House hot water heater.

[racsan]

I think this place is a 2012,its a doublewide but on a block foundation and also has a 25x25 addition on the back. Got it out of the house. The water heater was actually wider than the opening to bring it out of. Had to remove drywall strips on either side of opening & move the wall a little as I was pulling it out. You should see the crap that came out of it once it was in the driveway. A lot of residue. Time to go shopping. Ouch.

 

[RobbieD]

You should see the crap that came out of it

Yeah, that looks familiar. My cats do that too, when they eat too much grass.

I got a double wide, too, and I just replaced mine with a 40 gal regular house unit.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

Water softeners are often some form of salt (not necessarily sodium chloride) and can be corrosive to water heaters. Your water will taste like dish soap is in it.

I've seen arguments that hard water is better on water heaters than is soft water because the residue protects the tank, or something. Take that claim with a grain of salt.

 

[superj]

I wouls for sure just put a house water heater in. I have on every mobile home i ever lived in when the wh went out

 

[Curious Hound]

How high is your crawl space? When my ex and I bought our double wide, we ended up with enough crawl space height underneath that I was able to put the new water heater down there. Then I enlarged the walk-in closet by removing the water heater closet.

 

[racsan]

How high is your crawl space? When my ex and I bought our double wide, we ended up with enough crawl space height underneath that I was able to put the new water heater down there. Then I enlarged the walk-in closet by removing the water heater closet.

Not enough, Id have to mount the thing sideways, and getting in the 36”x36” opening would be quite a issue. Only thing I could find locally in stock was almost the same as what I just pulled out. Different brand (rheem vs whirlpool) Id of needed to do some electrical changes to go tankless, only have twin 30 breakers on that circuit. This unit was 2” narrower so that was helpful, has 2 thermostats/elements vs only 1 with the old unit so that should be better. Still have to go under the house & run the drain line from the pressure relief to a sump pit. But not today.

 

[Roert42]

That seems to be the biggest reason people stick with hot water tanks.

You can go down to threlocal hardware store and pick up a 40 Gallon unit. Almost anywhere in the US.


When you no longer have hot water you take what you can get. No matter how the math works out. "It lasted me this long, I'm sure it'll be fine for another 5/10 years."

 

[19Walt93]

I have a propane 40 gallon water heater and also a water softener. The softener uses salt pellets when it back flushes every couple of weeks but the water does not taste like salt and we've had no corrosion problems other than concrete septic tank erosion after 20+ years. When we had had water the water heaters didn't live long and the minerals plugged up the holes in the washing machine drum and ruined the pump. The PEX plumbing indicates an amateur plumber to me, sweating solder joints isn't hard to do.

 

[racsan]

Ive never messed with pex, Ive done pvc and have sweated copper before with dad. The only advantage I can see with pex is that its more flexible than pvc, can’t really bend pvc much. The space my hot water tank was at also has the furnace in it, I think the hot water tank was originally put in first than the furnace, the hot water access is through a bedroom closet, only 23” wide. Big enough to change elements or mess with plumbing/electrical connections but really horrible trying to remove or install a whole tank assembly. Hopefully this lasts me another 5 years, I’ll start upgrading the electrical and plan on a upgrade to a better setup before I have complete system failure , no hot water at all and have to scramble to get things fixed. The last hot water failure I had was during the winter when my daughter was young. Had to remove carpet, redo flooring. Was quite a mess. I dont recall the cost of anything, but everything has skyrocketed lately. At least I could do it myself and not have to hire it done.

 

[Roert42]

Pex is usually pretty easy to work with. Normally accompanied by shark bite fittings.

 

[James Morse]

don't forget to set your two t-stats correctly I think they are set a bit diff

 

[19Walt93]

It occurs to me that PEX is plastic and must leach something into the water, too. And how many years will it take to get brittle or crack?

 

[James Morse]

If you end up sweating copper, here's a tip that may or may not be useful. In multi story homes when you take stuff apart even if you drain it, you still get water coming down f'ing up your attempt to solder properly. An old guy told me years back, stuff a little chunk of bread into the upside of the line, that stops water coming thru and when you restore pressure it just blows/dissolves the bread out.

 

[superj]

/\ that is exactly what we did when i used to do plumbing. Squish the bread into a ball and stuff it in the line. My step dad is a master plumber so i grew up doing plumbing

 

[Blmpkn]

Everything's being done with PEX nowadays, way cheaper and easier.