Whats rustling your jimmies?

Hoss

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It's with any law. If it's not enforced, might as well not be on the books.
Sounds like he got it enforced then. We have a law saying we have to file permits to build stuff on our land. But the only enforcement is that the power company won't connect you without showing them a permit.

But it's still a rule and I wouldn't complain about someone finally deciding to enforce it.

Besides, I thought the address thing could get you in trouble when you were pulled over.
 

Kajiimagi

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Sounds like he got it enforced then. We have a law saying we have to file permits to build stuff on our land. But the only enforcement is that the power company won't connect you without showing them a permit.

But it's still a rule and I wouldn't complain about someone finally deciding to enforce it.

Besides, I thought the address thing could get you in trouble when you were pulled over.
maybe now, when I was younger and starting out in the electrical trade I used my mothers house as my home address. I owned the place anyhow and told anyone who asked I was living in XXX temporarily as I was. Usually for less than a year. I was building nursing homes for a company and they didn't usually build 2 in the same town. Then when I took over the Myrtle Beach SC area and I bought a house for me I changed it then.

Almost got me in a LOT of trouble too. I got a letter 10 years after filing the taxes saying I owed SC back taxes , penalty & interest to the tune of $5K. This would go in the tickle my pickle area though because I rebuilt my tax record (it was over 7 years so I shredded it) and sent SC my records showing I paid NC taxes and was a part time resident in NC. SC then sent me a $0.00 bill.
If you had been across the street when I opened that envelope you would have thought I just won the lottery!
 
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Control

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I never add people when they friend request me in league. I’ve been playing a lot, figured I’d make some friends if people reach out. Added someone, they asked me to add them on discord. I added em, then she sends me her onlyfans link. First random friend request I’ve accepted on league in forever
so... were the tits worth it?
 
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Magimaster

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First real issue I'm dealing with my new home. It is a new construction, April will be 2 years since I've been in the house; and the water heater stopped heating yesterday. Draining the tank like the recommend and cleared out any debris, but still nothing. Called plumber and they couldn't come out till this morning. Plumber gets here and both heating elements are getting power so he figures its the temperature gauges, so he replaces them and tells to give it 2 hours and I should be good. 2 hours later and I still have no hot water, so called them back. Waiting to hear back from them and I'm sure they will come back out, but its still jimmy rustling that a less than 2 year old tank has issues already.
 
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fred sanford

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First real issue I'm dealing with my new home. It is a new construction, April will be 2 years since I've been in the house; and the water heater stopped heating yesterday. Draining the tank like the recommend and cleared out any debris, but still nothing. Called plumber and they couldn't come out till this morning. Plumber gets here and both heating elements are getting power so he figures its the temperature gauges, so he replaces them and tells to give it 2 hours and I should be good. 2 hours later and I still have no hot water, so called them back. Waiting to hear back from them and I'm sure they will come back out, but it’s still jimmy rustling that a less than 2 year old tank has issues already.
Our water heaters must be in sync.

My 5 year old heater has decided this weekend to start leaking. It’s still under warranty so I contacted the manufacturer and they were quick to authorize a replacement. However, they won’t do any of the leg work. I have to remove it, take it to a store, get a new one, and install it.

I’m no plumber, so I reached out to the store to try and figure out a good process that doesn’t involve me going without water for days. In the end, I’ve been instructed to buy a new one, get it installed, bring the old one back, and then I’ll get a refund for the new one. That’s sounds fine and dandy until their contractor for installs calls me and quotes me $1,600 just for the install. That is more than cost of the water heater itself. I know for a fact a friend had them do a water heater install last year for $500, so I think they think my old heater is busted and I’m desperate.

Thankfully I’ve hired a plumber for something else recently and he’ll do it for $600. But my jimmies are mega rustled that I’ve had to jump through hoops and I’m sure something will go awry before this is all done.
 

Siliconemelons

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Replace your anode rods annually or bi-annually and flush it while your at it… water heaters will last a very very long time.

Every 3 or 4 swap out the elements… could go longer as ur flushing regularly so it reduces the elements burning out- thermostats replace whenever they break.
 
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Aldarion

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Yeah its a metal tank, you can replace the thermostats and heating elements with like a screwdriver and a wrench.

I too made the mistake of paying for a replacement water heater before I realized this. Since then, when something breaks, I Amazon a $30 part and fix it in a half hour.

