# Relocating hot water heater?



## DanTheMan (Nov 23, 2015)

Hey guys been a while. I have a hot water heater that I can only assume is 15+ years old. The unit in the cold months cant even fill the bath tub for my daughter before running out of hot water. Now I am not sure on the exact size but it's an electric lowboy. The issue (or it would have been replaced a long time ago by me) is that it is in the crawl space  This has kept me from getting in there and doing it myself. Plus I never think about it until it's cold, like... well... now.. So I might pick one up from lowes and just have someone install it in the original location or I am considering relocating it to the garage and getting a full sized unit. Just wondering how much of an undertaking this will be before I start having people come over and talk about it. The house is a single story ranch style house about 1700 live-able sq/ft and the tank is of course on the back left corner of the house and the garage is on the right side so it would be basically put on the opposite side of the house. I would assume it would just be placing the tank and running electrical and just "splicing in" to the nearest hot and cold water lines that in the nearby kitchen and capping the lines on the other area? Dont think it can be THAT complicated right?  Thanks for any insight


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## nealtw (Nov 23, 2015)

Yes except you want a cold water supply from the main line, so yiou might have to run a cold water line across the house. 
You also have to power line but you will want to check what is needed for the bigger size, your breaker and wire may not be up to the new required.


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## havasu (Nov 23, 2015)

In August, I removed a gas tankless W/H from an ugly area near the front door of my new house, and moved it 60' away to the backyard (actually side yard). They had to run 2) 3/4 copper lines to the new unit and return to where it originated. I had them install a new 50 gallon gas unit, which meant they had to cap the original gas line and had to tap a new gas line nearby. Although you are electric, as said before, you will need to run 220v but it is extremely doable.


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## bud16415 (Nov 24, 2015)

All the above sounds good to me. I&#8217;m a big fan of PEX tubing and I redid all my hot and cold lines 2 story house with PEX in about one day. It goes really fast and if code allows where you are at I would recommend it. There are fittings to quickly connect into old copper if that&#8217;s what you have. You didn&#8217;t mention the climate where you live could some of the problem be heat loss from a cold crawl space.


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## CallMeVilla (Nov 24, 2015)

Your water main source just might already be in the garage!   Many homes are piped from the street to a Pressure Regulator Valve in the garage.  Then it branches to various spots inside the house.  Look for the valve in the garage and you could tap into it there to run a main supply to your heater.  The trick will be then connecting to the rest of the house.  Using PEX is graet for this because you can flexibly drop it to the original heater's location and make one connection.  BINGO!  The entire house is back in service.

This is what a PRV looks like.


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## slownsteady (Dec 1, 2015)

You didn't say how much room you have in the crawl space, if you were to simply replace what you have now. There's a possibility that a new product is on the market since you had that one installed.


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## frodo (Dec 1, 2015)

i suggest,  you add a 40 gallon water heater.
but
run from the new water heater to the bathroom
1, 3/4 pex
1, 1/2 pec
1,  12 gauge romex wire

the 3/4 and 1/2 will tie into gether at the point of connection in the bathroom
the romex,  will tie into the light switch,,or light itself
becomeing hot when the light switch is turned on

at the other end.
set the WH  hook it up  getting cold water from somewhere close
hook the 3/4 hot up
on the bottom of the heater,  remove the drain valve and connect the pump , pumping twards/to the wh
hook the romex to the pump. when light switch turns on water will circ to the bathroom


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## Myersoa (Sep 11, 2016)

No CPVC pipe within 18" if a water heater. 
And no PVC piping at all on the hot side.


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## Mastercarpenty (Sep 15, 2016)

Check your tank size. If it's a 30 then going to a 40 may be all you need to do. I hate WH's in a crawl space, Ifc it leaks you don't know it until it's a mud bath under there. No room to work, and often the access is limited making it a bugger to move the W'H's around. And they're usually set on dirt so the cases rust making the job even less fun. I did one a few years back where some genius added a back porch, not thinking about the door they closed off being the only one big enough to get a WH through. I ended up sledge-hammering a hole in the concrete block to gain access as there was really no other place to put a WH in that house, not even outside. The next guy will have it easy- there's a door right by the WH now.

Phil


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