Creative water heater removal?

[dejswa]

I need to remove a 75 gal gas water heater and replace with a 50 gallon. The tank is inside a hallway closet in a home. The problem is that the tank will not fit out the closet door! Seems that the prior owner remodeled and built the closet around the water heater. Dummy! But now I have to fix it.

The footprint of the closet is a square around 30" with about 1.5" open space between the tank and walls / door. The door jamb takes up about three inches on the right and left and thus I need about and extra 3 inches of opening in order to get the tank out of the closet.

I am looking at either taking a saw to the door opening vs some ingenious way of disassembling a rather large water tank inside a small closet in a house. Someone recommended removing the outer shell with shears and tearing off insulation to get to the inner tank. Thinking about that or cutting a 'wedge' out of it with a sawzall and crushing it with a couple of 10,000# ratchet straps wrapped around it.

Any creative ideas here? Don't want to make too much smoke or dust.

 

[inveresk]

A Stihl saw with a metal blade or a chain saw and accept you'll have to throw away the chain.

 

[Egon]

Check how much you gain if the shell and insulation disappear.

Then consider an angle grinder with a metal blade.

 

[forgeblast]

going to be a pain either way. What is the least painful? pull the sheetmetal and insulation off and grind it long ways like a bananna. That way you can get it through the door, also measure the new one to make sure it will fit(buddy of mine had this happen to him). good luck sounds like a pain.

 

[Craig Clayton]

I agree with removing the outer tin shell and fiberglas insulation. One story I heard in the trade was a plumber was electrocuted will working on a water heater, I can not be 100% sure how but something got missed. Check that the fuses are removed and that they are truely for the water heater and not feed from a sub panel. Use a tester, but test the tester first in a KNOW live circuit then check each hot lead to ground (the copper pipe must be connected to the plumbing system ). Then recheck the tester in the live circuit.
We had a contractor who had a large 12gauge metal enclosure to remove. At first they thought cutting torches were the answer, they blew our smoke detectors apart. Then they used minigrinders smoke and stink set off smoke detectors. Finally good quality sawzall blades brought it down with much less mess and it was fast. If you cut a large inspection slice out of the front, then that will let you cut as you think best.
Craig Clayton

 

[Boiler74]

I would pull the trim and see if you can gain the 3" by removing the door. You can be gentle and do this without much dust. Then reinstall. Doors can be a little tricky to install, but doable.

Otherwise, cut the top off with a sawzall by spinning the heater. Then cut the bottom off. I'd think you'd be able to then distort the tank into an oval, especially with the help of a clamp. That would be the smallest amounts of dust creating cuts I can think of.

I'd pull the door if it were me though.

Josh

 

[trumpeter]

Be sure that you have the hot and the cold water lines bonded together with a wire or strap befor you disconnect the water lines from the tank. The reason for this is there is always the possibility of some electric going through the the piping. If you have a short in the house anywhere it could br going to ground. Be careful. As far as getting the water heater out, I don't mind working with wood, I'd take the door and framing out then reinstall it.

 

[CurlyDave]

I would strongly consider pulling the door & frame which will gain you over 2".

If you strip the outer skin and insulation just from 2 sides, you should be able to get it out.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

...also measure the new one to make sure it will fit.

That was my first thought. There's no sense going to all the effort to cut up the old one if you're just going to have to take out the door jamb anyway to get the new one in. As a point of reference, I have a 50 gallon Whirlpool water heater. I just measured it, and it's 24" diameter.

 

[Willl]

Ditto on removing door and frame.

Much easier.

 

[aczlan]

Take pictures... We like pictures

Aaron Z

 

[adjusterr]

I would recommend removing the door, frame even a portion of the wall. If you have hard water in your area, the interior of the water heater will be loaded with lime deposits, a real mess to cut through.

 

[Brandon1107]

Another vote for the door. There may be quite a few shims behind the frame. Pull the trim off the front and measure your rough opening, you might have enough there. It's the easiest way and a quick answer for you. We like pictures here.

 

[PILOON]

Re-installing the door/frame is far easier than the mess you'll create cutting up the tank.

You won't believe the crud you will find coming out of an old water tank.
In all probability you'd end up having to repaint adjacent walls re surface flooring etc etc. not to mention the vocabulary you'll create.
In fact I strongly recommend you cap the inlet/outlets to avoid spills.

 

[MikeD74T]

Start at top center with a sawsall & cut across & down one side, rotate 180 degrees & repeat. Make a horizontal cut about 6" off the floor to release two halves from the bottom. Remaining bottom can be cleaned of sediment then cut in half to remove. Rationale: Any way you remove the door you've created 3 hours work that may not be necessary or even enough. The tank is junk anyway & will be much lighter in 3 pieces. Disclaimer -this won't work with a stone lined tank, i.e. Sepco. MikeD74T

 

[dejswa]

Thanks for all the useful comments. I knew you guys would come through for me! I will post photos and update you.

 

[JimWalch]

mythbusters can help
YouTube - Mythbusters Water Heater Explosion

 

[Lloyd_E]

What is the tank sitting on? What is below it? Could you remove floor and drop it out and replace floor with a trap door etc for future swap outs.

 

[Gio]

Switch to a tankless water heater located somewhere else and turn your old water heater into a giant piggybank :laughing:

 

[RogerMc]

One other thought. I would agree to remove the door and trim first and see if that give you enough room. If not and they used jack studs I would cut the drywall back 1 1/2" on each side and remove the jack studs that will give you another 3". Change the heater, nail back the studs and strips of drywall and the trim should cover it all up.

Roger