Homeowners cannot diagnose water heater and pressure faults
Electricians, plumbers and other tradespeople are encountering technical problems with equipment and installations. These range from electrical circuit issues to plumbing system malfunctions and identifying legacy machinery.
SOURCES (60)
“If I need to leave for 1 week what’s the proper way to shut the water and/or gas water heater? I’m sure it’s simple but ChatGPT is not helping much. submitted by /u/HonkLonkwood [link] [comments]”
“Ahh that is a problem I understand. Still running 12/3 wire in cantex could be easier than upgrading the gas line, extending the exhaust, and upsizing your copper. Perhaps there is a creative way to go from you main panel to the water heater.”
“They'd still have to have an electrician come out and wire a 220v to a hybrid heater so that's a decent price increase over putting a conventional gas tank back in.”
“Four years ago our water heater broke and we got a tankless water heater put in by a “friend of a friend” situation to save. Long story short it has come back to bite us: our very long venting/exhaustion pipes (they have to go through 20ft of crawl space to make it outside) aren’t set up with enough down slope, the unit itself has the wrong size copper piping, it was assembled in a way that doesn’t allow for descaling,and we can’t get enough gas to the unit. We had several people come look and o”
“Agreed. What's interesting is that this was installed in 2011 (previous owner) and even with this piping setup, it's worked and not leaked. The previous owner was an older woman, so I assume she had someone install it... but it doesn't look like a very professional job.”
“Hello! So, we needed an entire AC replacement months ago. Gas furnace, condenser, etc. The workers had to disconnect the gas hot water heater when doing this. Since it was turned back on, our hot and cold water in our showers and bathroom taps have no rhyme or reason. You barely turn the showers on, and they are warm. You have to nearly turn the tap to completely off to get it cold. Our sinks when turned fully cold, are not very cold, and when we turn it to hot it gets colder for a few seconds b”
“Can I ask your opinion. I have gone to multiple shops around town including plumbing supply stores and for the life of me I can not find a wye piece. Is it reasonable to use a t piece but higher up so that the venting angle is 45 degrees?”
“I can't figure out this panel, I dont know what this settings mean on this boiler, I also have an immersion heater in the bedroom with a switch that says 'hot water', and the shower is electric. Had this boiler on all day (switched it off overnight because the immersion heater is so noisy...), switch for 'hot water' mentioned above on all day, have hot water in the kitchen and bathrooms but not the shower? What is meant to heat up the water for the shower?! There was hot wate”
“Probably either going to be a fault with the diverter valve, or with the pcb. Both are things you’ll have to get a gas safe heating engineer to deal with unfortunately. But if you look near the boiler there will be a power switch for the boiler, when you’re not using it for hot water you could turn off the power so it can’t run at all as a temporary solution.”
“what size wire should I run for this water heater? i’m guessing 10gauge 30amp? submitted by /u/BenefitLife6960 [link] [comments]”
“I can't tell if I'm looking at the fucking milky way or a water heater, Dude if you can't take a picture to help us out, I can't help you out. 2013, its getting there, just gimme a regular photo from 4 feet away, look at the plumbing coming off of it, and the tank... use your head... does it look bad on the outside? If not, you go by age.... i would never go over 10 years because i can do them cheap and easy and its not worth the hassle... plus hows your water quality? well/city?”
Yeah you probably missed where it auto feeds to the boiler for heat and you didn't isolate it, probably pushed a shitton of air into the loops and didn't even give a…
“Yes the other one has the exact same apparently wrong configuration. The circulation line connects to the inlet AFTER the cold water shut off valves to both heaters. The circulation does have its own valve before it splits to go to each heater, but Since there’s no way to to shut it off to just one of the two heaters, solution will go into both units when flushing just one. I drew a diagram of the setup https://preview.redd.it/5qjahtgkzfmh1.png?width=611&format=png&auto=webp&s=d42333”
“https://preview.redd.it/uz1dz8z0yfmh1.png?width=611&format=png&auto=webp&s=08652c931edaebcc64bec215be97cdf7b596a115 Here’s the drawing”
“If you look in the photos, the circulation line connects to the main inlet after the main inlet valve. There’s two units connected in parallel so I have no way of isolating just one of the units to flush it.”
