Twelve tips for installing and maintaining an electric water heater

Installing and maintaining an electric water heater is often a part of home ownership. Here are some tips we learned in the process of replacing one …

Some time ago, our electric water heater began leaking out the bottom.  I had an older copy of Black & Decker Complete Home Repair and it told me a couple of things.  First, there was no repairing mine; it needed to be replaced.  Second, it appeared that I could do it myself, or at least try.

We bought a unit and tried to put it in ourselves, but we ended up hiring someone to help us with it.  The folks who installed it answered a lot of our questions and shared a bunch of tips.

Tips for installing and maintaining an electric water heater

Here's what we learned from the experience:

1. Know when you don't know. I found out that I didn't really know enough to install it myself about half-way through the installation.  There is no shame in paying for competent help because it will likely cost less in the long run.  We were glad we hired someone to help us.  I would have made a number of mistakes.
2. Don't lay the water heater on its side when you take it home. It will probably say this on the box, but believe it!  Lowe's said that they had gotten a lot of returns because one good bump while the water heater is on its side will ruin it.  It's not designed to be sturdy on its side.  We were able to get away with it leaning a bit — actually, a lot — inside of our minivan, but I still had to drive carefully and take it out carefully when we got home.
3. If you buy plastic piping for the water leads, make sure it's rated for hot water. Polyethylene (PE), acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) piping are not rated for hot water.  Chlorinated PVC (CPVC) is.
4. Get an aluminum pan 2″ wider than the base of the water heater and put the water heater in the pan. Install the drain pipe so that it goes from the pan right to the drain.  Twenty years down the road when it starts to go again, a slow-ish leak won't flood your house.  It will just fill up the pan and go down the drain.
5. Drain the water out of the tank if at all possible, but try this if you can't. A full 50-gallon tank weighs over a quarter ton.  We could only drain about 5 to 10 gallons out of ours before the water just stopped coming out.  (It was either a corroded drain valve, or too much sediment, or both.)  We had to get it out of the way down a couple of stairs.  Here's the trick we used.  We had some wooden ramps saved from when we bought our lawn mower and needed to load it on to a truck to bring it home.  The ramps were constructed with a ramp kit like this and two long wooden boards.  We had enough room to rest the ramps on the top stair, down into our garage.  From there, we lifted one side of the (full, old) water heater and rolled it over to the ramps (by rolling I meant spun it on its base; it was mostly upright).  We were able to roll it onto the top of the ramps, and down the ramps into the garage.  From there we took it outside and tipped over when the water was cool enough.  If you feel the slightest bit edgy about moving these heavy objects around, get help.  It's not worth permanently injuring yourself to be a hero. Seriously!
6. Know where the house water inlet valve is before you touch anything. Best to have the water pressure off if something breaks!  (Oh, and shut off the circuit breaker, too.  Test leads with a voltmeter to be sure it's off.)
7. If you install a new water inlet (outlet) leads, make sure that the water is always flowing down (up).  In other words, make sure the lead length isn't so long that you have to run the inlet pipe back up before you attach it to the water heater.  If it's too long, there is a reverse trapping effect.
8. Use Teflon® paste. Teflon tape will probably seal the threads on the inlet and outlet but Teflon paste thread sealant will work better.
9. Once things are installed, fill the tank before turning on power to the unit. If the tank filaments fire before they're surrounded by water, they'll burn out very quickly and very messily.  The water cools them so that they don't burn out.
10. After things are installed, occasionally exercise the water inlet valve, and the hot water outlet valve, but not the emergency pressure release valve. If the inlet and outlet valves sit for too long, the internal seals can corrode.  (My old inlet valve had corroded to the point where I couldn't completely shut it off.)  However, don't exercise the pressure release valve.  If a small piece of something were to get into that valve, it might not close completely, which would create a slow leak.
11. Remove sediment regularly. The people who installed ours said that once a month is what should be done, but that “no one really does that.”  Not removing sediment from the bottom causes the tank to corrode faster.  It's probably what killed ours.
12. Oh, and don't scald yourself. The people who installed ours could not set the temperature higher than 120 degrees Fahrenheit.  It's the law in Virginia.  This is plenty hot enough, and it's cheaper than keeping it at 125 or 130 degrees.

This is what we learned, and you may use them if you want, but they are no substitute for detailed knowledge, common sense, and professional help if needed.  I give them freely, but I also assume no liability if you use them. They're based on my very limited experience and on me talking with the guys installing my water heater for a few hours.  Nothing more, nothing less.

Having said that, if you can do the installation yourself and do it correctly, you stand to save several hundred dollars.