Last night, my wife reported that we had a small pool of water in the basement that kept coming back. I thought maybe it was leftover water from the recent plumbing issues we had (see other thread, “I pit raw sewage”) that was just making its way to low points in the basement, but I went down and took a look.
Our water heater is leaking. I got a baby due in 2 weeks and plenty of other crap that needs taking care of, and now I have to go out and buy a new water heater.
Dammit.
DAMMIT.
Oh, well, at least nobody’s wrecked my Ferrari Enzo in a charity race. Because that would really suck.
Yes,only certain tankless models qualify, and they’re figgin expensive. 985 bucks for the Bosch version listed via the website. And I wouldn’t be confident installing it myself, because I have a tanked water heater and it’s not near a wall or anything.
DAMMIT, WHAT NEXT?
Also, it appears I may have misspoke. Home Depot has a tankless model which meets the federal guidelines and is only 649, so with the tax credit it would really be only 349, which is what I would spend for a tanked model. It’s not available online, so I might check some stores. The only thing might be the installation cost, since it has to be power-vented.
Yeah, refitting from a standing tank to a tankless can be daunting. I’d considered it for my house, but once I realized that the thing would need an up-sized flue and a new electrical circuit to power it, I scrapped that idea.
Especially when we realized that simply changing the type of water heater would not get hot water to the shower any faster…
Update…the 649 model was a 113K BTU model, only enough for a 1 bathroom house, not enough for a growing family. The 199K BTU model was 999, and even after the 300 dollar credit, it will be 700 bucks. The 12 year warranty 40 gallon model is only 399, so that’s where I’ll probably go.
If you have a three person household (congrats, BTW), you might want to consider a 50 gallon model. You won’t need it right away, but if you are planning on staying where you are for a while, it would be a good upgrade. Not too much more expensive, either.
Something to keep in mind before up-sizing is the physical size of the heater if the old one is in a cubby of some sort, or between a wall and the furnace.
My neighbor wanted to replace his original 40-gallon unit with not much insulation to a 50-gallon tank with more insulation and was unable to squeeze it in as it just wasn’t possible to shimmy the furnace over by an inch. :smack: He wound up staying at 40 gallons.
I concur with the OP. Two Saturdays ago, I made a cup of tea and sat down to enjoy a leisurely hour of drinking tea, listening to the radio, and perusing the SDMB. Bliss! Except for that funny sound…*
Paid the plumber cash and got away with a new hot water tank, installation and a weekend call for $625.00. We have an oddball tank size because we’re in a double-wide mobile home.
I really would have preferred to spend the money elsewhere. On the bright side, the plumber is hellaciously sexy. I heart the plumber. (He also does work for our office, so that’s why I called him.)
So, the 50 gallon model was only 29 dolalrs more, and I got that. 486 out the door including a can of PTFE paste and some dielectric unions. It was slightly taller, but fit without (much) problem. My DOD (dear old dad) and I installed it, and it was fine. For a while. The unions are leaking (slowly). I suspect it’s because the pipes are not connected completely straight. As much as DOD protested that we shouldn’t get them, I am going to go today at lunch and get some flex-fittings for it and hope this solves my problem. If that doesn’t work, I might just have to call someone. But HD and Lowes both want 250 for someone to install it, which is an unreasonable amount in my opinion, because I don’t need it delivered or hauled away, I just need it actually installed, which should tka e atrained professionsal (as opposed to me) an hour, tops.
You installed the heater with hard pipe connections? Ye gads! Funny how something that’s required in some areas is held as a fruitcake of an idea by others.
Seriously - in the land where the land moves regularly, we **have ** to use flex on the water and gas lines.
I have never lived in a house that didn’t use hard pipe connections to the water heater.
Well, there might have been one, I didn’t check, as I was just renting a room there for a few months, but that would be the only one.
So I happily have 2 12" copper flex pipes and 4 male threaded sweat fittings (I got extra jut in case!) and I’ll be back working on the WH tonight. I’m sure you’re all waiting to hear if I have anotither incident of water in the basement, so hang tight!
Well, I am happy to report that after instllaing one flex fitting, and using teflon tape this time instead of ptfe paste, the leak on the hot side was fixed. I wrapped the cold side with teflon tape, and tightened it back down, and it, too stopped leaking. Hurrah for teflon tape!
