[FetchMeAPepsi]

I was all geared up to get Cecilia in the garage and lay some loving hands on her today. I got up early, toted The Blonde off to the airport for a work thing, and came home and ate some lunch with my kiddos. The entire time I was thinking of one thing: Cold weather is taking a holiday, this lucky guy gets to work on my baby.

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I got the Powder Puff ready, got The Boy ready, and pulled Cecilia around to the garage. Here we go, PawPaw! (nod to Shelby Stanga!)

I stepped into the garage and my feet hit water. A LOT of water.


What the heck? I pulled the car out and saw the door to the water heater leaking like a river. Inside, my water heater had water finally given up the ghost and had water SPURTING out of the top around the lid. You know the part that is screwed to the outside that you touch when you lean against a water heater? That cap - the WHOLE top of the heater. That's where my water was coming from. Not a pipe or something easy like that.



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My heart sank. I cleaned up the biggest part of the water and some of the mess. In a panic I called Lowes. They were nice enough but said due to my tank's age (1988) my code upgrades would cost over $1000 and the tank could be $400-900 more. No easy way out I guess. I was disappointed but I thought I learned so much already by working on my old truck that I ought to be able to swap out a water heater, right?


As always, this is what I did. You shouldn't do this. You should be smart and hire someone.


For this operation I will need:
7 and 1/2 hours if you're like me (11am to 6:30 pm)
A large crescent wrench
A small crescent wrench or pair of pliers
A propane torch
A garden hose

I'll need to buy:
A new water tank for about 400 bucks
A pack of plumbers solder
Some pipe flux if you don't have it
A pipe cleaner (wire brush thingy)
A fire extinguisher
Plumber's teflon tape


My tired old 1988 Water Tank decal



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I went to the beast and turned off the intake valve. It quit leaking. I looked all around the front, back, and underneath the tank. It looks like they're just tied in by five or six connections. Water intake (cold), water out to the house (out), a flue for the gas, gas to the gas line, a drain pipe, and sometimes a power plug.

I started easily enough. I grabbed this pipe that should have been my drain pipe. It was just laying behind the tank not connected to anything.



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Then I hooked up a water hose to the drain port on the front by the gas settings. I turned the valve but nothing came out. So I turned on some hot water in the house and whoosh, it started pouring down the hose. Success! I let it drain for about a half hour while I kept taking things apart.



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Then I took the two covers off of my gas pilot light.



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Then I followed the gas line from the pilot light to the wall where it turned on. It's here. It's just a valve that turns sideways to turn it off, lined up with the pipe straight to turn on. My picture shows it turned on (valve is lined up with the pipe). Just put a pair of pliers or a crescent wrench on it and turn it crossways to shut the gas off.



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Once the gas is off I checked the pilot light. It wasn't on anymore. Gas off!



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Next I disconnected the gas line.



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That was all the lower stuff since my overflow drain wasn't connected.
I moved to the top and disconnected the incoming water line. Luckily mine was replaced sometime with the screw on type so it was a simple screw off and push out of the way jobbie.



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I thought I'd move to the hot water side next. I peeled back some of the insulation but it turned out this side was still all soldered copper.



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So I pulled the flue off next. It just rises and falls by itself so to keep it from falling on me I propped it up on the water intake pipe.



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The Powder Puff was handing me tools on my ladder here. She asked me if we'd finish in time to work on Cecilia. She didn't like the answer. Look at that pout

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She walked off and The Boy wanted to help. I said, "Hand me that crescent wrench" and he ran off to his tool box. Not a lot of help, but his heart was in the right place.



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I crawled back up my ladder and pulled the flue mount off next to make room to torch on the hot water pipe.



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Lighting the torch. Powder puff took this one and was very proud of it, thought it's blurry.



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I was careful moving the heat into the little closet. Lots of flamables in there, like the wall...Anyway, I heated the pipe for a good 15 minutes.



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I never got it to let go no matter how hard I pried on it and torched it. I ended up cutting it off with a hacksaw.



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