Pro Handyman Blog

A Las Vegas water heater sees plenty of abuse. Intense heat and water as hard as a tax collector’s heart make up the daily life of a water heater. If you have a gas water heater, you also have a vent that carries the exhaust from the burner compartment to the exterior.

Every so often, we will come across a water heater vent that is not correctly secured. The draft hood has legs on it with tabs on the ends that slide into the top of the water heater. The hood is them rotated to engage the tabs. Connected to the draft hood is the vent. The vent should be secured to the draft hood. However, often I see that it is just sitting on it with nothing but friction holding it on.

The vent fits over the draft hood snuggly. I usually install 3 self-tapping screws into it through both the vent and the draft hood. You can use more than 3 screws, but I wouldn’t use less. After securing it with the screws, wrap the connection with metal tape. This area gets very hot so don’t use tape that could burn. Metal tape combined with the self tapping screws is a very reliable method to secure the vent assembly.