Households can’t function without hot water. People who live in dorms or apartments have it easier. There’s always someone else who takes care of the heating, hot water, as well as cleanliness of the entire building.
When you live in a house, you have to do many of those things yourself. To avoid cramming in a bathroom, most people have hot water tanks in their basements or attics. But like most appliances, they have a lifespan that ranges from seven to fifteen years. Click here to read more.
This means that eventually, you’re going to need to change it. This is a relatively easy job, and you can do it in less than a day. However, you need some knowledge beforehand that will help you to do it perfectly.
When should you get a new water heater?
If you spot any kind of leakage under the tank, you need to go to the store and get a new one. Don’t wait for the problem to get worse. You can usually spot a rusty puddle below it, or even a slow drip. This means that the steel has rusted, and there’s no way to fix corroded metal.
On the other hand, signs like insufficient flow, or no hot water can be fixed by calling a plumber. When you get a new heater, there’s usually an instruction manual. Everything is described in great detail. However, you will still be working with natural gas, electricity, or propane.
All of these three things are dangerous, and they need a lot of attention and attentiveness. If you think that you might make a mistake, don’t sweat it and call a professional to do the installation for you. Additionally, there are different plumbing codes, and they vary by region.
Kindly call a service pro to tell you how to install everything, and let them guide you through the materials you’ll need. A bit of knowledge before you start doing something never hurt anyone. Finally, when you finish working and set everything up, call a pro to take a look at everything you’ve done. Their inspection will be the cherry on top of the replacement.
Step by step guide
Before you start replacing anything, you have to shut off the water and the gas. Firstly, locate the main shutoff valve. You can recognize the valve because it’s bright red. Turn it a quarter turn from top to bottom. This part needs to be at a right angle from the main pipe.
Gas and water can go through pretty much anything, so you must do this correctly. As soon as this is done, you can drain the water from the heater. You can easily do this. Just go to the lowest floor and open a faucet. Then, wait until all the water gets drained.
Now, take a garden hose and attach it to the water valve directly on the tank. This will drain the remaining liquid that’s inside the container. You can follow the link https://www.waterheatersonly.ca/langley-hot-water-tank-replacement for more info. Be careful while you do this and get a pair of gloves. The water that will come out will be scorching hot.
When this is all done, you can start the removal process. There’s a vent pipe on the top of the tank, and you can take a regular 4 in 1 screwdriver and remove all the screws. Then, take the vent pipe and move it to the side. Next, take a tube cutter and cut the cold and hot water lines that are on the same side.
If you have unions or flexible connectors, you won’t have to do this. You could simply unscrew the unions or the nuts. Then, the tank is ready to be removed. Slide the old one out of the way and prepare the new one. Take the temperature and pressure relief valve, and wrap it the threads with some tape.
The best tape for this is Teflon, and you can do three turns. As soon as you do this, take a pipe wrench and attach it to the tank. Next, you need to attach the pipe assemblies and the water lines. This is usually the most difficult part since it requires soldering. Next up is the vent and the gas line. Use two wrenches for the latter. When everything is connected, you can pat yourself on the back for doing a great job.
Checking if everything is okay
The first problem that could happen is called back-drafting. You should know that most heaters rely on the natural draft to take the fumes and move them through the flue. If that doesn’t happen, many dangerous gasses could be trapped in your home. The deadliest is carbon monoxide.
It has no smell, and you don’t feel anything different until it’s too late. In order to check this, close all the doors and the windows in your house. When you do that, go to the kitchen and the bathroom and turn on the fans. As soon as you do that, turn on the faucet for hot water, and wait until you hear the ignition in the tank.
Wait for two minutes and take a lighted match and put it around the holes where the draft is supposed to be flowing. The smoke should be sucked in and extinguished automatically. If this doesn’t happen, you need to call a professional. The second problem that occurs is leaking. Take some dishwashing liquid and mix it with water. Rub it on all the connections and see if any bubbles form. If there are bubbles, take some wrenches and tighten everything.
