I know there is a thread going on the propane hot water heater,, but ,,, My electric hot water heater just went today and I want to install a new one myself. If I go to Lowe's and get a hot water heater, what other parts do I need, and besides shutting off the power and the water, what else do I need to know to uninstall and install a new hot water heater? Thanks...
OK I helped the cousins install their h2o heater last winter, it took all of 15 min's total. First take a good pic (camera phone!!) of the wires & put new one in the SAME WAY! Hook up water lines. tighten, check for leaks, etc... that's about it. Turn on power LAST. Your plumbing/fittings should all be fine to re-use unless you have an Older home or had a do-it-yourself prior owner that never spent a dime to fix anything & left you with a mess waiting to leak, burst or just plain explode! At our house- I call that a "Daddy". Good Luck.
Best thing to do is figure out what type of plumbing you have and then talk to the people at lowes (and pray). There are houses around here that still have Quest. All my experience with Quest has been long and drawn out. Good luck.
If there are unions on the hot and cold (what looks like a large nut in the middle of the pipe) above where they enter the heater, you're golden. Shut off the electricity, shut off the cold water, open an upstairs hot valve, drain the tank. undo both unions, unscrew the stubs from the top of the tank. Undo the electrical connection on the heater. Use some teflon tape on the threads of the stubs where they screw into the new tank, connect the unions. That is if your new unit is the same size and same height. Oh, do you have copper or CPVC or what? And don't forget the cardinal rule: turn off the power BEFORE you drain the old one, and don't turn it back on until the new one is full!
Thank you all very much for the info. Will be doing the water heater later, I'll let you know how it goes, and PM if I need help. The hardest part I think is going to be taking a COLD shower this morning to go to work!
I everyone. YES, we do have hot water now. Got the same brand hot water heater from Southeast Plumbing Supply on Monday ( water heater had gone on Sunday morning), installed it when I got home from work on Monday. Took a little less than 2 hours!!! The delay,,,, was trying to stand it upright under the house, wound up digging a hole under there and that gave me the room to right it, and then to get it leveled on the blocks.... but once the electric was hooked up and the water filled up, and then the circuit breaker turned back on, we had hot water in about 10 minutes... was that fast....Was an easy enough job... Thanks everyone again...
Bet that was fun! Shoot, my house, the crawlspace door isn't big enough to get the water heater in and out off.... when it goes, I'll have to go tankless or start tearing stuff up...
It wasn't fun. It just fit in the trap door laying on its side and pushed in, uprighting it wasn't easy, like i said we had to dig a trench after wracking our brains out how to stand it up....Geez, heightwise they don't give u much room under the house, huh...
