Not every project goes as well as planned. We would be happy to spend a few minutes answering your questions.
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I got a call from a friend last week asking if it was okay to turn off his water heater while he went out of town. I asked why he wanted to do that and he said he wanted to save the money, and he could save the energy. That makes sense, but I told him to consider just turning the water heater to the “Vacation” setting on the thermostat. He didn’t know what that was.
Turning the water heater off for the days you are away from the house is fine. The water in the tank will gradually cool and so when you get back you will have to relight the pilot (if you have a gas water heater). This is normally not a problem, but if it’s late and you are cranky, you may not want to take the time to read the instructions printed on the side of your tank.
Turning the water heater to “vacation” setting will keep the pilot lit while lowering the temperature in the tank. So when you get back home from vacation, you will turn the thermostat from vacation to whatever heat setting you desire. Generally speaking, 120 degrees at the tap is recommended. You can test the temperature at the tap by running the water until it is hot, filling a tall glass with the hot water, and using a cooking thermometer placed in the glass.
Want to save 4%-9% of water heater energy costs? Insulate your water heater. According to the US Dept. Of Energy you can do just that by adding insulation to your water heater. How can you tell if your water heater needs to be insulated? Just touch it. If it feels warm, it could benefit by wrapping it in a water heater jacket. You wouldn’t send your child into the cold without at jacket right? You shouldn’t do that with your water heater either.
Installing a water heater blanket is easy. The kits come with complete instructions, but basically you wrap the tank with the blanket and tape it into place. Electric water heaters are easier, as you don’t have the vent or gas connections to avoid.
Although most blankets come with come cutouts already provided, you will have to make some cuts to allow for controls and piping. If you need to get around a pipe, such as the TPR fitting, cut a slit in the insulation and fit it around the fitting. Tape the cut insulation back together.
At the top of the tank will be the cold inlet supply pipe and the hot water outgoing pipe that supplies the house. Some water heaters will have a heat trap built in to the nipple, but you won’t be able to tell unless you take it out. You can bend the flex lines so that there is an arch at the top of the pipe to prevent hot water from backing out of the tank. Also, you can install pipe insulation on the copper flex lines to keep them from losing heat as well.
Many people wonder if they need to replace the copper flex lines when installing a new water heater. My answer is probably not. As long as the copper flex lines are not damaged or corroded in some way, they should last for decades. Notice I said as long as they are not damaged or corroded. I have seen people twist these lines in an unnatural way that causes them to bend or kink. This is a problem because it can minimize the volume of water flowing through the pipes.
In the case of a temperature and pressure relief valve (TPR), minimizing the volume when the valve opens due to excessive heat or pressure can cause catastrophic damage (the tank could explode). So it is important that the copper flex lines have only gradual changes of direction.
So you likely won’t need to replace the water supply lines, but you should replace the washers inside the fittings at the end of these lines. They are inexpensive and will replace the nasty squashed washers that have sat in there for years. Dig out the old washer and simply push the new one into the fitting until it bottoms out against the back of the fitting. Then install the flex line to the water heater’s nipples.
If you have an electric water heater and it has stopped producing hot water, there are many things that could be the problem. Before you start leafing through the yellow pages for a plumber, try this quick fix first.
Electric water heaters have 2 heating elements, one in the upper part of the tank and one in the lower part of the tank. Sometimes these heating elements will stop working and need to be replaced.
In addition to the heating elements, there are thermostats that tell the elements to turn on and off to heat the water to the desired temperature. If the system gets overloaded, it will shut off and stop heating water. This situation might be a one-time problem, or it may be indicative of a larger underlying problem. The first thing to do is to push the reset button.
These are under a metal coverings on the outside wall of the tank. Remove the covers and you may need to push away some insulation to get to the reset button. When you press the button you should feel a little resistance and maybe even hear it “click” and it restarts. If all goes well, you should have hot water in about an hour.
If your gas water heater was manufactured after 2003, the chances are good that it has a FVIR (Flammable Vapor Ignition Resistance) feature. These are water heaters with a flame arrestor and filter screen that increase the safety of the unit. They have a sealed burner that differs from the older water heaters. FVIR water heaters have an ignitor button to light the pilot, whereas the older style allowed you to light a match and place it into the burner assembly to manually light the pilot.
Water heater pilots sometimes go out. Instructions for re-lighting them are posted on the side of the tank, but if the pilot continues to go out, you need to do some troubleshooting.
You may end up replacing the burner assembly or even the gas control, but cleaning the filter might just do the trick. You will need a long wire brush (preferably with plastic bristles), and a vacuum cleaner with an upholstery attachment (the long skinny one). Turn the water heater off and let it cool down for 15 minutes or so.
At the very bottom of the water heater will be an opening or two about an inch tall. These openings are covered by a screen. Remove this screen and vacuum it or wash it with soap and water. Removing this screen will give you access to the filter. The filter is located on the underside of the burner area. If this filter is clogged with lint or dirt, it will prohibit air from entering the burner chamber and consequently the burner won’t be able to heat the water. You may find that there is enough air passing to allow the pilot to stay lit, but when the demand increases to fire the burner, it will go out.
Stick the wire brush into the opening and rub the underside of the burner chamber at the center of the water heater. Rub it a few times and pull it out to inspect. You will probably see lint and dust that the brush has picked up. Vacuum this off of the brush and stick it back into the opening. Repeat this several times until the brush comes out clean and then vacuum the entire area including the area under the burner chamber. Replace the screen and follow the directions on re-lighting the pilot.
