09/17/2024
We received a call this morning with a frantic customer with a major leak coming from their 5 year old water heater(water heaters normally last 10-15 years) in Redding, Ca 96001. so we headed over and called the manufacture to look into the warranty. We found out we were days from loosing warranty, luckily this was a Rheem brand water heater and in our opinion one of the best in the industry for replacing a water heater that is under warranty. The reason is this, if you’ve ever walked through the plumbing section at Home Depot, you may have noticed this is the brand they carry and because of that Rheem allows us because we are partners with them to just pull out the water heater, pick up the model in store(if it’s in stock) and simply reinstall. It is almost as seamless as showing up with a water heater in the truck already.
We did have to upgrade the water connections, replaced the damaged water heater pan, replaced the water damaged water heater stand with a metal stand, and the gas line needed to be fixed to meet the requirements code. The water connection had an old ball valve with a galvanized nipple that rusted through; we use brass instead of iron pipe for this reason, and it had copper flexes which we switched out for stainless water heater flexes. The gas line had a sediment trap that was not installed properly and needed adjustment(see pictures).The stand was so damaged from water it needed to be replaced, along with the pan(not required for this scenario). We filled the unit, tested, turned on the gas, and re-lit the unit.
Frank wanted to pull the unit himself to prove to the rest of the guys that a single tech(tough tech) could do it themselves(not normally how we do it), watch the video below. Thanks to Rheem this job went smother than most and our customer now has hot water without much down time.
Francis F./MPC
Improper gas connection
New Gas connection to the water heater with the proper sediment trap.