Not every project goes as well as planned. We would be happy to spend a few minutes answering your questions.
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Is your water heater making a rumbling noise? Maybe you hear a popping noise or other noise that water heaters should not be making. The reason your water heater is making noise is that it has sediment in the bottom of the tank.
The noise issue typically happens only with gas water heaters because it has the burner under the tank. So when the sediment builds up, it comes to rest on the bottom of the tank. The bottom of the tank is dome-shaped and so it rests around the perimeter first, and then builds up along the bottom of the tank. The noise occurs because water gets trapped in the sediment and gets very hot. It can turn to steam and cause the rumbling sound along with vibrations. Sediment also makes your water heater operate inefficiently. In order for your water heater to produce hot water, it has to heat the water in the tank. The sediment is a layer of sludge that has to be heated first, and then transfers the heat to the water in the tank. If the sludge wasn’t there, the water would get the benefit of direct heat from the burner, instead the heat has to travel through the sediment first. The answer is routine flushing of your water heater to prevent the sediment from building up in the first place.
If you are replacing a water heater in Las Vegas, you need earthquake straps. There are lots of safety requirements for water heaters and their placement.
The requirement says that for seismic zones 3 and 4 (parts of Nevada are 3 and the rest is a 4), “water heaters shall be anchored or strapped to resist horizontal displacement due to earthquake motion”. The water heater must be strapped in two locations. One strap should be in the upper one-third of the tank, and the other strap should be in the lower one-third of the tank with a minimum of four inches of distance above the controls.
It also says that water heaters placed in an area where they may be subjected to mechanical damage (like a garage) must be suitably protected from such damage (like a car hitting it) by being installed behind adequate barriers. This is why you see a bollard often installed in front of the water heater, so your car will hit the steel pole rather than the water heater.
Water heater straps can be purchased at most home centers and install easily. They must go into wall framing to provide the strength to hold the water heater in place during any seismic event.
Your water heater may be leaking from the drain valve, or maybe you just flushed the tank and the valve won’t shut off. It’s time to replace the valve.
These valves are typically made of plastic and it’s no wonder they can’t be trusted to shut off the water when you need it. You can buy replacement drain valves for about $10.00.
You can choose to drain the water heater or not. Regardless, start by turning off the control valve (if gas) or turn off the power (if electric). If you choose to drain the tank, connect a hose to the valve and open the valve to drain the water. If you choose not to drain the tank, keep the water on to the tank and open a hot water faucet near the tank. When the water runs cool you can turn off the faucet, and close the water supply valve to the tank. Realize that you will be working quickly and will lose only a few cups of water from the tank. This all hinges upon nobody in the house turning the water on. So long a the water is off to the tank and nobody turns the water on inside the house (allowing air into the system), the water will not fully run out of the tank.
Use a wrench and unscrew the old drain valve. Have the new valve ready to screw back in after wrapping the threads with Teflon tape. Like I said, a few cups of water will drip out so long as nobody opens a faucet inside the house. Screw on the new valve until snug and turn the water back on, checking for leaks.
You typically don’t have to replace a water heater stand when the water heater leaks. Although to look at the stand it might seem that you have to. When a water heater leaks slowly, a homeowner is less likely to notice it and so it leaks for a long time which saturates the drywall on top of the stand. There is a lot of lumber under the stand to support the weight of the water heater.
So when would you actually need to construct a stand? I can think of a few instances such as if you are adding a water heater, or converting from electric to gas, or maybe even if the old stand was damaged enough that it needs to be rebuilt. But I wouldn’t use wood studs and drywall again…I would buy a metal stand and assemble it, rather than build one from scratch.
You can buy a metal water heater stand from any home center and they typically cost between $40.00-80.00. They come with instructions, but basically, just follow the diagrams and it is held together with bolts and nuts. It is solid when assembled, and it sure beats measuring, cutting and fastening wood studs and drywall.
Water heaters are required to have a gas sediment trap. Many people also refer to these as a gas drip leg, but the function of these is to allow impurities and debris in the gas supply to be removed before it hits your water heater.
The sediment trap is made of black iron pipe and you will need to assemble a few pieces together to make it work. You will need a Tee fitting, a few threaded fittings, and a cap. Orient the Tee fitting so that you have an opening on the top, side, and bottom of the fitting. You will place a threaded nipple on the top of the fitting. This is where the gas supply will enter the Tee. If you are using a flexible gas supply line, it will connect at this nipple, if you are using a hard piped gas supply, it will enter the top of the Tee.
