Gas water heater replacement

[old goat]

Sure, it's easy to do, physically. Just google "installing water heater." The problem is knowing what you don't know. Why mess with gas? The plumber shouldn't charge that much.

Thanks for the chuckle

Had a plumber install it last year. what could I have been thinking? OTOH it was down a steep stairs, happy to have the plumber and his helper get it down to the basement. And the plumber had to come back for a leak--old plumbing. Worth it but not cheap. I did the earthquake straps and insulating the pipes myself.

But nowhere near 3K. I think about $600 plus the water heater from HD.

[mcski]

Ya, that quote is plumber speak for i really don’t want to do this unless I’m paid too much

You can do it. Report back!

[XXX-er]

yeah a good time to put a pan under the new tank

[FLS]

Had a plumber install it last year. what could I have been thinking?

Maybe you misunderstood my comment was solely directed at the “the plumber shouldn’t charge that much” comment? (#6).

What xxx-er said.

[old goat]

Maybe you misunderstood my comment was solely directed at the “the plumber shouldn’t charge that much” comment? (#6).

What xxx-er said.

I got that. I was admitting that my original post was naive. (It would have been a lot cheaper if my old plumber hadn't retired.)

[BobMc]

Looks like I saved myself about $2600 today with the help of SFB! One trip to Home Depot for the same size Rheem heater we had before, two trips to Lowes for various water supply adaptors and we had it installed. Not too hard, glad I had help on sussing out the supply and feed lines. Ended up cutting off most of the copper pipes coming off the pex and using sharkbite feed lines onto the copper ends.



I still have to anchor it but we have hot water.

[I Skied Bandini Mountain]

You still need a sediment trap - change the 90 that feeds the WH to a tee and have the sediment trap below that. It will take care of the need for both the WH and furnace.

[BFD]

Any thoughts in combi verse conventional boiler? Want to replace a forced air furnace.

[Jethro]

With the flexible water and gas lines used today, a water heater replacement is pretty easy. The hardest part is getting the old heater out. One tip. If the tank won’t drain down, you can put air on the water lines and blow the water out. Put the air on the hot line, since it’s at the top of the tank

As far as thread sealant goes, I like the goop in the can. Teflon tape works well also. Some guys use both, but I’m pretty sure the plumbing codes state to use one or the other. They are not listed/tested for use together. I could be wrong. I’m an Electrician, not a plumber

[AdironRider]

Any thoughts in combi verse conventional boiler? Want to replace a forced air furnace.

I have a combi. This one specifically. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Noritz-I...V-NG/300315643

I use it to run hot water and a radiant in floor heat system. My well water comes up at like 45 degrees or so in the winter so it has a large temp rise to deal with and still puts out enough water to run 2 showers at the same time.

I installed myself after paying the equivalent of the guy in the parking lot to re run the vent pipes and gas line from an upstairs closet down to the crawlspace and hand the unit on the wall. I gladly paid a guy to do this and did the actual plumbing hookups and wiring myself. The unit has a built in pump that runs my whole radiant system, which is nice. Was basically plug and play so the install was easy, outside of the regular "pain in the ass" stuff like any DIY project.

I like the combination unit as it really simplifies the whole system for me. Before we had a hybrid system with instant hot water but also a reserve tank. I was constantly dealing with circulation pump failures, then the tank itself started leaking. The heat transfer coil inside shit the bed. The Combi eliminates all that so hopefully reliability will be stronger. Only a year in so time will tell.

One caveat: If you aren't doing this DIY, or semi -DIY like me with a helper, plumbers hear "combi" and jack the price way up. I got three quotes to have them do it and the cheapest was 10 grand. I paid about 1000 for parts and the helper plus 1900 for the unit itself, and it took about a day to do the install. I'm just outside Jackson so there is a substantial premium here but the markups I got were insane. The system is trick once it is all said and done but keep that in mind if you aren't planning on getting dirty.

[BFD]

I have a combi. This one specifically. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Noritz-I...V-NG/300315643

I use it to run hot water and a radiant in floor heat system. My well water comes up at like 45 degrees or so in the winter so it has a large temp rise to deal with and still puts out enough water to run 2 showers at the same time.

I installed myself after paying the equivalent of the guy in the parking lot to re run the vent pipes and gas line from an upstairs closet down to the crawlspace and hand the unit on the wall. I gladly paid a guy to do this and did the actual plumbing hookups and wiring myself. The unit has a built in pump that runs my whole radiant system, which is nice. Was basically plug and play so the install was easy, outside of the regular "pain in the ass" stuff like any DIY project.

I like the combination unit as it really simplifies the whole system for me. Before we had a hybrid system with instant hot water but also a reserve tank. I was constantly dealing with circulation pump failures, then the tank itself started leaking. The heat transfer coil inside shit the bed. The Combi eliminates all that so hopefully reliability will be stronger. Only a year in so time will tell.

One caveat: If you aren't doing this DIY, or semi -DIY like me with a helper, plumbers hear "combi" and jack the price way up. I got three quotes to have them do it and the cheapest was 10 grand. I paid about 1000 for parts and the helper plus 1900 for the unit itself, and it took about a day to do the install. I'm just outside Jackson so there is a substantial premium here but the markups I got were insane. The system is trick once it is all said and done but keep that in mind if you aren't planning on getting dirty.

I read your original thread. Do you have any pressure issues? Am wondering if having a pressure tank will create problems. How many zones? That seems to complicate the installation.

[AdironRider]

I read your original thread. Do you have any pressure issues? Am wondering if having a pressure tank will create problems. How many zones? That seems to complicate the installation.

So you are talking to a laymen, so take my terminology with a grain of salt. I do have one of those tiny pressure tanks, well two actually. 1 right off the main well line as it comes in the house, and then one for the radiant system itself. The Combi unit itself also will regulate pressure, and fill the radiant system with additional water if needed. My unit does have to add pressure to the radiant system occasionally, which will lock it out of domestic hot water for a minute or two while it does this. This usually only happens if the radiant heat hasn't been on for a while. Whether this is because of the pressure tank, I do not know.

I only operate as 1 zone, my house is small and pretty open concept. My understanding is multiple zones would require more pumps to circulate the hot water for heat, vs just the one included internally with the unit. Mine has the capability to run those multiple pumps, but I didn't play around with that myself.

[BFD]

Thanks i am going with 4 zones so a lot more plumbing. Just called two local plumbing supply places. They both said they are selling more combi than conventional for new construction. I guess i will go the combi route.