A water heater leak can be terrible. They put a halt to the household’s normal business and cause secondary damage to the surrounding area. When the tank leaks you have to replace it. When you replace the water heater tank, it’s a good idea to invest an extra 50 cents on new washers.
If you screw the copper flex lines right back down on new nipples, you may not have a problem, but why risk it? The copper flex lines should last for a very long time, but the washers that go between them and the nipples get squished and distorted. In a pinch I have pulled them out and flipped them over for a fresh surface, but really you can’t do better than new washers.
You will probably have trouble digging them out of the nut at the end of the copper flex lines. Stick your finger in there and pry them away from the female end of the line. Simply press the new washer into the line so that it butts up against the bottom of the female fitting. Do this for both the hot and cold lines. You will also find, as a side benefit, that the flex lines will screw on to the nipples much smoother and easier.
I got a call from a customer that was having problems getting hot water. He had a 75 gallon water heater with a recirculating pump on it (the recirculating pump pumps hot water through a loop in the house so you get hot water within seconds rather than minutes). The complaint was that they would sometimes get hot water immediately and then it would cool off within 2 minutes, and sometimes they wouldn't get the immediate hot water, but rather would have to wait several minutes for hot water to start. They said the problem was intermittent but that it affected all fixtures in the house.
There are many things that could cause the water to cool after it was hot. A dip tube could be broken or cracked, a recirculating pump check valve could be bad, etc. I like to start out with the simple things first, and so I ventured into the garage to look at the recirculating pump.
I was there in the early morning and saw that the pump was plugged into a timer which was plugged into the wall. The first thing I noticed was that the timer was not set to the correct time. It was off by over an hour (coincidentally we started daylight savings time about the time they noticed the problem). I forwarded the timer to the correct time and the pump started pumping. It seems that the "intermittent" hot water problem was only occurring in the early morning when the pump was turned off. Problem solved.
Lesson: check to make sure the timer is set correctly and the pump is running.
Our customer had rust coming out of her bathtub when she turned on the water. Certainly not a good sign with some expensive solutions.
There are several considerations here that will help lead to a diagnosis. The two most likely problems are either the water heater tank is corroded and rust is present. The second possibility is that a fitting used in the faucet is corroding. The more likely of the two is that the water heater will need replaced.
Is the rust coming out of just one faucet or many faucets? If rust is present at just one faucet, it may be that the installer of that faucet used an inferior fitting and that fitting is rusting, which would explain the rust in that one fixture. Another clue is that if rust is present when both the hot and cold water run separately. If the problem is actually the water heater, you should have rust when running only the hot water. If you have rust when running only the cold water, it might suggest the installer used inferior fittings on both the hot and cold sides, and therefore may not be the water heater.
It is a good idea to note the location of the fixture in relation to the water heater. For example, if the water heater is on the opposite side of the wall from the suspect fixture, it may just be that that fixture is closest to the water heater and will receive the brunt of the rust. So other fixtures farther away from the water heater may receive very little rust, and may suggest that the fixture is rusting when in fact the water heater is to blame. If the suspect fixture is in a bathroom with other hot water fixtures, let the water heater sit for a period of time so that the rust has time to accumulate in it. Then turn on the hot water in a different fixture to see if you get rust from it. If you get rust coming from a previously unaffected fixture, you might consider a water heater replacement.
The moment comes when you have to turn off the water to your water heater. You get a ladder to turn off the knob at the top of the water heater and it keeps turning...and turning. Over the years, the valve has corroded and won't turn the water off.
Your choices at this point are to turn off the water at the main shut-off valve in the street (here's how to turn the water off at the street), or you may have another shut-off valve at a different location, such as your garage.
At some point you will need to replace the faulty valve at the top of your water heater. You probably have a gate valve (it's about $2 cheaper than a superior ball valve and that's why the builder installed it), but it is far better to install a ball valve. Here is a discussion on a ball valves vs. gate valves. They both will install in the same manner but the ball valve is far more dependable in a time of crisis.
You will need to break out the torch and sweat the new valve on to the water supply line. Here are details on how to solder copper. Once you have the new valve installed you can turn on the water at the street to test for leaks, and the next time you need to service the water heater, this new valve will isolate it from the rest of the house water supply. That means you can flush the toilets to your heart's content while the water to the water heater is off.
Sometimes your water heater is just looking for a little attention. After you drain your water heater, there are times that the drain valve won't shut off, or maybe it just decides to start leaking all on its own. Either way, it means you get to perform a little service work.
The valve to drain the tank is located at the front of the water heater near the bottom of the tank. Some people call it a drain valve, hose bib, hose faucet, drain cock, etc. They all are a means to drain the tank.
These valves are all usually plastic and are fairly easy to install. You must turn off the water entering the tank. You can do this by the shut-off valve at the top of the tank, or you can turn off the water to the house. It's not necessary to drain the tank to do this repair, but when you open the drain valve you will get a few cups of water that spill out. Think about this: if you have a straw in a glass of water and you put your finger over the end of the straw and pull it out of the glass, the water stays in the straw right? Well it's the same for your water heater, as long as nobody in the house opens a hot water faucet you will be fine. However, if someone does open a faucet and allows air into the hot water line, you will get plenty of hot water running out of the drain valve...just like if you remove your finger off of the straw.
Replacing the valve is a matter of unscrewing the old one off and twisting a new valve back on. Just wrap the new valve's threads with several wraps of Teflon tape to seal out any leaks.
