hot water heater died
 

Hey can I replace it myself?

I'm a pretty intelligent guy, and I solve system problems for a living. Is there some way I can get enough understanding of how to sweat pipes to comfortably install my own water heater?

I've called the pro, but I hate this. I understand the electrical side of things, and there are only two pipes: incoming cold water and outgoing hot water. how frickin' hard can it be? Cut the old pipe, somehow attach the new heater to the old pipe, WTF?

Yes. it's not that hard. They probably have a leaflet about it in your local DIY store.

Condolences on your loss.

Sweating pipes is easy really. I had to do it to fix up my house.

What you have to do is make sure the ends (about 1") are CLEAN and SHINY. Then take them and put them together, heat them until they are good and hot with a blowtorch, run in a little flux and then place the solder to the joint minus the torch. The solder will run in and fill the joint if you had it hot enough. If not nothing will happen. If the solder just runs off, the pipes are not clean enough; take it all apart, clean it again and then repeat.

It's not hard. You might want to practice on a piece of scrap first (use a vise if it's short) to get the feel of it. That's what I did.

Let me know if I can offer any more help.

Brian

To sweat copper joints, it has to be dry inside. If not, the steam will fuck with the temperature. SO, if you test it, and it leaks, you have to blow the water out before you start over. That's right, you have to cut the pipe somewhere, wipe the end off, get down there, wrap your lips around it and blow. You open a water faucet, the next one in line, to let the water blow out.

You might think you can just pile that solder up on there, to make sure it won't leak. BUT, if you heat it up for too long you can sweat the flux out of the joint, actually causing it to form a leak. It's a balancing act, get the solder to follow the flux all the way around, and then get off right away.

And you can't put that solder on there until the flux is HOT enough, BUT if you heat it up too much it can sweat out, like I said.

ON THE PLUS SIDE: with a hot water heater, you won't be crammed down in a tight space; all the pipes should be exposed and easy to get to.

Wot! No painshop cartoon?

A practice joint or two (:eek:) should help take care of such issues, though.

One more thing: if your heater is in your garage, or at least on the ground floor, you're in good shape. They aren't easy to get into attics.

My heater is on the ground floor of a slab construction, meaning that lots of my carpet is currently wet and possibly ruined.

No unions in lines? No, that sucks.

Get some $20 box fans under that carpet, dude. Srsly.

Gaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!
What he said, get it dried up quick.

At least you don't have warped, ruined, hardwood. Carpet can be saved.

Maybe shop vac it first? Or just tear it up...

<- hates carpet

As BrianR said, cleanliness of the pipe & the inside of the fitting is important. They make wire brushes for that purpose or you can use steel wool. Flint is also correct about too much heat. You need to heat evenly around the circumference of the fitting also. Shortly after the flux has melted you can test the heat by touching the solder to the joint. If it melts make a pass around the fitting. If you bend the solder into a semi-circle, you can get the side of the fitting that is away from you much easier.

call my brother. he's a plumber. he'll do it on the cheap for you, plus he can get you a heater, too.

It's not. If the replacement heater is identical it's even easier. But they seldom are, so it might take a couple fittings.

Yes, dry, clean, flux, and if the copper starts to discolor, it's too hot.
When you finish, don't touch it... unlike electronic soldering it takes time to cool. Solder goes through a plastic state between liquid and solid. If you move it during that transition you can ruin the joint and burn the hell out of your hand. It only takes a minute or so to be safe to move, but it's easy to forget how hot it is, because there's no visual clue.

Shop vac the rugs, turn up (down) the A/C, and fans, for the carpeting. A dehumidifier would help, too.

That's a key point there about making a hook at the end of the solder, for quickly getting around to the other side of the pipe.

Okay, so how much would you actually save? I know you've got the fancy truck and you aren't afraid to use it, and aren't beyond some manly heavy lifting, but then you've got to dispose of the old one, etc., etc.

Was that intentional, or a Freudian slip?

Three days with no hot water here.
I miss being able to do that kind of stuff.
Turned out to be a short and I did end-up having to help him work on it.

Check your insurance
 

Just a word of warning with these do-it-yourself installations. If you install it, you are not licensed and/or qualified, you make a mistake and as a result of the mistake your home is damaged or destroyed, you may find it difficult to make a successful insurance claim.

I would check your home and contents insurance to make sure you are covered in the event that something goes wrong with your DIY work. If you aren't covered for this kind of DIY work, get a professional to do it. At worst you may have to fork over a bit of money. I consider such a payment to be an insurance policy. It's better to be out a few hundred dollars and have peace of mind, than to try saving a bit of money and then losing a fortune if the home burns down and the insurance company won't pay up.

A little of both. I did notice it as soon as I posted, but decided not to edit :D

Replaced mine with a tankless over a year ago. They're more $$ but it should pay for itself in a few years. Plus now there is a tax incentive $300 IIRC (dammit!). The 'smaller' ones can hook up with the existing vent. The 'bigger' ones need a dedicated vent so these start running into even more $$.

I'm thinking of going inline when my present water heater dies. That tax incentive is everywhere?

It's federal.

But unless you get one for each bathroom, kitchen, and laundry room etc., you are going to have to wait 30 seconds to a minute while running water waiting for it to get hot and then delivered to you in your corner of the house. That's a lot of wasted water.

I think my new one is as fast or even faster than the old tank heater. It has it's own generator that ignites the gas as soon as the water starts flowing. I did have to take out all of the flow restrictors so that the heater would not cutout if you turned the flow down too low.

You mean there are people who don't have to do that with a tank heater?

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