From start to stop.
Unpacking to lighting the pilot.
(I decided to install the water heater myself….I am both too cheap to pay someone $600 for a 2 or three hour job, and I think every man should be able to do such a task himself….It’s part of being a man, after all) Plus no one was interested in coming out until Monday….And I wanted a hot shower.
Wasn’t the hardest water heater change I ever did, but not the easiest one either.
Retrofitting from a 1972 34 gallon unit to a much larger diameter 40 gallon unit. Of course, NOTHING lined up right, so there was that. But not too bad. (They don’t even MAKE 34 gallon units today)
‘Twas fun, if you like that sort of fun….
All in all, it wasn’t that bad. This wasn’t just fitting a new one where everything lined up like the old one…., None of the water lines (or gas lines) lined up. Apparently they did things slightly differently in 1972 vs today. And the threaded connections weren’t gonna turn after 50 years.
I hadn’t done a water heater at all in 10 years or so. Never one that old. (I knew it was coming, it is 54 years old after all. It wasn’t a matter of if it failed, but rather, when…..Borrowed time and all that. Seldom does a water heater last more than 10 years around here. I always expected (Like every day for the past 20 years) to find the thing leaking on the floor someday…but until now it was perfect…Rheem apparently made ’em really good in 1972.
MC did hand me tools. Which helped. I did cheat and used a SharkBite connector for the new cold side water valve. Too lazy to sweat (or use compression fitting) a new one in. Old copper can sometimes be a bitch to solder with newer solders.
I hated to lose the old one though: 20 years ago the gas valve died and I had just changed a leaking water heater in a restaruant…one that had a 75 gallon per hour recovery rate. I put that bigger burner in the old Rheem and it worked well, recovering almost faster than I could use it
It lasted until yesterday, essentially giving me unlimited hot water.
End of an era and all that.
Did MC hold the flash light and got her ear bitten if she wavered?
We will not speak of that incident…
“Nuthin’ t’ see here, Move along now.”
Three thoughts:
You dah man!
54 years is incredible.
You must have the world’s softest water.
Well water. Lots of calcium.
Flush (with partial pressure) every year and keep the sacrificial anode changed (when necessary). The sediment that settles to the bottom is what contributes to the leaks. 54 years is probably a record.
Yeah, when I bought the house in 1997 the flush/drain valve was stuck, so I never tried all that hard to open it as it was a turn type rather than a gate type valve and I was afraid that it would tear out of the side of the tank….At that point the water heater was 25 years old.
I never figured it would last that long, so I never worried about flushing the sediment out, but there was surprisingly little that came out after I beat the valve open with a hammer and a prydriver/chisel so I could drain it (at that point, since the unit was leaking, I didn’t care if the valve tore out of the side all that much).
I have expected for the past 30 years or so, every time i went down to the basement (pretty much daily) , to see a puddle on the floor, but I was lucky for a LOT of years.
Very nice! And agree with Samuel. Reminds me, I’m due to change the anode in the bathroom WH… And 54 years is AMAZING!