New gas water heater installed... still no hot water?

Question

My stepdad came out to my house today with his handyman that he likes so much to look at the water heater which is outside. They were only supposed to LOOK at it to figure out what to buy. Instead they decided to install it today when I wasn't there. I wanted to be there because I was going to fix the substrate the tank was sitting on. I understand the motivation for doing it right away, but neither one of them listened to what I had to say before they did the work and never heard of a "whole house filter" I wanted to also installed at the same time. And here's the thing:

** There is still no hot water and the new heater is not level/plumb and the (not) hot water pressure is still abysmally low in the kitchen.**

1. Is it being out of level a bad thing? It's about 5 degrees leaning back 180 degrees opposite from the drain valve.

2. Is there something I can try? I have no idea since I thought a new tank would fix the hot and pressure.

MANY THANKS!!!


Previous symptoms:

Hot water pressure gradually slowed down to the kitchen to suddenly being no hot water about a week later. I thought the kitchen faucet pressure was an old faucet problem (I have to replace it). So I naively ignored that symptom. The shower pressure was much better, actually quite decent. The shower is literally 2 feet away from the tank outside.

The first day without hot water: I heard a muffled "bang" one morning from outside and the burner fired up and stayed on full time. I live in an old house, I can hear the burner fire up.

I couldn't properly flush the tank because the shut-off valve was stuck to open, but there was sediment but not a super ton of it.

Answer 1

check to see if the water lines are hooked up right it sounds like they may be backwards .....the cold should be on the right and hot on left when looking at the tank standing in the front of it. also it is possible they left the fill tube out.

Answer 2

feel the hot water pipe on the water heater while the hot water is running. if its not hot then its an instillation error. if it is hot then more than likely there is something back feeding in the house. i assume if the heater is outside you live in a warmer climate so that would eliminate an antisweat valve. is there a clothes washer? try turing off the water to that then try the water. Same for the kit faucet turn off the valves under the sink and check the bathroom. use this method until u isolate the problem. it could also be the shower valve itself.

Answer 3

I can't help the help but lets just take one thing with the water heater at a time.



Is it firing? That would explain no hot water.



Your low pressure in the kitchen is a plugged water line. It has nothing to do with the water heater. Open up the line and see how much will come out without it going through the sink valve.



From my experience, water heaters should be put over a drain, they will leak eventually.

Answer 4

You can remove the hot water heater and then shim and fix the little stand it sits on. Also add a pan under it so if it ever leaks it wont destroy the bottom part again.



After you put the water heater in line turn on the gas and light the pilot light. The gas valve is on when the handle is in line with the pipe.

Answer 5

William is correct - common gasoline is heavier than air. However, you might be smelling it from having a original AC duct with the field the place the HW heater is being hooked up. Typical gasoline smells like rotten eggs - is that the odor that you are smelling ?