I've heard people use th word 'soda' --> soda pop, but it's not a commonly used word up here.

We used to have a chain up here called "The Pop Shoppe"
They were great, all kinds of original flavours but they couldn't compete with coke and pepsi and eventually went under.

I still see a few of their drinks for sale in small corner stores, so maybe they still sell a little product, but they are not what they used to be.

 

if u don't have one now- have them install an expansion tank on the new one.

 

Not sure how things work up in the Great White North, but here you'd call a plumber. Here, you might call the HVAC guy if your water is heated through a heat exchanger in a hot air furnace. You could call a gas fitter but he can't pull a plumbing permit. In MA our plumbing license also covers gas fitting.

openclasspro#11 is correct about the expansion tank, although it's not a practice that my company has adhered to.

We had that here too. When I was a kid my aunt and uncle would have pallets of the stuff. It was awsome. We didn't have soda at home so it was a treat to drink stuff like birch beer, cream soda, sarsaparilla and of course the orange, grape, lemon and lime sodas. Oh, we've never called it pop here. It's always been soda. We also eat grinders, not subs or hoagies.

 

I believe this is how it works in Canada too. I had a buddy do our hot water tank and he was a plumber by trade.

 

Thanks wit.
Yeah, I forgot how good some of those old pop shop flavours were, sasperella, lol, yeah, that's good stuff.

 

Habs,
Down here we call a minister. My hot water tank was leaking pretty bad so I called the minister and he came over and we prayed about it. The leak stopped on it's own, the tank has been fine and I've had hot water ever since. That was around 1952.

 

It is a good thing he did not bless it while he was there. That would be a long time to have your skin burn when you shower.

 

 

If you have hard water the only way to do tankless is to have a water softener. The hard water deposites will build up quickly without the softener, thus causing the elements to lose their heating effectivness.
If there is a backflow preventor at the main water line coming into the house then an expansion tank is required by US standards but not all local municipalities adhere to this due to the added cost and also lack of knowledge or their own adopted code omits it.

I've seen bottoms rust out and blow out.
They make a heck of a mess.

 

Hab's here is what you do, First go to homey depot and purchase a tank (get height of your tank now and give to person at store. Have them make sure it has a aluminum rod inside only, with hard water this will take care of any odors from the tank (but will not help your rank azz feet) You need a aluminum rod installed that's is the #1 thing. If the homey guy cannot do this then call a plumber he will know exactly what needs to be done. Changing out a tank is a simple thing to do just make sure it is the same (or nearly) height as the present one or a bit shorter and you can just shim it up to fit.
If i were closer i'd come there ina jiffy and replace it in under an hour, it's really that simple.... Cost depends on tank size (gallons (liters) of water), ie 40 gallon, 50 gallons or liters, why can't you fine folks up there just use gallons and miles wtf.....

http://www.hearth.com/econtent/index...wthread/59401/

PS, we call it pop here becauser that what it is POP....

 

Hot water tanks aren't one of the more difficult jobs but there can be snafuus with them too.

He's got a twelve year old tank. Even if he could get an exact replacement, it's quite likely that many of the dimentions have changed. The blower assembly is almost definitely different, requirening you to rework some of the PVC venting, or worse, if it's stainless steel venting. The gas valve is probably at a different height. Not far but just enough to need to do a little reconfiguring on the gas piping. Not so bad if it's propane through copper though.

We always try to do an exact replacement when ever possible, because people don't call us untill they don't have hot water, and might have a flood. It's often a tank under warranty. It's very rare to be able to take one tank out and just slide the new one in. We generally use AO Smith or State, and they make minor changes all the time.

We reccomendd that our customers not buy their tanks from the home centers. They will work, but they generally have lower BTU ratings than the ones that you would get from the plumbing supply. That means slower recovery. Also you'd better have your sales recipt if you have a warranty issue. You won't get warranty service without it. At least not here. When we sell a customer a water heater though our supplier, they take responsibility for the warranty. We also keep records so that if and when an issue arises, we can move quickly to get the customer what they need to have hot water again. You can get a tank cheaper at the home center, but you get what you pay for.

Just my opinion.

 

While i agree with you wittom there can be re-installation issues but they are minor. gas line is flexible, new water lines flexible, vent, get shorter heater and shim up to old vent or put in new. Not rocket science to replace a water heater, i replaced one in my neighbors house from valu home center and it's still going after 12 years and it was 200 bucks 40 gal.. works just fine..

 

Thanks for the advice wit, Buck et all, you guys make some good points.
Bucky, I was thinking of you the other day, I took my wife and the dog for a drive; took the ferry over to Picton and drove to Sandbanks.

We were walking on the beach for a couple hours and watching the geese begin their journey south. You still go fishing there in the winter?
It's a beautiful spot, about 60 miles from my house.

 

Exactly.
I had the tank replaced today, it turns out the tube that vents outside was plastic, the code has changed from the time it was installed, now code requires it to be made from ABS.
When they removed the old one, it turned out it had a crack in the elbow, guy said if I hadnt called them, it would've eventually started venting into the house.

The hard water had it plugged so bad with minerals over the years it wouldn't even drain, they had to break into it with screwdrivers to create an openning.

Anyways, thanks wit and everyone else for your help, it really is appreciated.

Here's a pic of the shiney new tank:

 

Glad you're back in business. Did it cost you more than a grand, installed?

That wouldn't meet code here in MA. You've got to be a minimum of three feet from the electrical panel with water pipes. It looks closer than that in the pic.

Make yourself a note to change that anode rod in a couple years. It might help to make the tank last longer.