Gas water heater bonding

Users who are viewing this thread

Reach4

Well-Known Member
Messages
38,796
Reaction score
4,413
Points
113
Location
IL
Now let’s open our minds and play out a scenario without any discussion but on the subject in this little project.
That would be refreshing.
In June finishing my new home and the electrician has installed a bond between the hot and cold at the water heater in the crawl space of my new home. I wake up on Christmas morning with a present of a busted pipe and the pipe that is open is just above the bonding jumper. I call a plumber out and he repairs the pipe using CPVC which is legal by the plumbing code. Now explain just what that bonding jumper is doing other than taking up space.
Because the metal pipe was removed, there is no longer the need for the jumper to cure the RFI that was the reason this particular jumper was placed. The fact that it can prevent some water heater corrosion was lost on me at the time the jumper was placed, but those currents also got removed when the jumper was placed. However with the CPVC, those currents still not occur, so that problem was taken care of too.
It is because of this legal plumbing repair that the landing of the EGC for a three wire receptacle was removed from the NEC in the late 1970s. Should the plumber repair the metal water pipe with this legal manner then the EGC path would be lost just as that silly bond would be lost.
What is this "landing" word? (seriously) What is this "bonding" word? Is a metal strap holding up a metal pipe "bonded" What if that strap holds up two metal pipe... OH Ohhh... Gotta run a wire from that strap to a "landing"? (semi-seriously) Sheesh. Is your bonded connection ever thermite welded (not seriously), as it is often actually is in modern communication tower work? :)
 
Last edited:

JWelectric

Electrical Contractor/Instructor
Messages
2,608
Reaction score
21
Points
38
Location
North Carolina
To land a conductor is to terminate that conductor, slang talk of my area of the country. From the meter base to the rod, one end lands in the meter pan and the other end lands on the rod.

Over the years I have done much exothermic welding. I have welded to building steel, rebar, black pipe, rods, and to other conductors. The first thing one learns is to keep the mold clean or one will be doing the same joint, another slang word for termination, many times over, well maybe gloves is the first lesson and the mold is the second. Somewhere along the line one learns to preheat the mold and to look the other way when striking the arc.

I have worked many a day from the break of dawn to the twilight of dusk dark doing nothing but exothermic welding in a five foot, plus, deep trench that is barley 18 inches wide with the shoring in place.

All this reminiscing I am drifting back to my school boy days and the days when I had to walk to and from school, barefoot, in the snow, and yes it was up hill both ways. I would get out of bed every morning and empty the chamber pot, take it to the creek and fill it with water that I used to clean the cow before I milked her in that pot. Take it back to the house and strain it into a wide mouth gar then back to the creek for a pot of coffee water. The first few times I washed out that old chamber pot up stream of the coffee water but I learned, downstream is better, strange how a lot of life’s lessons are learned through experience.
 

Rich B

DIY Senior Member
Messages
285
Reaction score
1
Points
16
Location
New Jersey
Barefoot in the snow? Chamber pot? Say what?

What year were you born and didn't they have shoes in North Carolina then?

I am 66.....Lived in a cold water flat as a kid.....third floor.....We had a bathroom....running water....it was cold unless we ran the nat gas hot water heater in the basement that was totally manual.....light it and be sure to shut it off once the water got hot or the pipes would bang and steam came out of the faucets. Bath night was Saturday....Coal furnace....steam heat.....radiators...

I always had shoes.....New Jersey even had electric lights.....

My father worked for one of Thomas A Edison's companies his entire life....he even saw Edison at the plant once. My father was a teenager or maybe 20.....Edison was close to the end of his life....
 

Bluebinky

Member
Messages
588
Reaction score
16
Points
18
Location
Des Moines, WA
Well, being a mere 53, we had it easy. Funny thing is that is was downhill both ways from the School bus! No cows to milk, just a few dozen ducks to feed so they stayed fat and couldn't fly away.

My Dad says that when he was little, they had running water, but in the summer they usually walked...
 
Top
Hey, wait a minute.

This is awkward, but...

It looks like you're using an ad blocker. We get it, but (1) terrylove.com can't live without ads, and (2) ad blockers can cause issues with videos and comments. If you'd like to support the site, please allow ads.

If any particular ad is your REASON for blocking ads, please let us know. We might be able to do something about it. Thanks.
I've Disabled AdBlock    No Thanks