This weekend, we had a birthday party for the oldest nephew on my side of the family, so we didn't stay at the trailer. We did, however, go down on Sunday to fix the water heater.
We were able to find brass check valves on Amazon after a failed attempt to find them at our local Home Depot. Home Depot also did not have the channel locks that were recommended by the Lance Owners Forum, so we ordered those as well.
We had a smaller strap wrench (which was recommended by one of the guys at Home Depot), channel locks, the check valves, plumbers putty, and plumbers tape to get the job done. We ended up not using the plumbers putty at all.
Jon used the strap wrench to get the top valve off & the channel locks to get the bottom valve off. The top valve came off without *too* much effort. The bottom one took a little more effort. Once it was off, water started to pour out of the water heater. We thought we had drained it all, but I guess not!
After cleaning up that mess, we taped both of the valves on the appropriate ends and screwed them into the water heater.
It was around this time that Jon realized we left the plastic plug for the back of the water heater at home. Oops! Guess we wouldn't be checking to be sure it was fixed after all! We cleaned everything up & headed home. Short, but productive trip!
One would think that water heaters are just small appliances, and that they won’t take much time – but they do! When one is broken, you have to find out what’s wrong with it, and do the correct fix or find the right parts. And once you get to the job itself, it can be quite unpredictable for a “small work”, and two persons are needed at times, just like in your case. But I’m glad you and Jon worked your way around that!
ReplyDeleteJodi Bennett @ Marsh Heating
I’ll be experiencing my own water heater fixing in a few days. Ours conked out and hubby will need my help fixing it. Although I’m sure with my lack of DIY know-how, I’ll be relegated to holding a wrench or something. And I’m sure I’ll probably find some way to mess that up! LOL! Forgetting a plug is totally something that I would do.
ReplyDeleteStevie Calloway @ Infinity Plumbing Services