Water heater hot outlet leaking

RodneyBR

I have a Rheem Ruud PV50, 16 year old water heater and it recently started to leak around the hot outlet. Is there an easy way to fix this? I'm thinking heat it up with a torch and solder it.

Pics below.

Fairview

Heat and water make steam and steam doesn't solder well. Replace the fitting before catastrophic failure. Those 16 years won't set any records for service but in general that's a good life as water heaters go.

pwgsx

Time to start thinking about replacing it. Tank would have to be empty and dry around that fitting to try and solder it back up.

Pirulo

You have a corrosion problem where 2 different metals and water touch. You are supposed to have a dielectric fitting at the cold and hot connectors, where copper/bronze and galvanized iron connect, or this problem will develop again in the future.

joecaption

That fitting is about to blow! No joke.

RodneyBR

Thanks for the comment folks It's appreciated.

So don't try and fix it, replace the fitting? Is this fitting readily available, like for example at Home Depot/Canadian Tire?

Also, how would I replace it? I see that it screws into the copper pipe, but is the fitting soldered or screwed onto the tank?

joecaption

http://www.amazon.com/Camco-10623-Di.../dp/B0006JLVEO
Any Lowes Home Depot, hardware store will have one.
Do not be surprized if it just breaks off when trying to remove it.

I also would pick up a Shark Bite coupling the size of that copper pipe.
You have to shut the heater off, shut the water going to it, drain water out at the bottom of the tank. Once it drained you cut the copper pipe and unscrew the copper elbow, then the nipple.
I'd apply pipe tape and pipe dope on the new nipple. Use the shark bite to reconnect the copper pipe.

I know if it was mine since I'm doing half of the work to replace the whole tank anyway, and knowing in most cases no one has ever drain any water out of that tank like your suppot to evey year to get rid of sedamants and most likly will not drain, I'd just replace the whole tank.
Is there a shut off valve in the incoming cold water line? There should have been a ball valve there.

DannyT

replace it with a new dielectric nipple or a brass nipple.

Alan

It looks like a GALVANIZED nipple to me anyway. You can't solder it.


Normal tank life on water heaters is around 10-15 years.


I think you're reaching the end.

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Javiles

[QUOTE=Alan;1012054]It looks like a GALVANIZED nipple to me anyway. You can't solder it.


Normal tank life on water heaters is around 10-15 years.


I think you're reaching the end.

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gregzoll

Wow 16 years. Call yourself lucky, and get a new one.

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Pirulo

Believe it or not, my parents still have an old Rheem 40 Gallon water tank heater, installed 35 years ago (when I was a kid and it was a new house) still in pristine shape and working just fine, with no corrosion (the house still have lead pipes), no maintenance has ever been done to it (other that an annual flush of sediments). It has to be the water, IMO.

RodneyBR

Ok, got all the parts at Home Depot and I'm on my way to doing the job. Although, I have a question as to how long the dip tube should be? Because the old one didn't have one to measure the length or it corroded off. Pics below...

New Dip Tube and Nipple:



Old Nipple:

RodneyBR

Rheem just got back to me on the dip tube length. They said anywhere from 28-30", longer for large volumes of water.

RodneyBR

That doesn't make sense though, since my boiler is only 22" in diameter. When I push the dip tube in, it stops at 8", so I guess I should cut it a bit shorter than that?