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Posted by on March 12, 2007, 1:51 am
wrote:
>Decided to drain the water heaters today, as I'm near certain that the
>previous residents of this house have never done it... well, I got to
>the gas one and the handle, which is just some cheezy stamped thing,
>stripped before I could open the valve. I hit three hardware stores;
>all I can find are the standard handles with either a square or splined
>broach in them. This one only has two flats on the stem. It's tight
>enough that I can't open them with pliers.
>
>The other one is some solar thing; I opened the valve and it never
>closed again :( Right now the hose is dangling in the sink with a
>nozzle on it to keep the water from flowing, tomorrow I guess I'll buy a
>cap and never touch that one again. I did work it back and forth quite
>a few times, thinking that it probably just had some crap stuck in it
>that needed to be flushed out, but that didn't do the trick.
>
>So the questions:
>
>1) I suspect that attempting to replace either valve will probably
>result in failure of the water tanks, so there's not much point in
>attempting to do that, correct?
>
>2) The gas water heater is a Rheem unit, I am guessing that this valve
>came with it, does anyone know where I could buy a replacement handle
>that would work? Or am I stuck with just using that one until it fails
>and then buying a whole new water heater, as well?
>
>thanks,
>
>nate
You're making a simple repair real complicated.
Just replace the valve. Any spigot made for garden hoses will work.
It just screws into the tank like any spigot. Most are 1/2" pipe
threads, but a 3/4" is possible. This is a common problem. Those
spigots on water heaters are cheap junk, especially the plastic ones.
If this is too much for you to handle, you can buy a garden hose cap
for about a dollar and screw it on the end, using a hose washer which
should be included. Next time you drain it, take that cap off. Both
methods work. I prefer the new spigot valve method.
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