On Sat, 29 Mar 2014 13:25:56 -0700, Oren wrote:

On Sat, 29 Mar 2014 18:44:01 +0000, Newton Vuden
m wrote:

replying to Newton , Newton Vuden 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.

Well, about two months ago, I rerouted the cold water input into the
bottom of the tank via the drain hole.
While hole was exposed, I could see (!!!) dip tube sitting on the
diagonal at bottom of tank.

Since I did this, symptoms gone,
No problems.
Virtually endless hot water.
It's *good* !

I'm so happy for you.
All water heaters are fed from the bottom - the pipe goes in the top
for convenience, but routs the cold water to the bottom. Good water
heaters have a "turbulator" at the bottom of the "dip tube" that
causes the water to swirl in the bottom of the tank to prevent
sediment build-up. You loose that when you feed tangentially from the
drain fitting - but if the dip tube has fallen off you've lost that
already anyway, and feeding tangentially at the bottom is better than
dumping the cold water on top of the hot