In December 2017, we had the second water heater replaced. Our house has two water heaters: one for the north end of the house for our bedroom and bath, powder room bathroom, and the rarely used giant bathroom; and another that handles the south side–kitchen and guest bath. We replaced the north one in February of 2016, but it cooked itself a year later and was re-replaced.
So another year later, when the south one started to get noisy and a bit leaky, we knew it was time to have it changed out as well. The guy who did our other unit came out, but instead of worrying about damaging the floors, this time he had a more practical issue to sort out: how to actually get the old unit out of the space it had been crammed into. As you can see, the unit sat next to our furnaces, among various bits of plumbing and a closet wall to the right–he had to get creative.
1. So he ended up constructing a frame.
2. Then, after it was drained of water and disconnected, he and Agent Smith were able to pull it out of the space.
3-4. It was pretty much cactus.
1. After the old one was out, he easily slid the new one into place.
2. Then it was just a matter of connecting up the new one, and in a few hours we had lovely hot water again.
Of course, that was a year ago; now that the furnaces are no longer in that closet (posting about that soon), we want to reclaim the space for something a bit more useful and aesthetically pleasing. At the time of writing this, I’m actually waiting for a quote from Able (the folks who did our septic tank) for what it would take to move this water heater to another location.