“Im with you.... it can't hurt .. one of those rather have it and not need it then need it and not have it kind of things”
“This is not installed correctly, Please for the lives of your family shut it off and call someone to your home to explain what needs to happen to fix this bad installation. Flue pipe is wrong and I can only imagine what else can also be wrong. That's the one of the most important parts of an installation.”
Huh. I never knew that. I just assumed it was a condensation drain. Thanks
“I think you ment that the heat transfer isn't as efficient. Burn efficiency of all gas appliances should be good no matter the efficiency. That's a test port for combustion readings that's missing a cap”
“you really should not fool with those anode rods, its takes 2 men and a boy to get one out after the heater has been in service for a few years.... you are gonna need a cheater bar and someone to hold the heater while you twist and stain... good luck weilhammer”
“I would agree that it’s lazy, but then I think that the average person is too impatient for far less than 10 minutes of effort. I saw a water heater that had an expansion tank piped to rest on top of the tank because they didn’t want to take the 2 minutes it would take to strap it to the stud. Fresh sweat fittings, but a sharkbite on the hot because it was a tight spot. It’s never ending in our trade. Now, when I look under a sink, check pressure at a boiler drain, or see anything done correctly”
“How about the draining. The way it is setup now it runs behind the heater directly into the wall to wherever that goes. Were on the 3rd floor. Washer drain is about 3ft to the right at about 38" off the ground the relief valve sits at about 50". The drain however is a single outlet. Would the plumber not have to reroute this drain to be in code compliance?”
“For a short distance temporary move I would just extend the pipes with PEX and splice in some more wire. It might not pass code to have PEX connect directly to the heater depending on where you live, keep that in mind if any of the work is getting permits. PEX direct to an electric tank heater will work just fine though.”
“Nope not how that works, they need to be serviceable so there always outside but some recirculation pumps have built in checks but id always on one outside. NPE-A Navien”
“Modulation/minimum KW output isn't particularly low, but it could be the minimum gas pressure (on lowest flame) is too high. It is worth getting a gas engineer out to go through it, check it's 2.0mb odd on min. Edit: yeah watching again it makes no attempt to drop from max flame, gas engineer needs to go through it. https://preview.redd.it/kz7gkp928ylh1.jpeg?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c2b81c4532ea67bc186b1ee5b4b28482bb9da979”
“No idea if it's common for this water heater, they're rare imo. Odds are, the minimum output (modulation ratio) , is higher than what the demand you're putting on it is when you restrict the flow. So if the minimum output is 8kw etc, and your water flow is only 4-6lpm, it will still gain heat and the temp will rocket up until the burner switches off. It'll then kick back on once sufficiently cooled. Basically the flame can't modulate low enough to warm the small amount of flo”
“Also, regardless of the brand of the new tank, replacing your anode rod every 3 years or installing a “permanent” electric powered anode rod will significantly increase the life of your new tank. It fights the inevitable corrosion”
“Anything but the lowest length manufactur warranty from Home Depot or Lowe’s. If you do go with something from Home Depot or Lowe’s, spend the extra money to have the long warranty model with the brass drain valve. Anything with plastic drain valve is trash. State, Bradford white, or highest warranty Rheem / AO smith More important than the water heater itself is going to be the quality of your well water. If your water is acidic with pH 6.5 or below, you’re screwed regardless. High hardness and”
“So I’m very handy and can do about anything. Lately we added 1500sf to our home and as part, we moved the master suite. Since we didn’t add users to the water load we didn’t add a 2nd water heater. But the master bath is much further away now and the water takes FOREVER to warm up, so I added a recirculating system without a dedicated return line to the system. Hot water pump at the water heater and a crossover valve at the furthest point from the water heater. It’s a programmable system that al”
