| Author | Message | ||
     Crusty |
My hot water heater just sh*t the bed. Oh, well. Home Teapot has one; so I don't have to worry. That's the good news. My credit card balance is going to go up again. That's the bad news. It's the last major appliance that should go bad for several years. The furnace and AC were replaced last year and the refrigerator was new when I bought the house. As they say, it's only money. Or, as Groucho said, "Money will never make you happy. And happy will never make you money". Or somethin' | ||
| Ourdee |
I just did an electric one from Lowes. Look at how much capacity you need. You may be able to get a smaller one. They make them much more efficient now days. If I wasn't sick, I'd come pick it up and install it for you. If it is going to be a week before you get it, something to think about. | ||
| Aesquire |
Electric, or gas? And, yeah, I feel your wallet pain. Mine is now 15 years old, and due to explode. | ||
| Crusty |
I have the exact replacement by the same Manufacturer(Rheem) coming in the AM. It's gas, not electric and it should be a straightforward job. I think. | ||
| Adrenaline_junkie |
Define sh*t the bed. Did it rust through and let all the water out? I have a lot of calcium in my water so I get to replace the heating element every couple of years and clean scale out if the bottom of the tank, but it goes right back to work with a new element. Just wondering if yours can be repaired rather than replaced. | ||
| Crusty |
Define sh*t the bed. There's a small trickle of water running from the bottom of the water heater to the drain in the floor. After consulting with professionals, their opinion matched mine; it's going to be a gusher within a few days. | ||
| Ourdee |
Sharkbite | ||
| Crusty |
What's sharkbite? | ||
| Aesquire |
Yep, that's most probably dying. You can check the pressure relief & drain valves to see if they are leaking at the tank, and a bit of teflon tape can repair it, but the odds are not good. Sharkbite fittings are expensive. And freeaking awesome. I had a case where I skipped a logic step and had a threaded bit that needed to attach to a.... In short, I messed up and by just using a sharkbite fitting, all was well with the world for less than 20 dollars and near zero effort or swearing. And I can take it apart, if I want to. I wouldn't do a whole house with sharkbite fittings, because of the expense.... but I could be wrong on that logic, because there can be costs to Mapp gas, home fires, bad backs and time. One hour spent gently heating a copper pipe to drive the water out so I can heat it enough to solder, standing on a ladder, working overhead, and then dripping lead free solder down the shirt i should have known better........... | ||
| Aesquire |
I have no comments.... at this time | ||
| Hootowl |
I recently installed a gas tankless. I'm pretty happy with it. I have a water softener, so I don't have to worry about scale, which is the death of these things. I set the temperature to 106, which is how I like my shower. I couldn't see heating water to 120, just to mix it with cold water again at the shower valve. So now I just turn on the hot water shower valve, and it's perfect. Actually...when my morning alarm goes off, my home automation turns on the shower for me, so it's hot by the time I stumble in there.  FYI - it uses less than half the gas of my other water heater, which saves me about $2 per month on my gas bill, the majority of which is a fee ($15) for the privilege of being their customer. I didn't buy it for the cost savings, I bought it because it takes up almost no room in the garage. | ||
| Aesquire |
If you've seen the video, read on. Otherwise... watch the video. I agree that regular soldered connections are best for in the walls, for multiple reasons. I don't know how physically strong the Sharkbite connector is, where you have a mass of copper hanging from one. Imagine the line from the basement to the second floor toilet, a 2 story length of pipe, maybe with 4 t fittings feeding other things, hanging it's weight on a push fitting. A removable push fitting. Not a structural thing. And I don't trust water tightness and weird loads on the same gizmo. This discussion... mostly internal, has led me to change my mind a bit. I have some repairs to make, and I'll pop for some Sharkbite fittings where logical to see how much work and effort I can save, on the house plumbing side. AND use traditional gas solder on the heating system side, juuuuust to be conservative. | ||
| Ebutch |
Always something  | ||
| Doz |
A big NO for shark bite fittings, especially for any internal hot waterheater repairs. Simply not worth it. Proceed with your new unit | ||
| H0gwash |
+1 on the tankless water heater. They heat water on demand, so you're not paying to constantly warm water in a giant tank which only starts to cool every second of a cold midwest winter, and then you have to pay to heat it again, again and again. They were pricey when I got them 20 years ago and the prices have gone down and the dependability has gotten better. | ||
| Hootowl |
I know several plumbers and a water treatment system installer. None of them will use push on connectors inside a house. Under a house, yes. Not in a wall, not in an attic. I'm a fan of CPVC and PEX, myself. Not interested in soldering. I've seen too many cold joints corrode and leak over the years. | ||