If you do need to get a new one, its criminal they're charging you those prices. Even $500 is criminal, thats like a you and your buddy and an hours time kind of job. (A younger man could probably skip the buddy part but my back says get help)
 
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Magimaster

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Replace your anode rods annually or bi-annually and flush it while your at it… water heaters will last a very very long time.

Every 3 or 4 swap out the elements… could go longer as ur flushing regularly so it reduces the elements burning out- thermostats replace whenever they break.

Yeah its a metal tank, you can replace the thermostats and heating elements with like a screwdriver and a wrench.

I too made the mistake of paying for a replacement water heater before I realized this. Since then, when something breaks, I Amazon a $30 part and fix it in a half hour.

If you do need to get a new one, its criminal they're charging you those prices. Even $500 is criminal, thats like a you and your buddy and an hours time kind of job. (A younger man could probably skip the buddy part but my back says get help)

So, just to update, the tech did come back. Ended up taking out the heating elements which did have some buildup on them. Put new ones in and they still wouldn't turn on even though they had power; so he traced that and discovered when the installer put it in, they badly spliced the wires from the main conduit into the unit and the splice cap had half-melted. So, he correctly re-spliced the wires and that fixed it.
 
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Fucker

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Replace your anode rods annually or bi-annually and flush it while your at it… water heaters will last a very very long time.

Every 3 or 4 swap out the elements… could go longer as ur flushing regularly so it reduces the elements burning out- thermostats replace whenever they break.
Yeah. Also flush them out every year or two. Takes about 45 minutes or less depending. 99% of it is standing around waiting for the water to run clear.

 
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Siliconemelons

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Water heaters are one of those things that /seems/ complicated but are quite straightforward.

Big inner tub, input water pipe fills and pressurizes the tank. “Hot” output pipe feeds out to the house.

Thermostat takes in electricity and manages powering on/off the heating element(s)

Outer tub is just a shell to hold access panels and insulation.

There is a burp/depressure valve and a drain spigot and the anode rod.

That’s essentially all its components.

With shark bites and basic electrical skills the install if very DIY, the maintenance tasks are also fairly straight forward as mentioned above - rod, drain, elements. Special socket for the elements, and whatever for the rod, half the rods on amazon come w the big socket it needs… breaker bar if it’s been a long time. Multi meter perhaps if you gotta track down a bad thermo or element… but at time/cost/ease - if its dead dead and not leaking… it may just be simpler to replace - rod-elements-thermo and have a “new” tank with 100 bucks or so.
 

Sylas

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I think I posted this already but I had to replace my hot water heater right before I sold my house last year.

It was from 1987 installed the year they built the house.

Just flush it every year (follow youtube tutorial) and replace the literally 3 functional parts on the thing (heating elements and thermostat) as they go bad.

mine actually was so old and the tank had not been flushed in so many previous owners that the lower element actually fused with the tank via sediment build up and it blew the circuit breaker repeatedly to the point I had to replace the circuit breaker on my house. That was a 25 dollar part that I did myself in 6 minutes that an electrician quoted me $700 to fix.

At that point I did end up replacing the hot water heater which is literally 2 copper pipes and 1 2 pronged electrical wire that gets tied into the top of it. hardest part was lugging the old unit out (i had flushed it already so most of the water weight was gone but it was still heavy due to sediment build up).

The water heater itself is only 500-800 bucks depending on how fancy you want the interface to be (analog, digital, smarthome, etc)

It's a 15 minute job to a plumber with the right tools to cut the new pipe and the correct tool to crimp the fittings in, used to be all that copper plumbing was fitted and soldered in, nowadays its just a crimp. they charge 400+ for labor because that tool costs 5k:

 
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unhappyendings

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They charge $400+ because people will pay it. Someone that must pay to have the job done likely has no knowledge or concern of what tools and fittings are used. Anyone paying for the job and wants to provide input on how it should be done is likely getting charged extra. There are a lot of ways to connect a water heater to existing plumbing, copper or otherwise, that do not require a $5000 tool. Press fittings can be done properly with much lower cost equipment as well.
 

Siliconemelons

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If you are dubious about PVC or Copper, go PEX.

SharkBite's have been approved a few years ago for in-wall use*****different codes all over the place....see local codes!***, plumbers are super salty about it ... i.e.



Essentially this dude is like "install them correctly" - like the first video shows. Also he seems to indicate shark bites hold stronger than simple pex crimps (that are okay in wall essentially everywhere now)

Buy the shark bite depth and cut guide tool, and make sure your copper is properly cut and de-burred.

