In alt.home.repair, on Mon, 09 Dec 2024 21:30:04 +0000, Donna
My electric ( AO Smith) water heater fell over during a hurricane/tornado, is it still OK to use it?
My electric water heater advertised it had a glass liner, so of course
something like happened to you would worry me. But before I got rid of
the second one, I cut it open and into pieces. (I think that was
partly, originally, to make it easier to carry upstairs. I had imagined,
mistakenly, that because of sediment, it was heavier than when I slid it
down the stairs.)
The glass liner in my water heater wasn't what I would call glass. It's
vinyl, with I guess glass dust or glass particles in it. It was too
smooth to cut myself on, too smooth to feal anything, actually.
It was 1/4" thick and it was hard to dislodge from the metal shell. I
thought the material would be useful, so eventually I peeled it away
from the metal, but it was not easy.
I had found it hard to believe that it was like drinking-glass or
window-glass glass inside and it's not. If those existed, how could they
even ship them without many of them breaking? You may want to check
with the maker of our particular WH, but I'll bet they are all the same.
That they couldn't break if you tried to break them. I googled some
and they do say glass-lined as if it's glass. I don't believe it. How
would they even apply it? I think they are trying to give an image. or
something. I would call the maker of your WH and ask for the technical
department and ask them. Or just call a plumber or two. Call at 4 or
4:30, when they've finished most of their work and they have time to
talk. Most will be happy to talk to you.
I don't see any other possible problem either. Even i;f somehow it was
saltwater, just rinse it off well and if salt water got inside, connect
it temporarily to water but not electricity and flush it thoroughly.
"Over time, high levels of saltwater can cause damage to plumbing,
appliances, cooling systems that use water, and water heaters." This is
from New Orleans. They know a lot about floods.
https://ready.nola.gov/incident/saltwater-intrusion/saltwater-faqs/
https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/454405/how-are-electric-water-heating-elements-isolated
Even if an inlet or outlet pipe "rusted" through, would probably still
work and the worst would be you wouldn't get water. You can worry about
that if it happens. The other person who answered chose a user name
designed to make him look stupid and he has succeeded, so i wouldn't
give much weight to anything he says.
Now that I've ansewred you, you tell us, How did it fall over?
Inventory? Bought for your home but not yet installed?
Secomnd, despite what some water systems may cause, I had only about 3
or 4 tablespoons of sediment in the bottom. Maybe 3/8" inch, nowhere
near the amount they warn you about, 4 inches or so, to reach the
heating element or to clog the TPV valve. This was after 10 or more
years. And it's deeper in the center, because it's curved, so it would
have taken 150 years to clog the heater, given my water supply (which is
from reservoirs, from rain.)
The last water heater, like the previous one, I bought at Sears and
brought home on the trunk and rear seat of my convertible. After I took
it to the basement, I opened the box and found it had been crushed on
top and one of the pipes was about 5^ off vertical and the other was
about 10. I could have returned it, but it meant dragging it up a flight
of stairs, and then the nuisance of loading the car and waiting at sears
while they did a bit of paper work. So I kept it. Didn't use flexible
pipe, just sort of forced it in place, and soldered it. 10 years, so
far so good.
The house came with an AO Smith heater, and I tried to find one by the
same company so the input and output pipes woud be in the same place.
Ended up buying at Sears, which probably had them made by AO Smith.
I've bene here 41 years and the house was 4 years old when I bought it.
I bought a smaller one for my replacement, because I live alone, and it
would have been fine for showers, even if there were 2 of us, but for
baths, even with the crummy mini bathtub** I have, by the time the
bathtub was full, especially if I added and overflowed just a little, to
keep the water hot, I was out of hot water. My 3rd WH was back to the
original size.
**It looks like a fullsize bathtub until you get in it, and I'm not a
big guy, but when lying down, my rib cage, which like othe ribcages has
no fat on it, reaches to the same level (or a half inch less), as the
top of the tub. I should have replaced it decades ago, to what they
now call a soaker tub. Probably would have needed an even bigger water
heater, but I don't waste many other world resources.
My apartment back in Brooklyn, NY, in a 1930 building, was in a luxury
building when built. Apartments ranged from studios (6 out of 49) to
1-BR, 2-BR, and 3-BR with maid's room. I had one of the latter. It
also had 3 bathrooms, one off the main bedroom with a shower only , and
the other two with tub/showers. The tubs were so big that I could
literally float in them with only about 1 square inch of my tush
touching the bottom. The water valves were on the side, so I could reach
them wihout using my toes. I miss that tub. I had installed the
speaker board, with wooofer and tweeter, from a 1930's radio, in the
ceiling of the bathroom and I glued a volume control to the side of the
toilet, reachable when on the toilet or in the tub. I either listened
to the radio, or turned my TV to face the mirror on the closet door and
adjusted it to relect towards the toilet or tub. I put thumbtacks into
the carpet, where to put the door, one for the toilet and one for the
tub. I had to remove the speakers when I left, but they are on the
ceiling of my current bathroom.