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+--- Thread: Hot water heater questions (/showthread.php?tid=123464)
Re: Hot water heater questions - BernDog - 09-11-2011
Demonstrating my lack of experience here, but isn't that union right before the elbow going down there to do exactly what you're trying to do? Maybe I'm way off.
Re: Hot water heater questions - Black - 09-11-2011
Plumbking wrote:
You disconnect the gas by unscrewing the union. Right next to the 90 in your pic. There are no reverse threads in your application. After the gas is shut off.
Your new water heater has a control valve already installed.
If I were you I'd remove the union and replace with a 1/2 x 24" gas flex with cock. The cock will be your new gas shut off valve. The flex adapter will screw into the new gas control valve.
Be sure to use pipe dope on all threads. It is not a glue but a lubricant so you can tighten the threads better. Please be very careful when working with gas pipe.
Good Luck.
Thanks! Hadn't got around to trying the union b/c all I had with me was one pipe wrench. So the bell-housing thing is the control valve, and I can lose it?
Will do pipe dope on all new junctions. Do you use tape in addition?
Re: Hot water heater questions - Black - 09-11-2011
Plumking, top clarify-- the cock is separate from the flex pipe?
I can't seem to locate an integrated one on line.
Is this the cock?
BrassCraft
3/8 in. OD Flare x 1/2 in. FIP Brass Gas Ball Valve for Gas Dryers
Also it looks like the shortest flex pipe Home Depot sticks is 36".
Re: Hot water heater questions - Plumbking - 09-11-2011
You need two wrenches for unions.
Control valve stays with water heater, old or new, no need to remove.
You can use teflon tape and pipe dope.
You can use teflon tape only.
You can use pipe dope only.
I recommended pipe dope because with the flex connector has flare joint (pipe dope only).
Did you drain your water heater from the previous thread? That's the first step. Unless you're stronger than me and can move 350lb full water heater. The only way is the hose bib at the bottom. Run the hose to anywhere. And I hope you have a helper do remove and replace the heaters form the attic.
Oh never mind you'r stronger than me. :wink:
Good Luck
I have to go coach volleyball right now. Be back in a couple of hours to check on you.
Re: Hot water heater questions - Plumbking - 09-11-2011
Yes cock is separate. Yes that Brasscraft will do.
Flexes come in all sizes from 12" to 48"
Get 18 or 24. Try the water heater isle not the dryer isle.
Re: Hot water heater questions - Black - 09-11-2011
Thanks! I have a choice between going east to a smaller Home Depot (with recycling drop-off along the way-- consolidate a trailer trip) or west to a larger Home Depot with no recycling drop-off along the way.
The smaller home depots have a frustrating ability to not have what you came for. Oddly flex pipe smaller than 36" does not show as being in store at any of them. Will have to see when I get there.
I hadn't known that flare joints are pipe-dope only; good info for the next time I need to mess with a stove or dryer connection.
I turned the heater off and filled my bathtub; will drain when back with the new tank (there is plenty to do while waiting-- will drag my large shop vac up there and go to work.)
Re: Hot water heater questions - Black - 09-11-2011
OK, jokes can begin now :-)
Re: Hot water heater questions - cbelt3 - 09-11-2011
NO jokes... it's a heck of a job and the installation locations for water heaters are ALWAYS tough to get through unless you're a very flexible and svelte individual. I've always wondered why plumbers don't take Yoga classes.
Good luck !
Re: Hot water heater questions - Racer X - 09-11-2011
My hot water heater is in my ground floor garage. Probably a 10 minute job to disconnect it, and I can roll it right out to the driveway. Why houses were built to hide stuff like furnaces, water shut offs and water heaters, instead of making access easy, is completely beyond me.
Re: Hot water heater questions - rgG - 09-11-2011
Racer X wrote:
My hot water heater is in my ground floor garage. Probably a 10 minute job to disconnect it, and I can roll it right out to the driveway. Why houses were built to hide stuff like furnaces, water shut offs and water heaters, instead of making access easy, is completely beyond me.
I have one water heater in the basement, easy in, easy out. I have one water heater in an upstairs closet, not so easy in or out, but a heck of a lot better than in the attic, where one of our two heating units is. The other heating unit is in the basement, right next to the easy in/out water heater. See, I have the best/worst of both worlds.
I really hate changing the air filters in that heating unit in the attic in the summer. I just did it a few days ago, and it sucks. It is like an oven up there and the filter is in a difficult to get to spot. Lovely, just lovely.