Gas Hot Water Heater

Tankless systems are at a disadvantage in colder climates, since they can only raise the temperature so much.

Are you suggesting an outdoor installation?
I would have thought that most people would have it somewhere in the house that is at room temperature, like 68 to 70 F.
Am I wrong?

Just replaced my water heater a few weeks back. Here's my 2 cents. Replace it.

Just attach a regular hose to the tank to drain it (with the water shut off to the tank obviously). If water stops from the hose early, turn on the water from the shutoff for a few seconds with the hose valve off. This should stir up the rocks on the bottom of the tank and let the water flow again.

Once it is empty you can disconnect it from the lines and remove it. Save your copper pipe that attaches to the pressure relief valve so you can reuse it on the new one.

Buy the new tank, bring it home in your SUV (just be careful not to lay it on the front side (the box labels the front and back) and buy the connection kit which has flex lines to easily hookup the new tank without having to sweat pipes.

Tanks advertise different recover amounts (how fast it can heat back up). Generally the more expensive the quicker they are.

Most have the 6,9, or 12 year warranty. But thats just parts from the manufacturer, and typically they require their expensive technician to come out to diagnosis it first.

I think the 2 year parts and 1 year labor cover everything and that is separate on top of the manufacturers warranty.

Basically the 12 year tanks are generally always better built than a 6 year and often times have 2 anode rods in them or larger ones (the things that break down and cause the sediment but prevent the tank from rusting and leaking).

Edit: Id like to address one more question you posed, that the tank runs out of both hot and cold water. This is either something wrong with the tank totally clogged, or something wrong with your water supply to the tank. You should be able to run endless water (although cold) from the hot water tank.



I think you may be confused. There are 2 types of tank water heaters, one that heat the tank with gas (either natural gas or propane) and those that heat it with electric.

Now there are also tankless which you might be thinking of and those are both gas and electric as well and provide endless hot water, but thats a different animal all together.

I just went to try and flush mine about a week ago and couldn't get the (plastic) drain valve open

Having recently installed a tankless hot water system here where I live, that supplies a bar, commercial kitchen, 6 hotel rooms, and laundromat, we have benefited from a substantial reduction in our light bill, plus this system serves us better, as it's unlimited.
The only downside for us is that the device requires a minimum water pressure (20 PSI) and our city pressure is mostly below that limit, so we added a tiny pump to help the cause.
The water pressure is a non issue where you all live in Mainland USA.
Now, if we're talking about a similar price range to a normal gas heater with tank, although I do understand that there would be some initial installation costs with the tankless that you might not have while keeping the status quo. but at the very least, you'd recover that from lower operating costs and the big bonus is, as much hot water as you want, when you want it.
For me, that's huge. We couldn't even fill a bathtub properly, most of the time with our previous electric tank system.
You'd have to research and compare durability, of course, but I think that it's worth looking at the tankless option, as it's such a sweet set up.
You never have to wonder if there's enough hot water when you want to take a long shower or a big bath, during "hot water rush hour" in your home.
Seems to me, that's worth a lot.

Amazon. $909. [amazon.com]
Lowes. $450 to $1,280. [lowes.com]
Home Depot. $1,000 to $1,450. [homedepot.ca]

We just replaced a 50 gallon propane tank, emergency service as it was leaking. We used our heating contractor and the total cost was $1300 installed. We called them at 9 pm and the new tank was installed and working by noon the next day. I would say your Home Depot quote is out of line.

Could you please expand on these solderless fittings?

I would love to do two 50 gallon tanks, and I have the space, but how does the plumbing for that work? Can you do that by simply splitting the intake and outflow to handle two tanks?

Not sure if this is what is being referred to, but I swapped out an electric tank and used these:

http://www.sharkbite.com/usa/prod...gory_id=24

It was literally 10 seconds to install with no leaks. I can't say enough good things about them.

He said not to even attempt to flush it at this point since flushing it could cause it to start leaking and the air valve very likely could fail since it has not been used regularly.

...Now, if we're talking about a similar price range to a normal gas heater with tank, although I do understand that there would be some initial installation costs with the tankless that you might not have while keeping the status quo. but at the very least, you'd recover that from lower operating costs and the big bonus is, as much hot water as you want, when you want it...