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Crdodd's avatar
Crdodd
Explorer
May 17, 2014

Problems removing water heater

Due to poor winterization, my tankless water heater busted. I am trying to remove the unit, but having problems. I disconnected the gas line, but do not see any place to disconnect the other lines. It seems it should pull out of the hole and then give me access to the connections. But it won't pull all the way out. Help needed.

I have the new unit already. The connections are on the back side except for the gas line that passes thru the back wall. I am really confused. There is no panel to remove without cutting a hole, so there is no designed access to reach the back side.
  • Mine are located behind the drawer under the frig. See if yours is the same.
  • You may have to remove a panel to access the back side of the water heater to get to the water lines. They can be hidden some times. Might have to lift up a bed/ chair/ or some other sort of thing to get to them.
  • Tankless :H


    Directly opposite from where WH is outside will be the location of backside of WH.
    Behind drawers, inside a cabinet etc.

    Locate and gain access....removing drawers, panel etc. to disconnect water lines.
    They need to be disconnected before unit can be removed.

    I'm still questioning the 'tankless'........who installed it vs the OEM DSI 10 gallon standard WH with tank?
  • This is OEM. It was an option on the Wildcats in 2011. It was supposed to be an upgrade, but the general public felt otherwise. For us, it has been really good. It is really nice to never run out of hot water with 4 people taking showers. We never had any problems at all until this issue due to me not getting all the water out. Montana is much less forgiving than Houston, TX.

    So I pulled one piece of panelling off, then cut a hole in the next panelling behind that, and got to the fittings and back of the unit. It must have been assembled prior to all the skin being put on.

    Thanks for the help. Any advice on putting the new one back in will be much appreciated.
  • Crdodd wrote:
    Any advice on putting the new one back in will be much appreciated.
    If you use a Sharkbite type fitting instead of a conventional threaded fitting, you can make it much easier to locate and connect (push heater onto pipe connections rather than using a wrench).