PennSilverTaco's "Perfect 5-Lug Regular Cab" Build, Aspergers, and General BS MegaThread!

gotcha, might not be a bad idea to get the water tested. If you replace it with an on demand unit there’s usually a nice rebate offered by your utility.

 

We've got relatives coming up from Norfolk, Virginia tomorrow and my dad's older brother who builds houses for a living once told him and that conventional water heaters are the way to go for now so that's probably not gonna happen this time...

 

Its electric, pretty easy to wire.

 

I actually ended up replacing some of it because the night before the HVAC guys were coming my foot slipped and naturally l fell in and broke the pipes.

 

they are not the way to go but, at least you’ll be back in hot water!

 

that is a bummer, but I guess an excuse to upgrade

 

Lower element failure. Been there, dug that out, and inevitably the "fix" is only temporary.

 

I've been using PEX lately.
But it can still difficult if you use the crimp rings.
Those "bolt cutter" crimps don't fit in small place.
The pinch clamps are smaller, but all that stuff adds up.
I hate plumbing. You never get the job done the first time. and it always cost 2x what you think it will.

 

we use the power tool, very easy to get into almost any area, and bonus is it has dies that do pro press fittings as well.

 

Converting to tankless will take extra time and money. Also, my parents have a great mortgage rate but aren't 100% sure they'd even be in this house until the new one fails; I agree with you tankless is probably better.

 

The pinch rings suck. And I’ve learned over the years to stay away from the brass pex fittings. I now only use the plastic fittings.

I’ve tried the pex a fittings and they are too cumbersome for my liking in between floor joists and the like.

 

I don’t see how it will be either. You had a power vent from what i saw, very simple swap over. Between the rebate from your utility and the savings in gas price each month from not heating 40 gallons of unused water the ROI is probably under 6 months.

 

@6 gearT444E

Your house is gas right, with the original Goodman central air and gas furnace? Do you still have a tanked water heater. My aunt's old house in the Atlanta area was built in the late 1950s and had gas heat. It had a tankless water heater and my visit there in 2011 was the first time I'd ever seen one. I thought it worked fine, but my aunt wasn't a fan of it for reasons I can't remember. The house was relatively small with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, and the furnace was crammed in a tiny crawlspace that you could barely stand up in. I'm thinking that the house had a tanked water heater jammed in a closet somewhere, and that the previous owner switched to tankless to save space. That house also had a shitty 1996 Janitrol (Goodman) central A/C that was noisy as hell, but certainly got the job done in those hot Georgia summers and just refused to die. My aunt bought the house in 2006, and the air-conditioner was still going when she sold it in 2016!

 

yes, natural gas and the original Goodman furnace/AC system. I’ve replaced the control board, both capacitors, and the condenser contactor since I’ve had it but other than that it has been flawless.

It had an electric water heater when the house was first built, I believe the gas wasn’t ran on my street by the time they wanted to get a CO, so they put electric 40 gallon in. I ripped it out and replaced it with a tankless gas water heater, along with a gas dryer (the stove was already gas). The tankless is going on 15 years now and i keep a spare one in the basement in case i need parts for it. The tankless water heaters have come a long way in the past 10 years. The throttling capability of a condensing boiler is much more efficient and the electronics and sensors are much more reliable and accurate. If mine ever gives up the ghost I’ll be replacing it with another tankless.

My dad has been a plumber his whole life and I’ve been helping him on side jobs since I was able to walk. He’s put in probably hundreds of tankless water heaters and very few get calls back for any issues, standard water heaters have always been a nice Sunday premium emergency call for him however

 

Can u recommend any quality ones?

 

Never used the plastic ones. Mostly because plastic seems "cheap"?
I do know, if you don't get a 90 degree / perfect crimp, they will leak. Hence, the reason I don't like the "bolt cutters".
And just like you, I was doing a remodel and was working between floors and joist. T-fittings are the worst. 1 of the 3 are never oriented to make the crimp "easy".

 

Unfortunately we need a water heater now, my parents are the one paying the mortgage, and my dad is hard to convince especially when his brother who builds houses for a living previously told him to go with the "tried and true".

I am happy to say that I was able to convince my dad to get a brand other than Goodman when the air-conditioners shit the bed!

 

Old water heater, which I am scrapping...

 

New water heater...

 

If the street didn't have gas for the water, how did they get it for the central heat and the stove?!?!