My actual question is in the last paragraph but I wanted to provide some
history first.

My direct vent gas water heater went thursday. I was surprised to learn
that replacement was about $1600. I remember replacing an electric water
heater in my last house 11 years ago was about $400. Any savings in fuel
is most likely wiped out by installation costs for gas.

Worse yet, no one sells a direct vent gas water heater with anything more
than a 6 year warranty. So that means every 6 to 10 years I can expect
another $1600 bill (ignoring inflation).

So I decided to waste even more money. I went with a Rinnai tankless water
heater. Guaranteed 12 years and supposedly should last 20 years. Only
$3200 and it will be much more efficient.

Well I discovered that the inefficient tank water heater was keeping the
unfinished part of my basement nice and cozy warm during the winter. It was
also warming up the cold water source in the house. Now the unfinished part
of the basement is freezing and so is the cold water in the house. I
suppose I will be better off in the hot summer without the tank.

Of course there are other disadvantages to the tankless system. Water takes
longer to reach each faucet. And you are limited to three uses at a time

So overall I would not recommend a tankless system so far in my short
experience.

Now here is my question. The installer (our local gas utility) did a sloppy
job with the outside vent. They promise to fix it Monday (the cancellation
rights are good to Tuesday so theoretically I could make them rip the whole
system out if I get ticked off enuf by them.) Difficult to explain but it
involves a giant ring of 1 inch wide caulk instead of getting the right size
sleave. So now I am suspicious of their plumbing work. My house is PVC.
It is tan for hot so I assume that is CPVC. All the joints are plastic.
The gas company used white pipe with copper elbows which fit into the white
pipe and there are some rings around the ends of the white pipe to secure
the elbows. I am wondering what type of piping they used and whether the
flowrate is reduced by the internal elbows (my cpvc uses external elbows and
the pipe acts as the male portion of the joints). ALso none of their pipes
are fastened to anything to secure them. The flowrate for even a single
faucet using hot water seems down compared to before the installation.

Thanks for your help.

On Feb 9, 3:18 pm, "Art" wrote:
My actual question is in the last paragraph but I wanted to provide some
history first.

My direct vent gas water heater went thursday. I was surprised to learn
that replacement was about $1600. I remember replacing an electric water
heater in my last house 11 years ago was about $400. Any savings in fuel
is most likely wiped out by installation costs for gas.

Wondering if you are in $US or some other currency. I have a 75
gallon power vent that cost me around $750 on sale about 2 years ago,
and I could have bought a better one for around $1000. $1600 sounds
pretty steep for nearly anything under 100 gallons.

So I decided to waste even more money. I went with a Rinnai tankless water
heater. Guaranteed 12 years and supposedly should last 20 years. Only
$3200 and it will be much more efficient.

The Bosch tankless are carried by Menards here, and run around $1100
for the larger size. I would guess that the Rinnai cost more, but 3
times as much???

JK

"Big_Jake" wrote in message
...
On Feb 9, 3:18 pm, "Art" wrote:
My actual question is in the last paragraph but I wanted to provide some
history first.

My direct vent gas water heater went thursday. I was surprised to learn
that replacement was about $1600. I remember replacing an electric water
heater in my last house 11 years ago was about $400. Any savings in
fuel
is most likely wiped out by installation costs for gas.

Wondering if you are in $US or some other currency. I have a 75
gallon power vent that cost me around $750 on sale about 2 years ago,
and I could have bought a better one for around $1000. $1600 sounds
pretty steep for nearly anything under 100 gallons.

So I decided to waste even more money. I went with a Rinnai tankless
water
heater. Guaranteed 12 years and supposedly should last 20 years. Only
$3200 and it will be much more efficient.

The Bosch tankless are carried by Menards here, and run around $1100
for the larger size. I would guess that the Rinnai cost more, but 3
times as much???

JK



The prices I quoted were including installation. The Bosch tankless are
supposedly bad news.... they are not sensitive enuf at low flowrates and
often don't turn on when needed. For some reason, power vent gas water
heaters are cheaper than direct vent and many more models are available in
power vent versions. One thing that added $350 to either installation was a
new code requiring gas pipe to be grounded to electrical panel. That means
running a heavy ground wire about 100 feet in my partially finished
basement. Intended to act as a lightening arrester I am told.

"Jimmie D" wrote in message
...

"Art" wrote in message
...

"Big_Jake" wrote in message
...
On Feb 9, 3:18 pm, "Art" wrote:
My actual question is in the last paragraph but I wanted to provide
some
history first.

My direct vent gas water heater went thursday. I was surprised to
learn
that replacement was about $1600. I remember replacing an electric
water
heater in my last house 11 years ago was about $400. Any savings in
fuel
is most likely wiped out by installation costs for gas.

Wondering if you are in $US or some other currency. I have a 75
gallon power vent that cost me around $750 on sale about 2 years ago,
and I could have bought a better one for around $1000. $1600 sounds
pretty steep for nearly anything under 100 gallons.

So I decided to waste even more money. I went with a Rinnai tankless
water
heater. Guaranteed 12 years and supposedly should last 20 years. Only
$3200 and it will be much more efficient.

The Bosch tankless are carried by Menards here, and run around $1100
for the larger size. I would guess that the Rinnai cost more, but 3
times as much???

JK



The prices I quoted were including installation. The Bosch tankless are
supposedly bad news.... they are not sensitive enuf at low flowrates and
often don't turn on when needed. For some reason, power vent gas water
heaters are cheaper than direct vent and many more models are available
in power vent versions. One thing that added $350 to either installation
was a new code requiring gas pipe to be grounded to electrical panel.
That means running a heavy ground wire about 100 feet in my partially
finished basement. Intended to act as a lightening arrester I am told.

WOW, where are you that bonding metal pipe is a NEW code?

Jimmie


Cary, NC. New code as of March 2007 I was told.

On Sun, 17 Feb 2008 22:14:50 -0500, Art wrote:
"Jimmie D" wrote in message
...

"Art" wrote in message
...
in power vent versions. One thing that added $350 to either installation
was a new code requiring gas pipe to be grounded to electrical panel.

WOW, where are you that bonding metal pipe is a NEW code?

Cary, NC. New code as of March 2007 I was told.

Ada county, ID didn't require bonding gas lines in 2002. Don't know if
they do now or not. Water supply has been bonded for many years.

sdb

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