Another sidearm OWB question....

[tripster]

Hey all. Great forum. Used the search function for hours but cannot find info for my problem.

I have a Heatmor OWB with a sidearm on a John Wood water tank. The previous owner disconnected it because it was not working properly. I understand how it is all suppose to work, but my tank has a cold water input on the bottom and hot output on the top. No temp relief valve port. They have the sidearm connected to the bottom drain valve and the top hotwater output. Can this still work?

Thanks for any input.

Trip

 

[oneoldbanjo]

No......that connection won't work well. It may thermosiphon OK and function to heat the water as it is supposed to - but when you open the hot water faucet things will get really screwy. The water coming out of the water heater will contain some of the water from the tank - and some from the sidearm. The water coming up the sidearm will not have sufficient time to be warmed up completely and will function to reduce the temperature you get at the faucet.

If the above doesn't make sense....maybe this will help. Consider that the water is a bunch of sports fans trying to get into the stadium. When you open the faucet some of the fans will travel up through the water heater and out the top like they are used to doing - but a bunch of fans will see that they can also avoid some of the crowd and go up the sidearm and get to the top with a lot less waiting.......so they will take the sidearm route!

I have the bottom of my sidearm connected to the drain location and the top of my sidearm connected to the TP valve port on the side of the OWB....and it works just fine.

 

[tripster]

Thanks for the reply. I guess I have no choice but to upgrade my water heater. Its a bottom feeder, only a hot water out on top.

 

[upsnake]

You could put small plate hx (10 plate), inline before your water heater. It will dump hot water in to your tank. May be cheaper than buying a new water heater. (My plate hx was around 40 dollars).

Just a thought.

 

[blakey]

Hey all. Great forum. Used the search function for hours but cannot find info for my problem.

I have a Heatmor OWB with a sidearm on a John Wood water tank. The previous owner disconnected it because it was not working properly. I understand how it is all suppose to work, but my tank has a cold water input on the bottom and hot output on the top. No temp relief valve port. They have the sidearm connected to the bottom drain valve and the top hotwater output. Can this still work?

Thanks for any input.

Trip

I removed the anode rod and plumbed into there on mine.