What home improvement work did you do today?

I was genuinely always curious why it has that goofy extra lil pipe hanging down, this makes way more sense than my theory about water hammer.

 

I do this with my tanked heater also, annual purge at bottom of tank. Always see a little sediment kick out of it. Tank is original to the house. House was built in mid-2003.

 

Water hammer is a byproduct of pressure issues, typically. If you have an heater expansion tank, it can be a sign of failure, but 9 times out of 10 when I've helped myself or friends having hammering issues, it was due to improper pressure. Nearly every time it was because the house's water pressure regulator (WPR) valve had failed, so they were getting too-high pressure coming in from the city. If not, it was because someone set the WPR too damn high for some reason.

I keep a handy-dandy screw-on gauge that fits to outdoor spigots, cost like $8. Makes it super easy to set pressure correctly.

 

Recently replaced a 40 gal tank and that bad boy had probably 2 feet of crud built up in the bottom of it. We have a saying in AZ, if it leaks just let it leak, the calcium will build up and stop the leak eventually.
I think our water hammer issue started when she had the new softener installed. I hate that salt filled heap of junk with so much passion

 

I'm sure we're less than 3-5 years out from ours finally giving up the ghost, so I've been watching to see if any new tech comes out in the tankless world. The tank is about as tall as I am, I'd need to see how many gallons it is.

Our water heater lives in the finished basement. It feeds the bathroom down there about 12ft away, and another 2.5 baths going up two floors, nearly vertical from the water heater. Most faucets/mixer valves being served hot water are within ~18ft. I think the farthest is 25ft.

I'm thinking tankless will be the way to go given there shouldn't be much loss across the copper on such short runs, and if we do, I'll be super stoked to reclaim the space in that appliance closet, which has our furnace and the water heater inside. I figure w/tankless, we'll free up 1/3 of that closet.

 

I honestly don't know how long hers was bad before I noticed the wet carpet. She uses so little hot water that the pilot can keep it hot enough for her. I show up to do laundry and drop the "this thing is leakin like a siv" bombshell on her.

 

One for your size house probably comes with an internal circ pump, and you then mount some sort of cross over in the furthest supplied bathroom, usually all part of a kit that comes with the unit. Some units come with the service ports and some don’t but you definitely want to install them.

 

Genuinely curious what kind of expense it is to switch to tankless, if anyone wants to share their experience with me that'd be awesome. This 60 year old house needs to be updated real bad.

 

Looking around 1800$ just for the unit(that’s not marked up)

 

If I had my way it would be a barrel with a fire under it. LOL

 

I have hard water - mine gets a flush every 1-2 years. I built myself a little flushing setup that holds 4 gallons of white vinegar, an inline circulating pump, and a couple sections of hose that will hook up to the three-way valves.

 

I'm still playing Tetris with base and case in the garage. Painting of the 90's doors and prepainting finger joint pine, all of that is done, moving on to cutting. But it's working OK as a winter project. Warning, I've got the teal tools -- look away, look away! Avert your eyes!!!!

 

If electric, 120 or 220 power and water re-plumb to consider.

If gas, most require a larger gas line than tanks require, maybe a larger vent as well. Getting the larger supply tapped/larger vent, water re-plumb, & electric supply to consider.

 

Our house is from the 1800’s. We had a tankless gas hooked up to our house. I had it put on the outside so there was the extra expenses of routing the pipes from the old heater, running a gas line, etc. I can try to dig up receipts but it was 9 years ago so prices won’t even be close. Very happy with it. We have had an issue where the drip line would ice up in an extreme freeze and shut the unit down but I ended up insulating the pipe and adding heat tape - it worked last year. I’ll know in a day or two if it’s still working.

 

That dust collector is on point. Hot damn

 

I thought it would be as simple as removing the tank, adding the unit and probably some additional plumbing for gas lines/ water recirc. Guess the $500 tank was probably the right move since this home will be sold off instead of handed down.

 

You also need 120v to run the gas units; something to think about as well

 

Yeah - as others said - going from a tank to tankless isn’t a simple swap. They power requirements for electric are grossly different, and the gas and venting requirements for gas are as well.

think of a tank unit as a big pot of water that is sitting on simmer all the time.

think if a tankless unit as a 200,000 BTU boiler that goes full blast on demand in short bursts.

 

Yeah I saw some of this with my time out West. I prefer the flat rates we have, but I personally get annoyed any time these companies and utilities require usage or pay a penalty... like, no... I would buy a tesla wall right now if I could use it and go completely off grid. that said, I will be making my pump house off gird in the next year or two and the new pole barn will be on grid but augmented since it wont be tied to the house.

I loath paying for something I dont need to. Especially when they dictate brown outs, no price reduction during power outages, and peak billing during storms and what not.. Remember the Texas freeze? insanity.

 

I was too excited to wait till its done.. so here is progress for today:

 

Hot water circ pump.

1-Replace bad pump with similar model Grundfos? (This one only made it 5-6 years) Easy swap out.

2-Switch it out for a Taco or another brand? Will require additional copper work.

 

I’ve never used taco pumps, but I hear they are way cheaper, how many times do you want to replace it in the future?

also, check the capacitor, and see if there is acess or pull it and see if it spins freely, might get lucky with just a bad cap

 

Does this just keep the supply pressure consistent regardless of how far the run is? Never seen an external pump before

 

Not impressed with the Grundfos so I'm leaning towards another brand.

If i swap it out I'd like to plumb it with pex or flex so I can replace it easy. This time I'll have to solder a female adapter on both ends, I'm thinking..

It's a magnetic motor with a little turbine style pump

 

It's not for pressure, I have a hot water loop plumbed in so every fixture has constant hot water a *few feet away at the tee.
Pretty much like an insta-hot using a hot water tank

 

I would try a better brand if you can source one, maybe with threaded connections. And solder in 2 unions so you can swap it out in the future without soldering.

 

That's what I'm leaning towards.
What kind of pipe should I plumb in after the unions to the pump?
A flex line would be nice and easy but I imagine the flow might be a little decreased with that

 

That is clever, might need to look into something like this, at least for the kitchen, that low pressure faucet takes FOREVER to get hot water.