How to Make Sure Your Water Heater is Venting Properly 

In the video at 2:20, the water he's talking about is just rain water. If the roof/vent doesn't have proper sealing, then every time it rains water will leak into the home through the place where the vent goes through. If you are not having rainwater issues, than you are probably seeing condensation, like you thought (unless the dripping is coming from some weird leak that is entirely unrelated to the water heater vent). The exhaust gasses from a water heater contain a lot of moisture, because H2O is actually one of the byproducts of the combustion reaction. If those exhaust gasses cool down a lot, the condensation will form inside the vent and drip down. This is more common when it is cold outside, but there could be other factors at play. If the water heater is being used heavily and having to heat up a full tank of cold water frequently, this increases the likelihood of condensation. In addition, if the vent is especially long or there is air conditioning blowing on the vent, that can be a potential cause as well. Hope this helps!

You need to check with your local jurisdiction to be sure you are abiding by all locally-adopted codes and ordinances. That being said, the International Residential Code (which is widely adopted by many states in the U.S.) speaks to this matter in section 503.6.4. You can read the full code here: up.codes/viewer/texas/irc-2015/chapter/24/fuel-gas#G2427.6.3 In essence, since your gas vent would be located less than 8 feet from a vertical wall, it would need to terminate not less than 2 feet above the highest point of the roof in a 10 foot radius. For a job like this, I definitely recommend checking with your local building department to have a permit pulled and inspection done upon completion.

Thanks for the comment, Andrei! Unfortunately, it does sound like you need to bring your water heater venting up to code. Back-drafting appliances can result in carbon monoxide inside the home, which is a dangerous situation. Because atmospheric vented gas appliances rely on the natural buoyancy of hot air to carry the exhaust out of the home, having a water heater vent by itself into a masonry chimney will often cool the exhaust down too much before it has a chance to exit the home - effectively blocking the vent with it's own exhaust. When a licensed, local contractor does the work, I highly recommend having the new vent inspected by your municipality's building inspector.

@@LegacyPlumbing thank you very much for your reply. Would you recommend tankless or power vent tank?

@@andreilesiuk9538 Those are both good options, but there are pros and cons. In either case, the PVC venting would have to be run to the exterior and terminated properly. The ease of that depends on the layout of the space and where the heater is located. Tankless heaters are more efficient with gas usage over time, but they require a much higher instantaneous gas demand than tank-style water heaters. This typically means some gas piping needs to be upgraded or installed to make it work properly and not starve other gas appliances in your home. Again, the difficulty of this depends on the existing layout of your gas system and the location of the heater. If your existing tank water heater is pretty new, it may make sense to invest in upgrading its vent system instead of the potentially higher expense of moving to a different style of water heater. If your existing tank is pushing 10 years or more, or if you have other long-term reasons for switching, it may be better to look at different options at this point.

@@LegacyPlumbing this was very informative! thank you !

Sorry to hear that! An electric water heater will not be burning anything during normal operation. If you are smelling something that resembles a burning smell, you need to address that right away. If it smells more like a sewer smell, then there might be sewer gas leaking through a broken vent pipe or dried p-trap near the water heater. Oftentimes the water heater is located near the laundry washing machine, and that drain pipe may be the source of the sewer smell. Sometimes, the water heater T&P relief valve and/or drain pan can run to what is called an "indirect waste" which is a hub designed to drain any leak at the water heater directly to the sewer system. If that indirect waste is connected to a P-Trap, then the sewer smell could be coming from there. I hope this helps. Bottom line is there should NOT be a sewer smell coming from a properly maintained and functioning plumbing system, so it is probably a good idea to follow this up until it gets resolved. Again, if you are ever smelling a burning type smell coming from the electric water heater, that needs to be addressed urgently as it could possibly be a fire hazard.

The short answer is that it depends a lot on the situation. If you are replacing a normal gas tank water heater like the ones in the video, you usually will not have to run new vent pipe unless the old pipe is damaged or incorrectly installed. The double wall venting is pretty standard. If you are moving a water heater or installing one in a different location, there are a lot of possibilities depending on the setup, but the plumber will often install all of the vent piping up through the roof - including cutting a hole through the roof decking and installing a flashing under the existing shingles. However, if the roof is a steep pitch, difficult to access like above the second floor, or made out of specialty materials, you will probably have to hire a roofing company to install the roof flashing. Of course, if you are moving the water heater to a different location, then you will have a hole through the roof where the old water heater vent went through. So you will probably need a roofing company anyway to take care of that.

Although often recommended, most residential gas ranges are not required to be installed with a vent to the outdoors by most local codes. It still a good idea though for safety and to help clear cooking fumes. Check with your local code official for the authoritative word in your location.

