DIY H2o Heater Installation

When your water heater begins to leak, you have to install a new 1 fast.

Time

A full day

Complexity

Intermediate

Cost

$101–250

Introduction

When your water heater begins to leak, you have to replace it fast. We'll evidence you lot how to install your own gas water heater in less than a day. Even if yous don't demand a new water heater correct at present, chances are you will within the next few years. Water heaters tend to last seven to 15 years. If yours is getting one-time, this article is too for you. Replacing a water heater isn't hard if you lot're handy with bones tools and have a bit of feel soldering copper.

Tools Required

Materials Required

  • Discharge pipe
  • Fittings
  • Pipe thread compound
  • Force per unit area relief valve
  • Solder
  • Venting pipe and connectors
  • Water and gas pipage

Getting Started Installing Your New Hot Water Tank

Nosotros're replacing a natural gas water heater in our demonstration. The steps for replacing a propane h2o heater are exactly the same, and those for an electric h2o heater are similar.

In whatever case, when you're planning a water heater replacement, play it safe. Phone call your local department of inspections and inquire if you lot need a permit. And brand sure a plumbing or electrical inspector checks your work.

Installation Costs and Labor

Plumbers typically charge $45 to $65 an 60 minutes and tin usually install a water heater in a day or in 6-8 hours.

Most residential h2o heaters toll $150 to $400 for either gas or electrical, plus $200 to $450 if you have a plumber install it. More expensive gas water heaters with special venting systems also are available. Merely they're more difficult to install, and we won't deal with them here.

H2o Heater Parts and Breakup

  • Flue pipe
  • Cold h2o shutoff valve
  • Typhoon diverter
  • Temperature and pressure relief valve
  • Overflow pipage
  • Hot water outlet
  • Anticorrosion Anode Rod
  • Dip tube
  • Elements
  • Insulation
  • Bleed valve
  • Thermostat or control valve
  • Burner
  • Thermocouple
  • Gas supply valve

When to go a new water heater

Your h2o heater is dead when the tank leaks. The telltale sign that your water heater needs replacing is a dull drip underneath, ordinarily showing upward as a trail of rusty water. This ways that the steel tank has rusted through and can't be fixed. Other symptoms, such as insufficient or no hot water, usually signal other water heater repair problems that you can prepare.

If you spot a drip, plan to replace the water heater right away. Don't wait until the leak gets bad.

New h2o heaters come with installation instructions and lots of warnings to make certain you handle the gas, electrical and other connections safely. In this article, we'll supplement those basics with techniques and "existent earth" communication from several professional plumbers.

Only take heed: You'll be working with natural gas, propane or electricity, all of which are chancy. If you don't experience confident, call in a pro to take care of the tough parts. And take your piece of work inspected when it's done.

Plumbing codes vary by region. Draw your planned installation to your local plumbing inspector, including the types of materials you intend to apply for your new connections. Meliorate to get guidance beginning and so you don't have to change things subsequently!

Figure A: Gas H2o Heater Details

Water Family Handyman

To print out this paradigm, see the Boosted Info at the end of this article.

Figure B: Connections for Steel and Plastic Pipe

Family Handyman

Many homes have galvanized steel or plastic (CPVC) h2o supply pipes. Galvanized steel pipes are difficult to replace. We recommend that you remove the pipes back to the nearest tee, screw on a plastic-lined galvanized nipple and complete the connections with copper equally shown in our photo series.

Considering of potential estrus buildup, keep plastic pipe at least half dozen in. abroad from the vent and tank. Brand a transition from plastic to copper with a special coupling that'due south available wherever CPVC is sold.

Flexible copper connectors are easier to install than solid copper, especially when the existing pipes and the tank inlets don't line up. But not all local codes let them. If yours does, take special care non to pinch or kink them. You could get a leak.

Project pace-past-step (12)

Step 1

Shut off the gas and water

gas

Turn off the gas to the water heater past turning the nearby shutoff valve a quarter turn. When off, the handle should be at a right bending to the pipe. Shut off the chief water supply as well and drain the lines by opening a faucet on the lowest floor.

Step 2

Drain the water in the tank

hose

Attach a garden hose to the drain valve and bleed the water left in the tank. Caution: The water will be scalding hot! Disconnect the gas line at the nearby union with a pair of wrenches and unscrew the pipe from the gas control valve with a pipe wrench.

