In early November, the gas water heater at an Eastlake home in Seattle failed. When we came out on November 4, the 2018 tank was done, its vent pipe sloped the wrong way and the gas to it was off for the building's safety. Two days later, Nick and Jeremy replaced it with a fifty-gallon power-vent unit.
What We Did
The old heater, a forty-gallon Rheem natural-draft gas tank made in December 2018, stood in a utility closet that opens to the outside of the house. A natural-draft heater relies on its hot exhaust rising up the flue on its own, but this vent ran with a reverse grade, sloping down where it needed to climb. Rather than set a new tank of the same kind on a vent that could not do its job, we recommended a power-vent model, whose fan pushes the exhaust out.
On November 6, Nick and Jeremy removed the old tank and installed a fifty-gallon Bradford White power-vent water heater in the same closet, with new water lines, a new gas connection and two-inch PVC venting run to the outside wall. They were on site a little over two hours and took the old heater with them, and the new one carries the manufacturer's warranty plus our two-year warranty on parts and labor.
Why It Matters
- A natural-draft heater is only as safe as its vent. The exhaust has to rise all the way out. When the pipe slopes the wrong way it has nowhere reliable to go, which is why the gas stayed off until the heater was replaced.
- A power vent fixes the venting, not just the tank. Its fan drives the exhaust through plastic pipe, so the vent no longer has to climb and can run sideways to an outside wall.
- It needs electricity. A power-vent heater plugs into an outlet, so unlike a standing-pilot gas tank, it stops heating when the power goes out.
- Replacement is the moment to size up. The new tank holds fifty gallons where the old one held forty, in the same closet.
Why Eastlake
Eastlake is a narrow neighborhood squeezed between Lake Union and I-5, built up from the 1890s with small homes, apartments and houseboats. On lots like these, mechanical equipment went wherever there was room, here a closet on an outside wall, and the vent had to find its way out from there. When a flue cannot climb properly, a power-vent unit venting sideways through the wall is often the cleanest answer, and we work around Lake Union regularly, from Queen Anne to Portage Bay.
Call About a Water Heater
A heater that has stopped, a vent that has come loose, or gas shut off at the tank? Call for a free estimate, or request a callback.
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