That varies based on several factors such as vent size and roof pitch. You can read chapter 24 of the IRC for more information. (The IRC is the one of the more widely adopted residential construction code standards.) Here is the specific section that deals with gas appliance vent terminations. up.codes/viewer/texas/irc-2015/chapter/24/fuel-gas#G2427.6.3 Of course, check with your local jurisdiction for the final word. In general the vent will need to have an overall minimum height of 5 feet above the top of the water heater itself and will likely extend from 2 feet to 5 feet above the roof itself depending on the roof slope. If it is closer than 8 feet to a vertical wall, it may have to extend up above that wall. as well.

Thanks for the question, Elijah! It really depends on what kind of what heater you have. Do you have any more specifics? All gas water heaters produce exhaust gasses. All have to follow certain rules to make sure they don't start collecting in the living space of a home. In warm parts of the U.S., gas tankless water heaters located outside the home on the exterior wall are common. These typically don't have any sort of additional venting installed. They just vent directly to the outdoors. However, there are certain installation requirements that restrict the location of one of these units so that it isn't close to a house vent or window, and etc... For a tank-style gas water heater outdoors, there are still code requirements on running additional venting if the water heater is next to the house. This is to ensure that the exhaust gasses are released in an area where they cannot get into the home. As always, check with your local building code inspector to make sure your installation abides by local requirements.

First off, definitely check with your local city's building code official to make sure that you are following all locally adopted codes. They do vary from region to region. It's hard to get a good grasp of your particular situation without seeing it, but here are a couple of things that may be relevant: - Modern gas water heaters are FVIR rated. This means they have safety features that prevent the flame (both pilot and burner) from spreading outside of the combustion chamber if there is a gas leak or flammable fumes. Typically the space does not need to be fireproofed as long as manufacturer-specified clearances are followed for the water heater venting. - Water heater venting (installed properly and up to code) prevents carbon monoxide from leaking and filling up the space where the water heater is located. Different codes dictate where the water heater is located and whether it can draw air from the space around it not. If an atmospheric water heater is located in a sealed room, then ducts will need to be added to bring fresh combustion air in from the outside. If you have any specific questions, feel free to reach out!

@@LegacyPlumbing Thank You !

If a bird is stuck in the exhaust vent for your gas water heater, a licensed plumber should be able to take care of this for you. It is also important to inspect the vent cap and make sure it is suitable to minimize this kind of occurrence.

@@LegacyPlumbing thank you

Are you referring to back-draft or "spillage" of vent gasses from non-sealed vent system like the one in the video? If so, this is definitely an important topic! Back-drafting can be caused by a few different things, but it is usually pretty easy to check for. I would recommend following these instructions for how to perform a "spillage" test: globalimageserver.com/FetchDocument.aspx?ID=a3c298fd-975c-42eb-80b1-afbc7565361a This is a technical service bulletin published by Rheem, one of the largest water heater manufacturers in the U.S. If there are plastic collars around the water inlets and outlets on top of the tank, these will oven be melted or show signs of discoloration where they are closest to the vent if the water heater is back-drafting or experiencing spillage. If you have any specific questions about this, feel free to reach out!

What specifically would you like to know about gas water heater venting?

@@LegacyPlumbing like the previous post I thought there was some type of apparatus for seeing if my water heater was venting properly. Like a smoke machine to follow the air flow. Mine is about eight years old and we can smell smoke in the basement. I turned it off yesterday morning and the fumes smell is gone. Going to check the chimney to see if animals build a nest.

@@Doc02864 Definitely sounds like something that needs to be looked into. I would recommend following these instructions for how to perform a "spillage" test: globalimageserver.com/FetchDocument.aspx?ID=a3c298fd-975c-42eb-80b1-afbc7565361a This is a technical service bulletin published by Rheem, one of the largest water heater manufacturers in the U.S. If there are plastic collars around the water inlets and outlets on top of the tank, these will oven be melted or show signs of discoloration where they are closest to the vent if the water heater is backdrafting or experiencing spillage.

@@LegacyPlumbing Thanks. Definitely have spillage. The plastic collars are warped with suit-sout everywhere. I placed a candle a couple inches away from the vent and it looked perfect. The flame tilted about 25° towards the vent. I fired up the furnace, bathroom vent and kitchen hood and it still looked good. Very puzzling to say the least.

@@Doc02864 Sometimes these issues can be tricky to pinpoint because there are many variables which may make it an intermittent issue. I'm assuming this is an atmospheric vent, natural-gas fired tank-style water heater? If you are seeing black soot buildup around the vent on top of the water heater, that is another bad sign. If a water heater is combusting improperly and producing soot, that is frequently associated with excessive carbon production which can be dangerous if it is venting into the house. There could be multiple issues at play here with the venting, combustion air, and burner function of the water heater.

Thank you for your comment, Hivicar! They aren't common in the North Texas area. Did you have a question about them?