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The Daring Dufas[_6_]

wrote:
On Sat, 26 Dec 2009 22:34:51 -0500, wrote:

On Sat, 26 Dec 2009 19:04:23 -0500, Nate Nagel
wrote:

Roger Shoaf wrote:
"Puddin' Man" wrote in message
...
Others have commented well on tankless.

If you tinker at all, I'd recomend tinker unless you're extremely
pressed for time.

It has a drain spout? Get a pan, drain some to get a handle on sediment.

If it has an anode rod, I'd carefully finesse it out for inspection.

Etc, etc.

While it's a good candidate for immediate replacement, you don't really
know what the current problem is. It's possible you could get another
5+ years of use from it. Unless it's extremely inefficient energy-wise,
I'd guess it's worth investigating.

P
Good advice, I will add to be sure if you are going to drain the WH, don't
have the power on when the elements are not submerged, this will kill them
in short order.

And do it while your local hardware store is open, in case the drain
valve doesn't shut again. (have had that problem several times.)

nate
Just make sure you have a "cap" that fits the thread on the valve to
seal it off if it doesn't close properly. And if it doesn't - don't
try to REPLACE the leaking valve - just get fittings to put a second
valve in series with the defective one. Attempting to remove the
original drain valve UWSUALLY proved futile.

When I drain sediment from a water heater I GENERALLY use a garden
hose to direct the sediment/water either to a drain or outside - so a
small leak when shut off can be temorarily dealt with by sticking the
end of the hose down the drain.

I have nasty water and scale is a regular thing. I figured out on
about my second water heater that the drain valve they use will screw
up right away and probably won't pass the big chunks anyway. I put in
a short 3/4" pipe nipple and a gate valve before I even installed the
next new one. You screw in a 3/4 to hose adapter on the output side.
A gate valve opens to the full pipe size and you can take it apart
easily if it cruds up, but that hasn't happened.

I prefer a ball valve over a gate valve. It seems that every gate valve
I've ever come across will leak. On every hot water circulating system
I've ever repaired or installed, I will use ball valves.

TDD