In article ,
Ray K wrote:

ransley wrote:
On Apr 27, 5:01 pm, Ray K wrote:
Should I put a piece of plywood (or something with a little "give")
under the new heater? My concern is that if I don't install the four
12x12" tiles under the heater so they are all the same height, the
weight of the filled 50-gallon heater might crack the highest tile. My
thought is to distribute the weight of the heater more evenly.

I'm not sure if a drip pan is a solution.

Thanks for your advice.

Ray

Dont forget a plastic drain tray with hose leading to a drain, save
headaches when it fails, extra wood cant hurt.

I should have mentioned that the tile will be installed over a concrete
slab at ground level. So there is no springiness under the tiles.
Unfortunately, there also isn't any floor drain, so all a drain tray
could do is keep small amounts of water from directly falling on the
floor, and with luck I'll notice the water as I pass the heater with
every trip to the garage.

The heater isn't likely to fail catastrophically; it will likely just
begin to leak. In "out of the way" installations where accumulations of
water from a leak may not be noticed, a battery-operated water alarm in
the drip pan is cheap insurance.


The heater will be new, so I don't really expect any problems for at
least 10 years. The present Kenmore heater is 20 years old; still no
problems, but why take a chance.