gas water heater in garage

[mbgoss]

I am replacing a 15+yo gas water heater located in a garage. The old heater is about 61” tall (including vent hood) and is installed directly on the garage floor, so I was not surprised when the installers from Home Depot told me that I would need to replace it with a shorter heater and an 18” stand in order to bring it up to code. Fine. However, when they came to install it, they informed me that even the short heater was too tall when placed on the stand (71” together) because the heater vent combined with the furnace vent at the same height (71").

Now I’m not sure what to do. The installation tech’s only suggestion was to get an electric heater instead of gas, which I would rather not do if I can help it. The other thing that I considered was to get a tankless heater, but I’m skeptical after reading some of the comments in other posts on the site as well as reading bad product reviews elsewhere on the web.

Does anyone have any ideas? Any further advice on tankless? Anyone know of ways to avoid the 18” lift in the garage and still meet code requirements?

Here’s some more info on the current setup: The garage also has a fairly low ceiling (7.5 – 8’) because the house is a raised ranch and there is a bedroom above it. The placement of the heater and furnace would make it very difficult (if not impossible) to change the height that the w. heater and furnace vents connect because the heater vent crosses in front of the furnace and below the HVAC ducts with only about 2-3” clearance.

I have gotten an enormous amount of good information from this site in the past from just reading through other threads, so it was the first thing I thought of when I hit a dead end. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[LazyPup]

You may want to contact your local code officials and see if you can use the exception in the code.

The code states," The ignition source of the water heater must be elevated 18" above the garage floor or a room which opens to a garage EXCEPT-appliances listed as flamable vapor resistant and okay for floor installation"

Ref:
International Residential Code IRC 1307.3 & 2801.6
Uniform Plumbing Code UPC-510.1

Many of the new water heaters have a fully enclosed combustion chamber and a flame arrestor screen over the combustion air intake port, therefore they are listed as suitable for floor mounting in a garage.

[mbgoss]

Thank you! I will definitely look into it and post again when I find something out.

[SSN596]

Check with your city inspector. Here in San Diego, they did adopt a new rule which specifically exempts gas water heater with sealed combustion chambers from the requirement to be elevated. ALL water heates smaller than 60 gallons manufactured since July 2003 have been sealed combustion chamber by federal law.

As far as changing to electric, you would have to run a 240 volt dedicated circuit, and you would NOT be happy with the electric bill.

[X Y Scaling]

I'll just say that you are smart to stick to your guns and stay with gas!! Please let us know what you find out.

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[mbgoss]

Well, I talked to an inspector and he said that the current code (2003 IRC) said that the only exemptions to the 18" rule are the ones listed as "approved for floor installation" (as LazyPup cited). And his interpretation of that was that no exception would be made unless it said on the unit "Approved for Floor Installation", and he also said that he did not know of any water heaters that actually said that. Sooooo... now I'm back to square one unless anyone can tell me of any heaters that meet that requirement... Any other ideas?

[LazyPup]

I recently installed a Rheem unit that did have the required label on it.

I have also sent emails to about 5 different manufacturers explaining the problem and asking them if they have a similar label or if one is available from their distributors. I will post the results to my inquiries.

[LazyPup]

I recently installed a Rheem unit that did have the required label on it.

I have also sent emails to about 5 different manufacturers explaining the problem and asking them if they have a similar label or if one is available from their distributors. I will post the results to my inquiries.

[mbgoss]

Well, although this issue is still unresolved, I thought I'd post an update with my latest findings. I went a route similar to LazyPup and contacted A.O. Smith to see if they had a label for "floor installation". The representative who replied to my inquiry said that they, as the manufacturer, had no requirement to raise any of their water heaters above the floor regardless of the installation location, and therefore, they did not have any such label because "floor installation" was assumed for all units. I pressed them to give me a statement saying that the unit was approved for floor installation in a garage, but it seemed like they were very careful not to say it explicitly.

I emailed the inspector with the info about the label and am waiting to hear back from him. It seems pretty clear to ME that a water heater that is FVIR compliant and not required by the manufacture to be raised under any circumstances should qualify for the exception in the code. Now it just seems like an issue of whether or not the inspector will go by the intent of the code or what he interprets as the letter of the code.

[X Y Scaling]

HI MB,
Your conclusion sure makes sense. I'll be anxious to hear what you find out. Mainly because here in Florida, we have that same code. I've had my gas water heater for 18 years now and although there is no sign of failure, I know it will happen sonner than later.
thanks, Tom

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