Hot water heater upgrade

[Bill]

Point well taken, Dave. That last 6 gallons is hard to use.

Your thought suggested a project for me. In my 2720SL, at least, the fresh water tank is mounted on the floor under the kitchen sink. The water heater is located above it. It shouldn't be hard to install a crossover tube, gravity-fed with an inline valve, to drain the water heater into the fresh water tank. In extremis, this would be a lot easier than the bucket approach (which is also OK in extremis).

Would it be as easy in other models? Might require a longer tube, but I think the fresh water tank is always mounted on the floor, and the water heater is always above the floor. Running long tubing is easy ...

Bill

Originally Posted by Bill

Point well taken, Dave. That last 6 gallons is hard to use.

Your thought suggested a project for me. In my 2720SL, at least, the fresh water tank is mounted on the floor under the kitchen sink. The water heater is located above it. It shouldn't be hard to install a crossover tube, gravity-fed with an inline valve, to drain the water heater into the fresh water tank. In extremis, this would be a lot easier than the bucket approach (which is also OK in extremis).

Would it be as easy in other models? Might require a longer tube, but I think the fresh water tank is always mounted on the floor, and the water heater is always above the floor. Running long tubing is easy ...

Bill

Good idea but might have to safeguard the pump inlet from scale from the water heater?

[ShrimpBurrito]

Originally Posted by Bill

Your thought suggested a project for me. In my 2720SL, at least, the fresh water tank is mounted on the floor under the kitchen sink. The water heater is located above it. It shouldn't be hard to install a crossover tube, gravity-fed with an inline valve, to drain the water heater into the fresh water tank. In extremis, this would be a lot easier than the bucket approach (which is also OK in extremis).

That is a nice idea, but I don't think it would work. With the water heater empty, you will get virtually no water out of the faucet. Been there. In fact, you won't get any real amount of water out of either the cold or hot water faucets until the water heater is full.

You could fix this of course by installing plumbing to bypass the water heater, but now the project is a little more complicated.

I like the idea though.....

Dave

[Bill]

If you drain the last six gallons out of the water heater and into the fresh water tank, then of course you wouldn't get any water out of the hot water faucets. But it is the price you pay for easy access to those last 6 gallons.

Of course you would also need a shutoff valve in the water heater inlet line. Otherwise, the pump will attempt to pump those newly-drained gallons right back into the water heater.

But this mod is cheap, and easy to install, and overcomes the concern about the inability to use those last six gallons of water - the ones that are currently stranded in the water heater.

Bill

[ShrimpBurrito]

Originally Posted by Bill

If you drain the last six gallons out of the water heater and into the fresh water tank, then of course you wouldn't get any water out of the hot water faucets.

Yes, but my point is that you won't get any water out of the cold water faucets either without installing the shutoff valve to the water heater inlet you mentioned.

We're on the same page.

Dave