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Backdraft in Water Heater


Zx2guy19

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Help- rental property had water heater turned off today for fumes from "backdraft". I have no idea how to identify or fix something like this and not even sure what type of person to call- HVAC? Plumber?

 

If anyone has dealt with this before, insight would be appreciated. Personal experience or type of person you hired preferred.

 

Thanks!

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Blockage in the vent isn't that uncommon, might be some critter packed some debris in there to escape the cold, I've seen it before. It's easy to find the vent on the outside of the house, just remove any caps and have a look. Will take 5 minutes to check, if that.

 

If it's pitched wrong, probably would have shown up by now unless you had some change that altered the vent, opening, airflow, or etc. Did your tenant move a covered grill or something up against the house where the vent is?

 

Go have a look

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Looks like none of that has been touched in a long time. I'd start on the roof checking for an obstruction at that end of the vent pipe.

 

The water heater is actually relatively new (2013, before I purchased the home).

 

Why the roof? This is in the basement, so shouldn't it vent at the lower level?

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The water heater is actually relatively new (2013, before I purchased the home).

 

Why the roof? This is in the basement, so shouldn't it vent at the lower level?

 

No, roof in Ohio.

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Went over tonight and found out the tenants haven't used the gas in the house since February- they've been boiling water to shower and space heaters because they couldn't afford gas. Literally shocked, they pay $700 a month in rent and just bought a new car, so I never saw anything like that coming.

 

That said, the water heater was installed 10/23/13 and the name of the installer was on there. I called him and he's coming to check it out tomorrow for $50. He said it'll be around $200 to fix.

 

Other option is if he can't fix for that price, I'm doing an electric conversion and moving the gas tank to my newest rental. It's still really nice and the other one is 7/8 years old. $100 to run the 240 volt setup with material and $325 for the new tank.

 

I'll let you guys know what happens, I appreciate the help!

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If it's been that long since they used it it's most likely the vent is clogged. Almost all vent out the roof, horizontal venting out the wall can only be done in select cases such as tankless, for example. I'm sure this guy will be able to get it all figured out.

Sucks for those tenants though as electric is something like 3x as expensive as ng.

If your furnace there is still gas what's the benefit to changing over the water tank?

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Pissed away $50...the plumbing company that installed it went over this morning and called me and said "yep, it's back drafting", and to do any work at all it was $189.95 to reach his hand into the vent to see if there was a blockage. Fuck that, I can search for a dead bird myself.

 

I'm going to go over tonight and take the exhaust off to see if I can find anything- if not, electric water heater it is.

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