Step 3

Cut off the water lines

Unscrew

Unscrew the vent piping from the vent hood and motility information technology to the side. Then cut the hot and cold h2o lines with a tube cutter. (Unscrew unions for galvanized piping or the basics on flexible connectors if y'all have them.) Slide the onetime water heater out of the fashion.

Step 4

Adhere the relief valve

Wrap

Wrap the threads of the new temperature and pressure relief valve with Teflon tape (3 turns). Spiral it tightly into the tank with a piping wrench. Attach a copper discharge pipe (see Fig. A for routing details).

Stride 5

Adhere pipe assemblies

Solder

Solder new copper adapters to 6-in. lengths of 3/4-in. copper and screw the assemblies into the hot water outlet and cold water inlet ports in the top of the tank. Add curt, plastic lined nipples to shield confronting galvanic corrosion, especially if you have difficult water or if they're required past local codes.

Stride 6

Adhere the water lines

Slide

Slide the new water heater into place, recut or extend the one-time tubing to meet the new, and solder the tubing together using copper slip couplings. If the tubing doesn't line upwards, offset the lines as needed with pairs of 45-caste elbows.

Footstep 7

Reattach the vent

Reconnect

Reconnect the vent. Shove it tightly over the draft hood and anchor it with 3 3/8-in. No. 6 sail metal screws. Predrill the holes. The vent should rise at least 12 in. vertically before turning at the commencement elbow.

Step 8

Use two wrenches to attach the gas line

pipe

Reconnect the gas line. Coat the threaded ends with pipe joint compound and screw the commencement nipple into the gas valve. Employ ii piping wrenches to avert stressing the valve. Reassemble the remaining nipples, finishing upwards with the matrimony (Photo 2). Then follow these iv steps to fill the tank: (1) Close the bleed valve; (2) plough the water back on at the main shutoff and open the cold water valve to the water heater (leave information technology open); (iii) turn on a nearby hot water faucet until water comes out; and (4) audit all the joints and fittings for water leaks.

Stride 9

Bank check for backdrafting

Most water heaters rely on a natural draft to draw combustion fumes upward the flue. If the typhoon doesn't work, those fumes, possibly containing mortiferous carbon monoxide, volition spill out into your dwelling. Subsequently completing your installation, bank check the draft.

Shut all exterior doors and windows and turn on your kitchen and bathroom exhaust fans. Then open a nearby hot water faucet until you hear the gas burner in the h2o heater ignite. After a minute, move a smoking match effectually the edge of the draft hood (Photo 7) on superlative of the heater. The fume should exist fatigued up the vent pipe. If the smoke doesn't draw, the fumes from the burner aren't venting. Turn off the gas to the water heater and call a licensed plumber to right the problem.

Stride 10

Check for leaks

Look for bubbles at connections

bubbles

Turn on the gas and check connections for leaks by brushing a 50-50 mixture of dishwashing liquid and water over the joints. If the mixture bubbles, you have a leak. Tighten or reconnect joints that leak. Wipe the joints dry when finished. Call the plumbing inspector to check over your work. Follow the how-to advice that accompanies the photos to make sure the connections are tight.

Step xi

Light the pilot light

Utilize a lighter to light the pilot lite

lighter

Low-cal the airplane pilot light according to the manufacturer'southward directions. (For electric water heaters, plough the power on at the main console after the electric inspector checks your piece of work.) Finally, set the temperature to 120 degrees F., post-obit the installation instructions. Light the pilot low-cal in the new water heater and adjust the temperature setting.

Installation Details for Electrical H2o Heaters

Beginning plow off the ability to the water heater at your main electrical panel. Then follow the same draining procedures equally for a gas h2o heater.

When the water heater is drained, disconnect the electrical wires from the spiral terminals nether the access panel, which is ordinarily located near the height. (If you don't take electrical experience, hire an electrician to handle all the electric wiring.)

Follow the manufacturer'due south instructions for wiring the new water heater. If the new h2o heater is shorter and the old wires won't reach, surface-mount a 4-in. x four-in. x 1-1/2 in. metal electric box on the wall or ceiling nearby, run the former wires to the box, and and so run a new department of armored cable or electrical conduit to the water heater. Bank check the instructions and make sure the rating of the old fuse or circuit breaker is high enough to handle the new h2o heater. In improver, the excursion should have a shutoff switch within sight of the water heater.

