Hey guys I'm Roger Wakefield, LEED AP, The Expert Plumber and today thanks to the wonderful
people over at Bradford White, we're going to talk about a natural gas water heater.
What's inside of it and how it works. And we're going to talk about it right now. OK
guys we're going to start right here because this is the part of the water heater you see
when you walk up. There's two ways to tell if your water heater is a gas water heater.
First of all you've got to gas control valve. It goes down to a burner assembly. But the
thing to look at on the front is do you have a gas control valve that sticks out of the
water heater. The other thing is up on top you're going to have a three or four inch
round galvanized pipe that comes up out of the top of it. This is the flue pipe. This
is what takes those gas exhaust fumes and takes them outside the roof and gets them
out to keep you and your family from being in danger. Your gas control valve is where
you look at to light your pilot light. It's also where you have your thermostat. This
is where you set it at vacation, warm, hot, very hot. Be careful what you set it at because
the higher you set it, the quicker you can scald people. Now if you have children are
elderly people in your family you really don't want to set it too high. Leave it set low
and just know that it's going to take it a little bit longer to make water because you're
going to use more hot water at a lower temperature. Your gas control valve is where you can turn
off your water heater too. Now I recommend if your water heater is leaking and you turn
it off there. Also reach over to your gas valve on the wall turn the gas off to your
water heater and your gas will actually come in the side through either a flex connector
or a nipple with a drip leg. Nipple and a drip leg is code and that's what's going to
have to be done if you have to update yours. One thing I really like about the Bradford
White water heaters is the full metal drain valve. This is got a quarter turned ball valve
on it instead of having a handle though it has a set screw it. You take a flat blade
screwdriver stick it in the slot turn it 90 degrees and that opens it to drain it. Now
as you've seen in some other videos you need to flush your water heater at least once a
year but you only start this at either a new water heater maybe a couple of years. If your
water heaters much older than that don't start flushing it now because you could clear out
some cracks on the inside and actually make your water heater start leaking. Guys, once
again thanks to Bradford White for doing this for us. They opened up this water heater where
I can show you what's inside your gas water heater. Now we've talked about before your
cold water dip tube, that's gas or electric. It comes in it goes almost all the way the
bottom stops about six inches from the bottom and it's got little cuts in the tube. So water
actually comes out at an angle on this Defender Series to help clean out the inside of it.
This helps keep the calcium and magnesium from building up in the bottom of your water
heater. And if you can see around here on the backside that's your anode rod. Now The
Bradford White water heaters, that's also where your hot water goes out. So when you
hook up to that male adapter, the hot water comes in and goes out right at the top and
then it's anode rod down at the bottom. Now the anode rod is very important and the water
heater after the first year or so of a water heater it's a good idea to change your anode
rod out. The anode rod is actually a sacrificial rod that if there's any cracks or any microscopic
holes or anything on the inside of the tank that anode rod will sacrifice itself and plug
up that hole. Whenever you pull out the old anode rod you'll see it's like it's dissolved
from the bottom up. The good thing about it is that's what they're made for. They are
made to make your water heater last longer. On the gas water heater right here in the
middle this is your flue pipe. Now the fire is down below so your water heater actually
has a tube that goes right up the middle of it. And this is where the exhaust fumes come
from the burning gas on the bottom. Now the way that they're designed that hot gas spins
around. So all this pipe on the inside is also surface area that's used to heat your
water heater. This makes them more efficient. And as you can see they've got little paddles
built out to actually help force that heat out. That makes that surface hotter and therefore
make sure water heat faster. Now down in the bottom is where you've got your burner assembly
and your pilot light. Your pilot light is what keeps the gas lit it keeps the fire there
so it knows when it's time to light. Now your pilot light and your thermocouple are what
let this happen. Your thermocouple, actually with the pilot light, the thermocouple creates
an energy to open a valve to let the gas flow through. The neat thing about it is you can
actually unhook everything. Unhook your burner assembly from your control valve and take
it apart and slide the entire assembly out. That's how we change out the thermocouple,
that's how we change out the burner assembly. Guys another thing, see how thick the insulation
is? April 15th 2016 they had to change water heater efficiency and make them more efficient.
The way they did they made the wall thicker, they put more insulation on top. This helps
make them more efficient and makes you have more hot water. One other thing on the water
heater the T & P valve. Guys this is a critical safety device. What this does is if the water
gets too hot or there gets to be too much pressure these are made to release and let
that pressure go. That's why it's very important that they be pipe to the outside of the building
where they will not spray and scald anybody. The T & P valves are the same on gas and electric
water heaters. So guys on top of your water heater you've got your flue pipe assembly.
This is actually the chimney and collar that attaches to the top of the water heater and
then your type B, and actually inside the house you can still go single wall, I like
bringing type B pipe all the way down. It's double wall, keeps anybody from getting hurt
or scalded if they do reach in here and touch anything. But it will go up, tie onto the
vent, go out the roof. Remember to have your one inch clearance anywhere that your type
B vent pipe goes. Also on top of your water heater you got your cold water inlet, your
hot water outlet. The good thing about cold water only if you come up off it you should
have a quarter turn ball valve. This is how you shut off the water to your water heater.
That's good to know because if you have a leak on your water heater or a hot water leak
in your house, if you turn off this valve that can turn off the water and you can still
have running water in your kitchen and your toilets. I want to say thanks to the people
at Bradford White. The water heaters and the things that they've done to help me get this
information to you. Bradford White has gone above and beyond what I could ever expect
from anybody. But then again that's kind of what their water heaters do. If you hadn't
done it yet please click the subscribe button and if you want to please leave us comments
down below and let us know what you think or what information we can give you. My name's
Roger Wakefield with Texas Green Plumbing. Saving you money, one drop at a time.