“If the first heater is set at 100° and the second heater at 130° they will work fine. I know a lot of people on here say that parallel systems are the only way to do it. Parallel systems are for large systems. Series works perfectly fine for home systems. Only thing I would suggest is a check valve on the cold line between the shut of and the tee to the recirc pump. And one right after the recirc pump. That stops city pressure from pushing down the recirc line and stops the pump from pushing dow”
“Yes, what all of you are saying is very true. But I have installed something similar in the past, but it was using copper headers instead of an aluminum nipple and aluminum heater core. As this core can’t be hot water reheat quill could be used, but they usually output 80 to 100,000 BTUs that’s why it’s put inside for Ralph furnace theoretically put in Duct Work and have airflow through it and that is if it had the headers outside of the duck work. What I’m getting at is this type of heater core”
“So we just moved into a new house, and after a couple days the hot water stopped working. I'm assuming the tank just ran out, and the heater had turned off either while the water was turned off a couple days after we moved in... they had also put it on vacation mode but I don't think that would have done it. Long story short, I assume i just put it on pilot and hit the switch on the right if that's the issue right? submitted by /u/Lev559 [link] [comments]”
“I am a plumber (apprentice). I was just checking here to see if anyone had ideas of things to check that I may not have thought of before I go drop money on a new unit and install it. I’ve also been talking to other plumbers where I work. It’s not bad to use the internet as a resource as long as it’s not your only resource.”
“My new water heater is a bit taller than the previous one. Now the shared wye connector segment does not fit. The previous vent pipe is not reusable. There's very little room to work with. The entry of the wye is about 3" above the top of the vent hood. There is some room to move the HWH forward, back, or to the right. Not to the left. Raising the overall vertical height of the entry point is not an option. What are the options? Use a 4x4x3 wye instead of 4x4x4, in order to lose the red”
“Looking at the model numbers you bought an atmospheric to replace a power vent. You cannot do that. They are not interchangeable. Atmospheric has a standing pilot and no power wire. Power vent is hot surface ignitor and power cord to plug blower into. The interior burner and exhaust chamber are also different. Gas controls are different etc.”
“No he's not a plumber. By the code, you need at least 18 inches of rigid pipe that can absorb heat in case thermostat fails before transitioning to your preferred pipe. I would go with stainless flex for easier installation and maintenance.”
Literally no knowledge for this kind of thing; hot water is actually hot, like scalding hot for maybe 10 minutes max before it rapidly goes to lukewarm. Also, apartment, I know. They've…
“Isn’t it supposed to be copper a certain length off of the unit? Also no pressure tank? I’m assuming not always needed.”
“How does the water temp drop so significantly in 18"? I'm not here to argue whether the code exists but the logic of it.”
I give it two weeks tops before the red starts its spray.
“Pex is flexible. I don't understand why so many use elbows like crazy. Sure it looks clean but, it's terrible for flow.”
“My Opinion : Fuck PEX !! Don’t trust the material and I don’t trust the system… Never will !!”
“Is it a good idea with that water heater no. Is it ok, it depends on your state and local plumbing codes. It’s perfectly legal in Indiana, but I still use copper off the water heater anyway.”
“Uhhh, you got 28 years out of a water heater? That's like winning the lottery while getting struck by lightning twice”
“You need a gas flex connection and an adapter. Need pliers and/or pipe wrench. Pipe dope and Teflon tape. Take nipple and cap off install adapter. Red handle is the gas on/off turn so red is parallel to brass for on. It is in the off position in the pic above. Check manual for proper size connections and flex. Usually 1/2” or 3/8”. That valve looks like 1/2”.”
“Y’all run this shit in copper with a mixing valve tank set to 140-145 and mix to 120 with expansion tank and vacuum breaker yall wild as hell in New England if I saw this shit would think it’s a homeowner”