{"id":643,"date":"2023-06-04T22:17:38","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T02:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/handymen.outsourcedmath.com\/?p=643"},"modified":"2023-06-06T22:20:50","modified_gmt":"2023-06-07T02:20:50","slug":"were-all-in-hot-water-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/handymen.outsourcedmath.com\/index.php\/miker\/were-all-in-hot-water-now\/","title":{"rendered":"We’re all in hot water now!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Old<\/figure>
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This wasn’t an ordinary water heater replacement. Typically, you pick a water heater with the same specifications and energy source as the one that stopped heating water, then swap old & new without too much trouble. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this case, decisions over the years had the old water heater under-rated for their use case.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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This residential application was initially a multi-family home with separate water heaters; an up\/down style duplex. In decades past, it became a one-family home. When the short water heater stopped heating, they just bypassed it and became a one-tank house. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More recently, it became a two-family duplex with 5+<\/sup> residents but only had one overworked heater because of the bypass plumbing. (pro-tip: <\/strong>if you have an old water heater, 15+<\/sup> years or just older than the warranty and it’s still working fine, replace it soon because not all water heaters are in stock<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four weeks after the old water heater broke and would only make one half a hot shower every two hours, our Rheem Richmond tank<\/a> finally arrived for installation. That was a lot of cold showers for both families!<\/p>\n<\/div>

\"Tank<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In order to be responsible, we had to upgrade the capacity of the tank, both in the BTUH specification and the Gallon capacity. The old was 34,000 BTU\/hour and 40 Gallons. The new tank is 60,000 BTU\/hour with 50 Gallons of ready hot water. Even while flowing at 61 gallons per hour, you’ll get bathwater out of it at all times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with upgrades in capacity, there are other things to think about. The old tank only had a 3-inch single-wall flue pipe going into the chimney. This upgraded tank required a 4-inch double-wall flue pipe; that means surgically chiseling into the existing chimney hoping the last guy wasn’t a hack at his craftsmanship, then mortaring back in the new pipe to seal off any chimney gas from reentering the basement space<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last plumber decided to put the makeup-water supply for the house’s boiler on the same line of input water as the water heater, so that had to be dealt with also. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the shut-off valves were stiff and sketchy, so can’t be reused. The plumber didn’t use Brass Unions<\/a> to connect the water supply lines to the tank, so the reuse of old fittings is too costly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No matter what a “last guy<\/i>” did, there’s always a better way to do it now. We did a lot of little things to make the new better than the old. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before<\/h2>\n\n\n\n