wrote in message
against code when it was built (8 years ago), but was not considered
acceptable according to his standards.

It has been oK for the 8 years though, right?


Is it truly a concern that the hot water drained would cause problems
with potential melting of the PVC joints?

How often do you drain the tank and for how long? Flush the sediment once
or twice a year for three minutes? If yo are draining the tank to replace
it, the water is probably not hot anyway.



There is access in the attic to replace a portion of the PVC up to
where it goes into the wall. If I had the accessible PVC replaced with
copper into a holding tank that subsequently connects to the PVC, would
it be sufficient to cool the water enough?

Yes, but why bother?


Is there a flexible hose option - similar to hot water hoses that
connect to washing machines?

PEX would owrk

I want to avoid any interior work where the lines go through the wall
and drain outside.

Any thoughts?

My only thought is that you should just ignore it. Hot water under pressure
for extended periods of time is a problem, IMO, but this is hardly a real
use, has no pressure and probably not much temperature in reality. I'd just
forget about it.
Ed