Replacing Water Heater Tank in Attic

[SJGUSMC21]

Yesterday was quite the experience for me. Tuesday night, after just spending $400 on groceries, my daughter tells us that there is no more hot water. Damn. Go up in the attic (yes my gas water heater tank is in the attic) and sure as shit, cold as my ex-wife's and leaking) Fantastic. My neighbor across from me, paid 2K last year to have his replaced. NOPE. So I start investigating and researching. Yeap, I can do it. Called in and took yesterday off. Wife and myself got the old one down...no problem...sucked, but got it down. No way in hell was I going to get the new one up (which is 22.5 inches wide..the old one was 20" wide) by myself. I even had to removed my attic door ladder, which I absolutely loathe anyway. Regardless, I called a coworker, paid him $100 and we where able to make a plate for it and as one pushed it up, the other pulled. Got it done. But, I had to install a expansion tank, which I had no clue about. My friend here is a housing inspector, she came over and gave me the clear. She started laughing when she saw that the builders used elbow pipes along with pex for the hot and cold water lines...I sure as hell didn't do it. Just need to make a extension and connect the pressure relief valve. Not walking real well today...but I'll get over it. Always great to have a hot shower! Old tank was built in 2004, this one...AO Smith, IDK, has a 9 year warranty..so we will see. Certainly will not be doing it when I am 70.

 

[SJGUSMC21]

Old...


New

 

[dudemaar]

Nice job and saved a few bucks! We don't see them much in the attic up here for some reason?. Always usually in the basement or main floor closet if no basement. Hope you sprayed the gas line fittings with soapy water, test for leaks.

 

[SJGUSMC21]

Nice job and saved a few bucks! We don't see them much in the attic up here for some reason?. Always usually in the basement or main floor closet if no basement. Hope you sprayed the gas line fittings with soapy water, test for leaks.

I certainly did! Don't need the top of my house erupting!

 

[biggen]

Good work! When mine finally dies (12 years old) gonna have a tankless put in. My inlaws have one and it’s pretty neat.

 

[97JeepXJ]

I’m glad you didn’t call it a “hot water heater” you’re not heating hot water. Being in Missouri a water heater in the attic seems so out of place but I realize that’s much less of a concern as you head south. One thing I will point out that’s semi-trivial and not something you did is the water inlet valve and looks like the gas valve are “backwards”. While they still flow and shut off the same, if by chance they were to fail and break, they’re most likely to break at the factory “seam” which in this case the ball of the valve will be on the broken end rendering it useless. Again not very likely to break and very common they’re in this orientation but food for thought. It feels good to do something yourself instead paying someone else, even if you’re paying for it in the back and knees the next day. Last thing I do hope you have CO detector since anybody with a fuel burning appliance should. Good job, now take a long hot shower knowing you saved probably close to $1000

 

[SJGUSMC21]

Good work! When mine finally dies (12 years old) gonna have a tankless put in. My inlaws have one and it’s pretty neat.

That's great. I had thought about it...but the price and also we have friends that had one, and they certainly did not like their's....to the point that they sold them and went back to a regular Water tanks. But that was a few years ago, so maybe they have changed, IDK.

And yes, I have a CO detector in my home, a Honeywell that is tied into my home security/smoke/fire alarm system. Also, I only have electric appliances in our home. Everything 'gas' related is in the attic, to include furnace and water tank. And I certainly have appropriate air flow up there as well. To say that I am not impressed by the build quality of 'stuff' in my attic is an understatement.

 

[Starglow]

If the hot water tank is located in the attic above the garage I would have relocated it to the garage space instead of the attic. These new tanks aren't built to last so you'll probably have to replace it again within 10 years, and by then you'll be much older.

 

[OICU2]

I had an 80 gallon electric in the basement that was installed in 2009 when we built our home. It just started leaking from one of the elements in November. Turns out normal electric 80gal residential are hard to find because of the dumb government regulations. But I found and ordered a commercial one from HD and didn't read the electrical requirements for some reason (!). After I installed it, found out it needs 90a service (16,500watts total). Oops (my old one was on 30a). It had 3 elements that were simultaneous, ended up pulling the fuses for the middle element and got it knocked down to 60a with the proper overhead. Had to buy a new breaker and pull new 6/2 Romex as well, that was not cheap. Turned a half day project into two days. Wife and kids were not happy lol.

