Saturday, February 7, 2009

Water Heater Flue Pipe Installation

The tools I bought for the job include one 5-blade crimper and one 3-piece snip set. The materials I needed include two 6"x24" pipe, one 4"x24" pipe, one 6"x6"x6" tee, one 6" elbow, two 4" elbow, one 6"x5" reducer, one 6"x4" reducer, 50 sheet metal screws and one duct tape. Total cost including tax: $83.81.
I removed the old pipes for the water heater as well as a section for the furnace first. Taking sheet metal screws off the old pipes is not easy. The installation can be done by one person, but a second hand will be helpful. One annoying fact is elbows are easy to fall apart when falling to ground and it is very hard to fit it back in. To prevent exhaust leakage, the crimped side of a pipe is fit into the uncrimped side of a pipe in the path of the exhaust direction. I used a 9/64" drill bit to pre-drill into the connections and then screwed sheet metal screws in. Some pressure needs to be applied when drilling into metal. I tried to wrap the connections with duct tape. However, since the pipes are very close to the furnace, they become hot when the furnace is on. I decided not to use duct tape.



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