Will my house explode?
I'm looking into getting a new hot water heater. "They" tell me that I need to install an expansion tank ($85 extra). I looked into it (thank you, internet).
Some beaurocrat decided that we all need something called a backflow preventer. What this does, is prevent water from flowing back from your house, to the city water supply, in order to protect the city supply from contamination. Never mind that the water is under pressure to flow from the city to your faucet.
A side effect of this gadget is that, when your hot water heater heats up water, the water expands, but has no where to go, so your house explodes,
"They" tell me that code dictates I have one, but I have checked my pipes from the water heater to the foundation, and there is no backflow preventer!
I'm thinking that my house was built before this stupid law was put into place.
My quandry is that, if I have someone install the water heater, they are probably obligated by law to install the expansion tank (which is unnecessary), or to at least turn me in. If I install it and I'm wrong, my warranty is voided and my stuff explodes.
I don't want to install it, but I don't want to pay an extra $85.
Some beaurocrat decided that we all need something called a backflow preventer. What this does, is prevent water from flowing back from your house, to the city water supply, in order to protect the city supply from contamination. Never mind that the water is under pressure to flow from the city to your faucet.
A side effect of this gadget is that, when your hot water heater heats up water, the water expands, but has no where to go, so your house explodes,
unless,
you have installed an expansion tank."They" tell me that code dictates I have one, but I have checked my pipes from the water heater to the foundation, and there is no backflow preventer!
I'm thinking that my house was built before this stupid law was put into place.
My quandry is that, if I have someone install the water heater, they are probably obligated by law to install the expansion tank (which is unnecessary), or to at least turn me in. If I install it and I'm wrong, my warranty is voided and my stuff explodes.
I don't want to install it, but I don't want to pay an extra $85.
posted by Exador at
8:00 PM
7 Comments:
If the water is hot, why do you need a water heater. Shouldn't it be called a cold water heater?
It is important that your house be kept up to code. Yes, your place was built before those safety provisions were put into the current building code.
You can cough up the dough now, or cough it up later when you sell your house and the home inspector tells your prospective buyers that the house is an explosive death trap because you don't have a backflow preventer and an expansion tank.
As your water heater is in the garage, I think, see if you can install a pressure relief valve with a pvc overflow drain that empties out into a pan under the water heater.
By
Sarcastro, at 6:12 AM
According to my internet research, you can't rely on the pressure relief valve because the repeated jumps in pressure will repeatedly bleed water through the valve, causing a buildup of salts, which will eventually block the valve, making it fail, and causing my house to explode.
Why didn't MY fuckhead of an inspector point that out to me?
By
Exador, at 6:40 AM
I wasn't sure if your WH had a pressure relief valve or not given the age of the house.
You are going to have to bite the bullet.
By
Sarcastro, at 7:26 AM
Right-y-o. So says the Plumbing Queen of Albany, who has made something of a study of how to replace the crap in her very old house to satisfy modern code requirements. I explored the pressure relief valve option as well (being both broke and cheap) and concluded that the costs of doing it right were minor compared to the risks of messing it up.
By
bridgett, at 8:01 AM
Yeah, but that's Albany. I've lived in NY. That government likes controlling your life with rules like no where else, except maybe Wisconsin.
By
Exador, at 8:16 AM
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
By
bridgett, at 6:23 PM
No one's going door to door checking water heaters. Hell, there's only one housing inspector for leased units in the entire county -- imagine how well those apartments get inspected in that once-a-decade go-over.
I meant that for less than a c-note, I didn't have to worry about blowing up a house that cost me a thousand times that. Not to mention the unfortunate loss of life, limb, and family members. It just struck me as being penny-wise and pound-foolish to take the chance.
By
bridgett, at 6:24 PM
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