then you have to decide how badly you want to buy the house and they, how badly they want to sell it, in order to negotiate between the two sides. The furnace was not operating in the summertime, so for about half the year, the water heater was the only thing using the chimney, so it is NOT something unique just because the furnace does not use it at all.