On Sunday, January 12, 2014 10:42:41 PM UTC-5, micky wrote:
On Sun, 12 Jan 2014 14:16:27 -0800 (PST), Newton

wrote:



Is there anything wrong or dangerous about my idea to supply cold water input to a gas Hot Water Heater via the drain opening? I would include a TEE and a boiler tap so as to permit future draining. Also would cap old unused inlet on top.



Reason for this is to mitigate damaged dip tube. I do not have headroom to replace dip tube. Heater is 75 Gal (very heavy) and I prefer not to have to tip it to permit insertion of the new dip tube.



Thank you.



How much headroom do you have?



I think 18 inches is easily enough, and now that the topic has come up,

I think my 10" would be enough. I'll just have to bend the dip tube a

little more. It is once clear plastic, now dirty everywhere



I had an A.O Smith water heater, and now I have a Sears WH. I think

it's made by AOSmith because it's the only one I could find that has the

input and output the same distance apart as the original. And the

owners' manuals were very similar with the same drawings and pictures,

iirc.



When I tore the first Sears one apart, I saved the dip tub and it's

pretty flexible. I have a big storage shelf hanging from the ceiling

above the WH so I only have about 10" head room and I think it would be

enough. Like Chris says, you put it in at an angle until in my case,

only 10" are left.



My dip tube goes to the bottom and then towards the permimeter, and then

bends to swirl the water around the bottom, which iirc is suppose to

pick up sediment** The last 2" are molded into a sort of nozzle. But

before you replace a diptube, if the replacment is not symmetric, find

out how yours is oriented, and mark the top of the tube so you can

orient it as intended. In my case that would mean not pointing the

open end to the center or the outside, but parallel to the outside so it

made the water swirl.



** (although that would clog screens too? Maybe the idea is to swirl

it around when it is still microscopic, so it exits with the hot water,

and it's too small to clog anything?? ) When I tore the second water

htr apart after 8 years (probably a mistake to replace it. Maybe only

electrical parts were bad and I got confused, or maybe the dip tube had

come off (there is damage at the top, but I might have made that during

destruction.) there were only about 2 or 3 tablespoons of sediment in

the bottom At the rate it was going, it would take 80 years before the

sediment reached the electric elements, which is bad with electric WH.

With gas it's different I guess because the flame is underneath. )



Actually my diptube was fine after 8 years, Is this what's bothering

you?

http://voices.yahoo.com/how-replace-...p-8819775.html



If your WH is made during the problem years and your worried about it

falling apart and clogging screens, it's not enough to feed the water

heater cold water, you have to remove the old dip tube too, don't you.



http://www.familyhandyman.com/plumbi...tubes/view-all

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/conten...-dip-tube.html



Kind of what I was wondering too. Is this a problem with new WH's
that you would install today? Or just a problem some had in the past?
You would think by now they would have a dip tube solution that would
last the life of the tank. Personally, I've never had a dip tube fail.