As we are talking about water heaters - generally those are not going to be in-wall and are exposed at least to where you would pop-in the shark bites to then affix to the water heater.
 

Hoss

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So, theoretically, if you haven't flushed your hot water heater in 10+ years, should you start now, or will that just invite problems?

Asking for a friend.
 
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Goatface

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So, theoretically, if you haven't flushed your hot water heater in 10+ years, should you start now, or will that just invite problems?

Asking for a friend.
Do you have house water filter? Hard water?

I drained one that was about 1/4 full of calcium. It took forever to get all that crap out.

Have you replaced the anode rod or checked it?
 

Siliconemelons

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So, theoretically, if you haven't flushed your hot water heater in 10+ years, should you start now, or will that just invite problems?

Asking for a friend.

If it is not leaking, high probability no- it will not harm it and only then help keep it going.

Electric are more "resilient" to dealing with sediment because of where the heating elements are located, while gas, the burner...is on the bottom and thus has to heat /through/ the sediment more so than electric.

doing a complete refresh of your water heater should not harm it...like a transmission flush for a car could, where the build up can "be the seal" etc. - in standard electric water heaters - unless there is scale that has /really/ done a job on the element port threads - you will only be helping your heater.

Again its a very basic product.

Even at HomeDepot / Lowes prices - elements are like 20-40$ and 10-15$ for the element socket. order a segmented anode rod with socket from amazon for 30-40$.

If you do not know what heating element to get... and you can go a time without hot water... just order the heating element socket online with the rod/socket - drain it/flush it. Then take out the element and take it to HD/Lowes with you and essentially match the size, or show it to a bro in plumbing and they will get you the proper ones.

the elements are screwed in and should be no problem. they are connected to the thermostat with a + and - wire that usually is a standard philips head screw.

Always turn off your breaker and power and turn off the water supply.

So, like 250$ and your water heater is essentially new - all the working parts are replaced. The tub is really just that...a tub... and it will last for a very long time as long as you keep feeding the water anode rods to eat and not your actual tub.
 
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Kajiimagi

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So, theoretically, if you haven't flushed your hot water heater in 10+ years, should you start now, or will that just invite problems?

Asking for a friend.
I bought my current place 11 years ago as-is. The only thing new was the electric water heater. Never drained it, hell never drained one ever. I do have a whole house water softener as we have very hard water (see that giant snow topped peak in my back yard).
 

Hoss

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Do you have house water filter? Hard water?

I drained one that was about 1/4 full of calcium. It took forever to get all that crap out.

Have you replaced the anode rod or checked it?

Well water is pretty hard, but we have a softener and a whole home filter. Never messed with the anode either.

doing a complete refresh of your water heater should not harm it...like a transmission flush for a car could, where the build up can "be the seal" etc. -

That's exactly what i was thinking of.
 

Haus

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I bought my current place 11 years ago as-is. The only thing new was the electric water heater. Never drained it, hell never drained one ever. I do have a whole house water softener as we have very hard water (see that giant snow topped peak in my back yard).
This also has me wondering, since a gas heater has a heating element (burner) outside the tank in that case there wouldn't be heating elements to replace would there? And no anode? So it would just be a flush to clear sediment?

I ask because I have had the same large gas water heater going for on 18 years now with no maintenance. Still cranking out hot water, but we have hard water here with a ton of dissolved solids by default. So I'm kinda afraid of how bad the sediment layer in...



If you are dubious about PVC or Copper, go PEX.

SharkBite's have been approved a few years ago for in-wall use*****different codes all over the place....see local codes!***, plumbers are super salty about it ... i.e.



Essentially this dude is like "install them correctly" - like the first video shows. Also he seems to indicate shark bites hold stronger than simple pex crimps (that are okay in wall essentially everywhere now)

Buy the shark bite depth and cut guide tool, and make sure your copper is properly cut and de-burred.

As we are talking about water heaters - generally those are not going to be in-wall and are exposed at least to where you would pop-in the shark bites to then affix to the water heater.

When I redid our kitchen I had to relocate the sink and did the whole of it in pex for the hot and cold runs with sharkbites, including splicing it onto the existing copper stub pipes coming up out of the slab. I've also replaced bad/old toilet cutoff valves with Sharkbite versions. As mentioned, get the right cutting tools, clean and properly deburr your copper well and you should be fine. Fixed a split copper pipe in a wall in my mom's house by splicing in pex with sharkbites, also quick and easy to fix. All of it is holding great (*knocking on wood*)
 
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