Rusted out heater - Need Advice on Check Valve

[wedward]

After the freeze this year I inspected the heater before lighting it back up and saw the bottom section pretty rusted out. I contacted my home warranty to check into repair, in hopes it could be fixed. The technician took pics and then said it was installed incorrectly, that a check valve was required between the heater and SWG. I've read through several posts here saying something similar and then today's featured question on plumbing in a SWG where the advice was it is NOT needed.
Maybe I'm misreading one or the other, but would love to know what is the best answer here. The SWG is after the gas heater in my equipment, so when I replace the heater (ugh) check-valve or no? I'm leaning towards doing it anyway, but am kind of interested to know also if the tech had a legit issue to report, or if they just found something they could latch onto to avoid repair or replacing it.

 

[Bperry]

After the freeze this year I inspected the heater before lighting it back up and saw the bottom section pretty rusted out. I contacted my home warranty to check into repair, in hopes it could be fixed. The technician took pics and then said it was installed incorrectly, that a check valve was required between the heater and SWG. I've read through several posts here saying something similar and then today's featured question on plumbing in a SWG where the advice was it is NOT needed.
Maybe I'm misreading one or the other, but would love to know what is the best answer here. The SWG is after the gas heater in my equipment, so when I replace the heater (ugh) check-valve or no? I'm leaning towards doing it anyway, but am kind of interested to know also if the tech had a legit issue to report, or if they just found something they could latch onto to avoid repair or replacing it.

they just found something to latch onto in order to avoid paying for the warranty. Pretty common with home warranties (which aren’t really warranties, don’t get me started on those evil scams).

my heater is also rusted out even before I had a SWG so it’s a pretty common failure.
it’s a good idea to have the check valve,but if the pump runs 24x7 there’s no way for water to back up from the SWG into the heater. Even if it doesn’t run 24x7, the SWG won’t generate anything with the pump off so it’s unlikely to have caused the damage.

 

[Jimrahbe]

W,

Total Bull Feathers!!!

This just proves the guy that looked at your heater has no clue how a salt cell works.. The check valve is there to prevent very low pH acid water from a Tab Feeder from feeding back into the heater when the pump is off.. When a SWCG off, it is off.. there is nothing there to drain back... Sigh!!

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[HeyEng]

they just found something to latch onto in order to avoid paying for the warranty. Pretty common with home warranties (which aren’t really warranties, don’t get me started on those evil scams).

my heater is also rusted out even before I had a SWG so it’s a pretty common failure.
it’s a good idea to have the check valve,but if the pump runs 24x7 there’s no way for water to back up from the SWG into the heater. Even if it doesn’t run 24x7, the SWG won’t generate anything with the pump off so it’s unlikely to have caused the damage.

This x1000. There is seldom a good reason to get a home warranty as they tend to be pretty shady. My DW is in the RE business and warns her clients about these "deals"

 

[wedward]

W,

Total Bull Feathers!!!

This just proves the guy that looked at your heater has no clue how a salt cell works..

Thanks,

Jim R.

Thanks - That's exactly what I thought as he was saying it was "improperly installed". I had hopes he would help fix it so did not argue...
thanks for the clarification!

 

[Bperry]

Thanks - That's exactly what I thought as he was saying it was "improperly installed". I had hopes he would help fix it so did not argue...
thanks for the clarification!

He still charged you the service fee to come out though I bet.

 

[wedward]

He still charged you the service fee to come out though I bet.

LOL I had to pay that to even get them started! My old home warranty saved my butt a lot in CA (house from 1959) but I am starting to agree with you on them with this house here. Especially since I'm basically waiting for the two water heaters in the attic to start leaking and ruin everything - which has to happen before they fix those or find a reason not to replace them...

 

[Bperry]

LOL I had to pay that to even get them started! My old home warranty saved my butt a lot in CA (house from 1959) but I am starting to agree with you on them with this house here. Especially since I'm basically waiting for the two water heaters in the attic to start leaking and ruin everything - which has to happen before they fix those or find a reason not to replace them...

Not sure of your contract but my contract said that replacing the appliance meant that they’d give me some money to replace it. Contract said they had some power in determining how much it was worth. They wanted to give me about 20% of the cost of a new appliance (oven in that case).