Removing heater from equipment pad

[changeyez]

I have an old rusted out heater that I want to remove from the equipment pad. It doesn't work and it also appear to be leaking water since the water still flows through it. I plan to re-plumb and bypass the heater.

The equipment pad is higher than the IG pool. Do I need to do anything special before I go and start cutting the PVC to bypass the heater? Drain anything, etc?

Here is a photo of the pad. The light red highlighted area is the proposed bypass. Once this is complete I will remove the gas line (already shut off at inline shutoff valve) and scrap the heater.

 

[JVTrain]

Haha. I have to laugh because that's the same heater I currently have. Mine still works... but I only use it about 3 times a year for a day or two.

Anyway, looks like a good plan. You don't need to do anything special to the heater before starting. Maybe open the drain valve on the side of the unit to let the water drain out of the heating element but doesn't matter much if you're throwing it out. See if you can get a local recycling place to take the heater for recycling.

 

[bobby1017]

Not much to add but don't often see anyone from Petaluma here. Since it is above the pool level I don't believe you need to shut any valves, looks pretty straight forward.

 

[changeyez]

Work is done:

Will having so many elbow joints be an issue? Could it restrict the flow too much?

I may have a small leak in one of the elbow joints. Deciding whether to use Pool Putty to fix it or cut it out and shorten the center pipe from the return manifold and re-pipe with 2 less elbow joints.