Coming out of the side of the Tee will be a threaded nipple. This will thread into the gas control valve. The “trap” will come out of the bottom of the Tee. This threaded nipple has to be a minimum of 3” long and will have a cap on the end of it. You need to use gas tape or paste on the threads to prevent gas leaks.
As gas flows into the top of the Tee, any debris will fall into the trap before it can make the 90-degree turn and enter the gas valve and burner.
Water heater leaks happen, and when they do, it can be very messy. Depending on how quickly a homeowner discovers the leak, the subsequent damage can be minimal or significant.
In many homes, the water heater sits on a pedestal that is covered in drywall. When the water heater leaks, the water will saturate the drywall and, depending on how long it takes to be discovered, can spread to adjoining walls. You may see water on your garage floor, or you may smell a musty odor that leads you to discovering the leak. I know of many stories of drywall replacement, drying out carpeting, and mold remediation because of water heater leaks then went unnoticed.
You can install a water heater pan and drain line to avoid this mess. Installing a water heater pan can be a significant chore as you have to drain the water heater and lift it up enough to slide the pan underneath it. Once the pan is installed, you can run a drain line out from the pan to direct any leak away from the pedestal.
You can run the drain line with a couple of threaded fittings at the pan, and then pipe it down to the garage floor and add an elbow at the end of the pipe. If you have a leak, the water will end up on the garage floor.
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.
I see a lot of home inspections calling for a repair on the water heater TPR (temperature & pressure relief) drain line. The issue that the home inspector generally calls out is that the drain line is trapped, or has an uphill rise in it. This can be a dangerous situation because when the TPR valve opens it is either due to high pressure or high water temperatures. If the water and steam blowing from this valve finds resistance from the drain line, it may result in severe damage to the tank and anyone near it. For this reason the drain line cannot have any rise in it.
The biggest challenge is when the point where the drain line exits the tank is lower that the point where it enters the wall (in many cases the drain is run through the wall to the exterior of the house). This will mean you will have to either raise the tank (not likely), or lower the drain line in the wall. You will have to open the wall and lower the point where it meets the drain.
Sometimes it is an easy fix though. Many times the installer will use a long flexible copper line, and it is so long that he is forced to bend it every which way to get it to fit. If any of these bends reduce the size of the drain line, or cause it to have an uphill rise, it is a potentially dangerous situation. However, this can usually be repaired by turning the flexible copper line in such a way so that there is no rise in the line.
The water heater TPR valve (temperature & pressure relief valve) is a critical safety component of your water heater. It helps prevent explosions from excessive pressure and heat inside the tank.
The TPR valve opens when the water temperature exceeds 150-degrees or the pressure exceeds 210 psi to relieve dangerous conditions inside the tank. The valve is piped away from the tank and carries away the hot water and steam.
If the TPR drain is discharging water, people automatically assume that it is broken. That's not always the case. It may be operating correctly and relieving the water heater tank of dangerous termperatures or excessive pressure.
The valve may need replaced, but try a few things first. Go into the house and run some hot water out of a faucet. This will allow hot water to exit the tank and allow cold incoming water to enter the tank. Also, turn the temperature on the thermostat down. The combination of these two items should alleviate the temperature issue.
If you were testing the TPR valve by lifting the tab on it and now it won't shut off, you can try lightly tapping it with a hammer. Sometimes this works and sometimes not.
Installing a water heater means making all of the proper connections. One of these connections is at the top of the water heater. If you have a gas water heater the exhaust will be carried out of the unit and the building via a vent. This vent is connected to the water heater by a draft hood. The draft hood has legs on it to allow air to carry the exhaust out of the building.
A water heater draft hood has legs on it that allow it to connect to the top of the water heater. The tabs on the bottom of the legs slide into some slots and turn, which locks the draft hood onto the water heater.
Connecting the vent to the top of the draft hood is a little more work. The vent should slide over the top of the hood. Secure the vent to the draft hood with self-tapping screws (minimum of 3 spaced equally around the perimeter). Wrap foil tape over these screws and the connection to further secure the vent to the draft hood. Just make sure you don’t cover any of the openings in the draft hood as these are important for proper ventilation of the exhaust.
