sudsmaster
Well-known member
A neighbor was having a garage sale yesterday. When I walked over there I noticed a water heater in good shape sitting in his driveway. He told me he was tossing it, that it still worked fine, and if I wanted it, I could have it for free.
So I carted it three doors to my home, and then gave it a good inspection. It's a 6 yr warranty 40 gallon GE, gas fired. 34,000 BTU. I had to get out the air impact wrench to loosen the anode rod, but eventually it came out and looked to be in very good shape. I replaced it anyway with a spare I had stashed next to the house water heater. I loosened the relief valve. It's also in reasonably good shape but I'm planning on replacing that as well. The drain is a plastic affair but it seems to work ok so I'll leave that be for now.
What am I going to do with it? Well, two possibilities. One, replace the 25 year old Monkey Ward 50 gallon water heater in the house. It bumps when heating so I know there's a fair amount of sediment on the bottom that doesn't come out when it's flushed. I also suspect the cold water inlet down tube has deteriorated and it's difficult to get all those pieces out.
Another possibility is to install the "new" water heater in the workshop (there's gas and a vent in there) and use it on occasion to run the top loader washers.
The R-factor on this model is pretty low, so in either case I have some foil-faced fiberglass insulation (left over from insulating the heating ducts) that I'll wrap around the water heater to help it conserve energy. Plus a set of seismic braces so wherever it goes it won't fall over in a quake and start a fire.
Anyway, I figure this has saved me a few hundred bucks for a brand new water heater. And from the looks of the anode rod, this one should last another 10 years or more with our water supply.
So I carted it three doors to my home, and then gave it a good inspection. It's a 6 yr warranty 40 gallon GE, gas fired. 34,000 BTU. I had to get out the air impact wrench to loosen the anode rod, but eventually it came out and looked to be in very good shape. I replaced it anyway with a spare I had stashed next to the house water heater. I loosened the relief valve. It's also in reasonably good shape but I'm planning on replacing that as well. The drain is a plastic affair but it seems to work ok so I'll leave that be for now.
What am I going to do with it? Well, two possibilities. One, replace the 25 year old Monkey Ward 50 gallon water heater in the house. It bumps when heating so I know there's a fair amount of sediment on the bottom that doesn't come out when it's flushed. I also suspect the cold water inlet down tube has deteriorated and it's difficult to get all those pieces out.
Another possibility is to install the "new" water heater in the workshop (there's gas and a vent in there) and use it on occasion to run the top loader washers.
The R-factor on this model is pretty low, so in either case I have some foil-faced fiberglass insulation (left over from insulating the heating ducts) that I'll wrap around the water heater to help it conserve energy. Plus a set of seismic braces so wherever it goes it won't fall over in a quake and start a fire.
Anyway, I figure this has saved me a few hundred bucks for a brand new water heater. And from the looks of the anode rod, this one should last another 10 years or more with our water supply.
