Weird pipes beside hot water heater

jamesbobo

There are two 3 inch pipes that are in my laundry room, beside my gas hot water heater. They are side by side and one stops a couple of feet from the ceiling and the other goes closer to the floor. Both are open on the end. I believe I've seen these open up into the attic. Any explanation for why there are there? There are somewhat unsightly and if I could get rid of them, I would prefer to.

VIPlumber

Kinda hard to tell, but I think it looks like galvanized pipe to me. If so, then they should be fine to remove as they were used to provide fresh air, and exhaust the CO, from the previous gas water heater.

JDC

My guess....the one that drops closer to the floor is a fresh air intake. The other...perhaps an old flue for a previous water heater. Cant tell, but is that a gas water heater? If it is, is the exhaust piping pvc? If so, its a power vent water heater. There may have been a standard gas water heater in there at one time and someone just disconnected the flue and never got rid of it.

jamesbobo

it is a gas water heater. Both pipes are vent pipes...just like what is over the current water heater. They are both so flush with the wall that I'm not sure if the short one could have ever been used as an exhaust pipe on a water heater...the placement doesn't seem possible. What I called a "laundry room" is actually more of a laundry closet in my hallway. Because it's such a small area and when the doors are closed, there's not much circulation, the fresh air intake idea seems pretty reasonable. I guess that also means that it's not the kind of thing I should remove. Here's another pic from a different view.

gregzoll

What does it look like up in the attic, where they exit the structure & on top of the roof?

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jamesbobo

It's taken me awhile to get into the attic but I got up there tonight and couldn't find the other end of the pipes. I did some digging around and found them just a few inches through the ceiling, buried in some heavy insulation (I pulled the insulation back for the photo). If their purpose was for fresh air to the gas water heater, I don't think it was doing it's job buried in the insulation. Does this mean that I can get rid of it?

mae-ling

If they starrt nowhere and go nowhere, they can go.

TheEplumber

How does your existing heater get combustion air?

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pardonme2711

thats high and low combustion air intake. it is code to have that but honestly if you dont have the furnace and hot water heater enclosed with nowhere to get combustion air then i would rip it out. in my opinion it wastes more energy than does any good

ddawg16

Good catch on that.....

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jamesbobo

Well I took them out...they obviously weren't doing the job that they were there for and they were a huge eyesore. If, when I sell my house, an inspector makes an issue of it, I will just reinstall them then. Thanks for all of your help.