 |
|||||||
|
|
|||||||
Recently I was taking a shower and when I happened to look up at the ceiling I saw water stains up there. I wondered what this could be. Upstairs bathroom? No, that's too far away. Water Heater? Yep, that's it. Throwing something on. I run upstairs and the water heater was spraying water like crazy! I quickly shut off the water valves and the spraying finally stops. Replacing a water heater is one of the most common household plumbling projects that you'll encounter. When fixing this problem, you may have to drain the water heater to get it to stop leaking. Hopefully your water heater has a drip pan like mine does. If so, you can drain in the drip pan or put a water hose on the bottom drain. Now for some simple instructions on water heater installation and replacing your own homes' water heater for the do-it-yourself homeowner.As you might have guessed, first you've got to remove the old water heater one. Be sure to turn off the gas and disconnect it. If it's an electric water heater just unplug it. Disconnect the vent pipe and take off the pressure relief and the pressure relief piping. Next disconnect the water supply and hot water output. Some water heaters have hose connections, some have quick connects, and others are hard piped with copper. Just unscrew the hoses or the quick connects. With copper pipes you will have to cut the pipes with a tubing cutter. When buying the new water heater you really need to look for one that is the same height as the old one. Home Depot and Lowes are good places to buy a replacement water heater. The water heater can hold more or less gallons and even wider or narrower, but without the same height it will be much harder to connect the new water heater. With hoses, height may not matter because you can always get longer hoses but if the water heater is too tall it will hit your pipes and you will have to re-pipe everything. So just to make it easier find one the same height or close to it. Now finish draining the old water heater. This will make it easier to carry out. Remove the old water heater and move the new one into place. Reconnect the things that were disconnected. Gas line is easy just screw it on. You may need to re-use the threaded pipe from the old water heater. Water pipes should be next, this way nothing will be in the way when you connect them. Of course with hoses all you need to do is connect them or just screw the quick connects back on. With copper you have a choice. You can either use threaded fitting and couplings and solder or (sweat) the pipes together or you can install your own quick connects. These are great since most of us can't sweat pipe very well. It's a compression fitting with threads on the other end. Just push the compression end on the copper then tighten the threads this will compress the fitting clamping it to your copper. Next reconnect your pressure relief valve and piping. Last is your vent pipe. Now you're done. Turn on your water and fill your tank first. Turn on your gas or plug your water heater in. Finally follow the manufacture's instructions and light the water heater pilot and finish putting your new water heater in service. Congratulations, enjoy your new hot water heater. About the Author: This home improvement article is © 2008 123Decorate.com by Eric Hoover. It may NOT be copied or reproduced. You may link to the article using the following code:
|