| Aesquire |
It's the incompetence of the plumber builder I'm dealing with now. Lots of cold joints, burnt joints, and micro leaks. The house was built by school kids, which gives it character ! Character = pain in the butt. When I moved in, the hot water tank was half full of salt pellets. The lower electric element was buried & dead. I replaced the anode rod, wasted, and flushed it. Got it clean, to my amazement. Then flushed it every other week to empty the salt/mineral deposits. Then.... Different anode rod ( magnesium ) No more salt pellets! Monthly flush of small amounts of iron eating sulfide farting bacteria. ( I just ran a hose around the basement from water heater to sump. Semi permanent. ) Time for new rod, it's on the work bench to be cut & installed. With well water and treatment craziness, I don't buy instant water heaters, I'd murder them in under a year. Any energy savings would be lost to replacement costs. Limiting push fittings to easily inspected basement use seems wise. But then why NOT use them for hot water heater replacement? | ||
| Ourdee |
Do I trust them for permanent in the wall repairs? Not I. But for a 5 or 10 year repair? Yes. I had a landlord up North that swore by them. I know how to solder copper joints, and have become successful at it. I had always put unions in the pipes when installing water heaters until finding Sharkbite stainless mesh wrapped hoses with ends on them that fit the threaded nubs on the water heaters. Below is my current system. Should work well in a minor earthquake. This is in the open in the laundry room with a floor drain right by it.  I believe the hose to be the weak link in my system. I have had great luck/success with them.  I did not do the solder on these pipes. I just cut the existing copper, dressed the ends, and slid on the Sharkbites. Ain't it all about the flow? | ||
| Griffmeister |
I like the crimp on fittings that are less expensive than sharkbites but still more than solder type. They are quick and non removable, of course you need a special tool that the rental centers don’t have yet. I have seen plumbers use them inside walls, though. Maybe some time in the future. | ||
| Hootowl |
You’re speaking of PEX fittings. The tools aren’t all that expensive. Not worth renting. | ||
| 86129squids |
Sharkbites/PEX: Someone has bought a Caribbean island with those inventions. If you have a basic plumbing leak, Sharkbites. They're simply amazing. I cannot speak to a water heater on gas. I just replaced an electric heater, RHEEM (pun?), with little trouble. We now have all the hot water needed. | ||
| Slaughter |
We finally went gas tankless. Been holding for 10 years. When it's winter out and I get home after a F-F-F-Freezing ride too lazy to wear my heated gear, it's nice being able to take a L...O...N...G hot shower AND run the dishwasher. | ||
| Tootal |
I went tankless many years ago. It's all mechanical so when the power went out a few Winter's ago I could still take a hot shower! As far as Sharkbite's, you're relying on an o-ring to not get hard and crack and fail. If I can't solder the pipes I'd use compression fittings but not Sharkbite's. | ||
| 1313 |
Tootal - Apparently the laws of physics must bend around my household. The past couple of times the power has gone out for an extended period of time for me - usually due to a hurricane or tropical storm - I'm able to take hot showers for 2 or 3 days with a conventional electric water heater. What is up with hot water heaters? If the water is already hot, why does it need to be heated?  | ||
| Tootal |
1313, I can see if you have a large and well insulated Water Heater that you could get away with a few military style showers. With the tankless I never run out! Mine is old and uses a pilot light. The new ones use electricity to fire them up and are most likely much more forgiving on holding a certain temperature. There are definitely negatives in owning one, especially if you have kids! | ||
| Court |
Nothing a 48kW Generac won't solve. :-) | ||
| Tootal |
  | ||
| Oldog |
The tech for the "shark bite" fitting has been around longer than 15 years, in various forms, they were used for compressed air and gasses, Parker and Legris ( now parker brand ) offered them in smaller sizes 30 + years ago. I agree, not suited for buried or freeze prone services. EPDM should be fine for potable water service, the trick to no leakage is square clean cut ends with no burrs to damage the seals Crusty sorry about your water heater, my roof that needed replacing after the storm last year was replaced last week, I will never use lowes for contractors again. | ||
| Pwnzor |
I will never use lowes for contractors again Don't use Home Despot's either... I think they get them off Craigs List. | ||
| Griffmeister |
Actually, I wasn’t talking about PEX, the ones I saw were Nibco for copper pipe connections http://www.nibco.com/Fittings/Press-Fittings-and-T ools/ The tool kits that I saw seemed to average around $1700, more than my budget for occasional repairs. Of course I’ll admit that they have an o-ring in the fitting which requires a clean joint. Haven’t seen anything from Crusty yet, maybe he’s hard at work on that heater now. Hopefully everything went smoothly. |
