On Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:30:03 GMT, Edwin Pawlowski wrote:
From the photo, it looks as though you used on SS line and one copper line.
If so, that is a sure sign of a hack job.

Hi Edwin,

Again, thanks for the review of the job!

We had to make many compromises we felt a plumber would make also!
(tell us if they would have done this differently after reading why below)

The reason for the flex copper cold water input is that there wasn't room
for anything else. Given the shortest copper flex line we could find, we
couldn't fit the dialectric unions. The shortest stainless steel lines we
could find at multiple stores wouldn't bend enough.

We had to mate the cold water inlet's galvanized steel elbow to a steel
nipple to a bronze ball valve to the copper flex line to the dialectric
nipple screwed into the inlet of teh steel tank.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/donnaohl/2274079134/

On the hot water side, likewise, there wasn't room for the copper flex plus
two dialectric unions, but at least we could mate steel directly to steel
by going from the galvanized steel elbow to a steel nipple to the steel
pipe to the dialectric nipple screwed into the steel tank.

KEY QUESTION: Would a plumber have done it differently? How?

MINOR QUESTION: Why do some stainless steel lines have brass fittings yet
they all say they are for mating steel to steel?

Donna