 

[Starglow]

Good work! When mine finally dies (12 years old) gonna have a tankless put in. My inlaws have one and it’s pretty neat.

Converting over to tankless is very expensive compared to just replacing the water tank and the ROI just isn't there for most people, plus the tankless systems require maintenance. Every time I get estimates to convert my current hot water tank to tankless it's just not worth the high cost.

 

[Starglow]

I had an 80 gallon electric in the basement that was installed in 2009 when we built our home. It just started leaking from one of the elements in November. Turns out normal electric 80gal residential are hard to find because of the dumb government regulations. But I found and ordered a commercial one from HD and didn't read the electrical requirements for some reason (!). After I installed it, found out it needs 90a service (16,500watts total). Oops (my old one was on 30a). It had 3 elements that were simultaneous, ended up pulling the fuses for the middle element and got it knocked down to 60a with the proper overhead. Had to buy a new breaker and pull new 6/2 Romex as well, that was not cheap. Turned a half day project into two days. Wife and kids were not happy lol.

The devil is always in the details.....

 

[OICU2]

Converting over to tankless is very expensive compared to just replacing the water tank and the ROI just isn't there for most people, plus the tankless systems require maintenance. Every time I get estimates to convert my current hot water tank to tankless it's just not worth the high cost.

Had a friend who converted to electric tankless, he had to get an entire new 200amp service to his house. With current electric costs, I do not see any saving coming to fruition any time soon.

 

[TonyR]

Damn. Go up in the attic (yes my gas water heater tank is in the attic) and sure as shit, cold as my ex-wife's and leaking)

Word order and punctuation can be so important....so the ex-wife wasn't leaking?

 

[SJGUSMC21]

Word order and punctuation can be so important....so the ex-wife wasn't leaking?

Marines and Crayons.....wonderful thing.

 

[samplenhold]

Many years ago one of my neighbors had a leak in a line in the attic and I helped him fix it as he knew nothing about sweating copper tubing. When I got up in the attic where the water heater was, there were two old ones laying on their sides across rafters. He had bought the house new and had plumbers replace it twice over the years. They just left the old ones up there.

 

[Sybertiger]

Nice job @SJGUSMC21! Looks great!

A few years ago I changed out my electric water heater in the garage. Thank gawd I didn't have to do an attic job like @SJGUSMC21. The old one was 50 gals and was 29 years old and you could tell it was going out. You got less and less hot water over a period of weeks. I changed it out but had to go from a 50 gal down to a 40 gal one because of the tight space I had for it. The gubermint had changed efficiency regulations over the years which meant that newer water heaters in the same capacity are wider to accommodate more insulation. A new 50 gal would not fit in the space. No worries, 40 gals is still plenty of hot water. Because I didn't want to learn how to solder copper piping I decided to use SharkBite fittings. I did a spreadsheet on the parts I needed and it turns out that all the SharkBite fittings added $85 over the cost of straight copper soldered fittings. Just posting this here in case someone has some tight spaces or wants another option for connecting piping. Those fittings are great for tight spots. I did go back and insulate the hot out pipe from the water heater to the wall and also a small portion of the cold water in side. When I was done, all the purty shiny pipes looked like I had partially constructed a time machine.

 

[Sybertiger]

I think I'm just missing the whirligig thingy. If I do get one installed don't y'all freak out if I post something on here from the past or future.

 

[samplenhold]

We've got dual 50s gas.

 

[TonyR]

IIRC, when I lived in California we had to put our gas water heaters atop a >18" tall platform so heavier-than-air gasoline vapors would not be ignited by the pilot. Also, seismic straps around the tank that anchored to the wall were required.

 

[tangent]

Those flexible copper lines bent, connected, and unsupported like that don't inspire confidence.