My understanding is that most plumbing fixtures such as faucets, toilets and water heaters should have individual shut off valves so that they can be serviced without shutting down water to the entire house at the main valve. Is this simply a common sense, good idea or an actual code requirement?
My water heater is leaking and going to be replaced tomorrow. It does not have individual shut off valves leaving the tech no choice but to shut off water to the entire house. Is there any good reason not to fit the valves at the same time the tech replaces the heater?
I am not a licensed plumber, but I’ve worked on rehabbing houses. I don’t know if individual shut-off valves are required or not, but regardless I often see such appliances that do NOT have such.
Would probably make a lot of sense to install such a valve at the time your heater is swapped out, as you have to turn the water off anyway. Installation will take a little time and cost some money either way. If it were me I’d get the valve installed, but that’s me.
No, I can’t think of a good reason NOT to install that valve while you’re getting a new water heater installed.
A HWH replacement is a less-than-one-day job every ten years. So if it needs to be serviced or replaced, just shut off the water service to the house and cope for a day.
Lack of hot water can be not-obvious. It is not like the toilet won’t flush without hot water. So if the HWH valve gets accidentally or inadvertently closed, you wouldn’t know it until you realized “hey, no hot water,” which might be some time (one everyone-complains-about-the-cold-shower-and-I-have-time-to-look-at-it cycle, approximately 36 hours). This could lead to HWH without water, a potentially Bad Thing (see below). Whereas if the water main were shut off, you’d know it as soon as you tried the second flush.
Second, a hot water heater with heat but no water is a Bad Thing. I believe it is hard on HWHs to be heated without water. Also, I believe there is a non-zero chance of a pressurized steam release if your overheated, underfilled water heater’s safety valve pops.
If you were without hot water for more than a day, many people would consider the house uninhabitable. So “no hot water” would get the same response (“Hello, Holiday Inn?”) as no water at all.
That said, my old HWH had rusted out one of the legs and was resting its weight on the copper pipe. If it had failed, a shut off valve right near the spraying copper pipe would have been huge.
Which is arguably better that the potential alternative to the safety valve “popping”, which is a potential explosion of the hot water heater.
Put the valves where they won’t get accidentally bumped or moved, and the safety value outlet where it is directed away from where people are likely to be.
OT: if you can arrange it, make sure that there is enough space above the water heater to remove the magnesium rod that keeps the tank from corroding. The size of the rod is the main difference between tanks guaranteed for 3, 5 etc years.
If you replace the rod every 4 or 5 years, your tank will last forever - or at least for a very, very long time.
I don’t know whether it’s a code requirement, because it’s such an obviously good idea that I never bothered to ask if it were required. I’d do it regardless.
No, there’s no good reason. The chance somebody is going to mistakenly shut off the hot water is negligible. In fact, while you’re at it, have shutoff valves installed on both the incoming and outflow pipes. That way you won’t have to drain the hot water supply pipes to replace the water heater. Yes, you only need to change the water heater every ten years or so, but so what? The expense is minimal, and you’ll be glad to have the valves the few times you need them.
My water heater has been replaced and the new one is working nicely it seems. When I asked the tech from the gas company about installing water shut-off valves, he just kind of shrugged and said “no problem”. He only put a valve on the inflow pipe. Neither of us really saw much point in putting one on the outflow. If a little air gets in the line then next time the tank is replaced, so be it.
I agree with Ed Zotti that the risk of shutting down the water supply to an operating heater is minimal but just to up the safety factor a bit, I’ve used a couple of heavy zip ties to hold the lever on the ball valve open and I made sure the valve was situated above a dropped ceiling, right next to the gas shut-off valve for the heater. Closing the valve pretty much requires intent, not an ‘oops’ moment
Valves WILL freeze over time - IOW, use it or lose it. I have that situation in my bathroom. The valves under the sink must not have been used in decades and short of using a shaped charge, aren’t going anywhere. Thankfully the contractor who built the house put valves virtually everywhere and I can use the ones for the bathroom without having to shut down the main. Those still work, but there are others that don’t.