The Big Move

Here are some photos of where the water heater has lived since we bought the rat hole.

As you can see, it's in the way. We have to walk through the kitchen to get anywhere in the house.

The first thing to do before the big move was to turn off the power to the water heater, turn off the water to the house, and drain the water heater.

The next steps were to decommission the old lines and hook up to the new lines. I used Sharkbite fittings so the pex to pex connections were ultra-simple. The only annoying connection was the brass barb into the 1" poly main line under the house. Handling scalding water in a cramped crawl space is tricky.

Here are some photos of some of the old galvanized lines that were removed.

Can you tell which ones were hot water and which were cold?

We used a furniture dolly to move the water heater to its new home. We think it's happy.

Here are some photos of the empty doorway in the utility room. What a big difference!

The next steps took a while. Connecting into the lines for the water heater wasn't hard, but it was a long process.

I'll say it again... Sharkbite fittings are great! And easy! And expensive. One of them leaked after I turned the water back on. I was upset, but turned the pex and fitting a little and the leak stopped. Yay! I really like Sharkbite!

Here's a funny part of the story. After I connected everything and turned the water back on, I turned on the faucets to let the air out of the system. The hot water lines expelled air for a long time since the water heater had to fill up. I noticed that the cold water valve in the washer and dryer closet was expelling air. It freaked me out! Had I made a mistake and reversed my connections somewhere?

After going under the house, going into the attic space, and checking the water heater closet, I was able to confirm that, yes, I had indeed reversed the connections (hot to cold and cold to hot). All of them. In moving the water heater, I also moved the main incoming water line (cold). I connected the main line to the new hot water line instead of the new cold water line. But I also connected the water heater input and output to the wrong lines. And I reversed the splices up in the attic as well. It all stemmed from me misremembering which line was which. Should have labeled them. In the end, because I was consistent in my mixup, everything worked out. Except for the washer valves. Those are reversed. I'll switch them around before the washer gets moved. Three wrongs make a right!