Call your local electrical inspector before you lot begin the job. You'll probably need a permit. Then, when you're finished, have the electrical inspector check your work.

Aluminum wiring requires special handling. If you take aluminum wiring, phone call in a licensed pro who'south certified to work with it. This wiring is dull gray, non the dull orangish that's characteristic of copper.

Footstep 12

How to Dispose of a Water Heater

Jeff Gorton, an editor at The Family Handyman, will bear witness y'all how to remove and dispose of a water heater in our video tutorial. He will also testify you lot the piece of cake fashion to carry a water heater out of your home, fifty-fifty if you are working lone.

These tips volition make your work go faster and easier:

  • Measure the meridian of your old h2o heater and buy a new one the same acme so you don't accept to change the length of the water, gas or electrical lines.
  • The drain valve (Photo 2) on erstwhile water heaters often clogs up. If the h2o drains slowly, be patient. Circumspection: It'southward scalding hot! TIP: Turn your water heater off two hours in accelerate to permit the water to absurd.
  • Water heaters weigh about 150 lbs. You'll need a strong helper or a dolly when y'all movement the quondam 1 out and cycle the new i in. Garbage services typically charge about $25 to accept the one-time one.
  • Before you start, buy the tools and materials shown here at a plumbing supply or hardware store or a home center. Check the sizes of the water supply pipes (virtually will be 3/4 in. similar the ones in our photos) and purchase the correct-size fittings. With everything on mitt, you lot'll demand four to six hours to complete the job (assuming no big hitches!).
  • The temperature and pressure relief valve is a safety device that limits tank pressure and keeps information technology from exploding (Photo 4). A new one must be included with every installation. For the valve to work properly, the discharge pipe must be kept free of obstructions (Fig. A).
  • In regions with highly mineralized h2o, or where required by local codes, utilize 3/4-in. plastic-lined nipples (well-nigh $two each; Photo 5 and Fig. A) for joining dissimilar metals, usually copper tubing to the steel tank. This slows corrosion.
  • When connecting the water lines, solder the copper fittings before you screw them to the tank and so y'all don't rut the tank itself while soldering (Photo v).
  • Use "slip" couplings to connect the old and new lines (Photograph 6). Unlike regular couplings, they don't take an internal stop. You can slide them on, align the copper tubing, then slide them back and center them over the articulation.
  • The new inlets and outlets on the tank don't ever line upwards with the old supply lines. Solder in a pair of 45-degree fittings to start each line if necessary. As well supervene upon the sometime shutoff valve with a new ball valve while you're at it (Photograph vi). Vent diameters are sized according to the heat output of the h2o heater. You might take to increase or decrease the vent size to ensure the all-time draft. CAUTION: If you're unsure if your chimney has a liner, ask your plumbing inspector.
  • Make gas connections with solid steel pipe (Photo eight) or soft copper with flare fittings (Fig. A). Both are more reliable and less expensive than flexible stainless steel connectors, which are not e'er permitted. Use rigid copper rather than flexible copper water supply lines for the same reasons.
  • If you locate your water heater replacement where leakage could cause damage to the floor or other parts of the house, set a pan of an approved size under information technology (metallic for gas water heaters). The pan must have a drain tube that leads to a house drain or other approved location (outdoors where permitted). The temperature and pressure relief valve belch tube also must pb to a bleed if leakage would harm the floors. If routing is difficult, discuss options with your local plumbing inspector.
  • If you live in an earthquake-decumbent region, strap the water heater to the wall with special straps (Fig. A; available at plumbing stores and home centers). Your plumbing inspector will tell y'all if they're required.
  • Gear up the new water temperature setting to no more than 120 degrees F. to avoid scalding.

Additional Information

  • Figure A: Gas water heater details

Farther Reading

Water Heater Maintenance: Extend Your Hot Water Heater Lifespan

Set H2o Heater Leaking

Water Heater Installation

H2o Heater Repair: How to Replace the TPR Valve

DIY Solar H2o Heater

How to Repair or Supersede Defective Water Heater Dip Tubes

How to Flush a Water Heater

Choosing a New Water Heater

7 Tankless Water Heater Myths You lot Need to End Assertive

The Pros and Cons of Tankless H2o Heaters

Originally Published: Nov 28, 2022