Stuck Hot Water Outlet

[kiwiman]

I have an AO smith gas water heater that has a stuck hot water outlet nipple. I am trying to remove it in order to replace the anode rod.
It is really stuck guys. I am trying a lot of stuff like using a lot of liquid wrench/ pb blaster and a pipe wrench. Afraid I am gonna wreck the nipple.
i watched all the youtube videos and this is driving me crazy how hard it is stuck in there.

 

[Jeff Handy]

They are often super tight.
Especially after years of corrosion.

You might need a long pipe wrench, with a section of steel pipe slipped over the handle for more leverage.

And maybe a helper to grab the heater in a bear hug, so it can’t twist.

I occasionally have to lay the heater down on the ground, with a helper riding on it, to get a tight anode rod out.

Looks like Slim Pickens in “Dr. Strangelove!”

Maybe an impact wrench would help, I never tried it, maybe it would crack something?

 

[havasu]

Looks like Slim Pickens in “Dr. Strangelove!”

Great analogy!

 

[kiwiman]

thanks for your support. I was about the give up since i was putting all my weight on the 18in plumber wrench. I didn't have a breaker bar and was about to give up - looked around and could not find a pipe laying around. Ended up using my the floor jack handle which could not fit in the handle so i put it along the other part as shown in the photo. Was about to give up until a few tugs later i felt it move!

As you can see from my photo, AO Smith does not want to make it easy for people to maintain their water heaters
They could have easily put some teflon tape around the hot water nipple but they didnt!!! I also had to cut around the metal and remove a bunch of insulation just to reach that nipple.

Anode rod was surprisingly in better shape than I expected coming from a 5 yr old water heater. The replacement anode rod I got from AO smith was not the same length as the original (about 5-7 in shorter).

Phew. So glad this ordeal over. Spent about 2 hrs fiddling around with this hot water outlet.

 

[Jeff Handy]

Hurray!

Cool fix, but surprised that handle worked.

I would probably have wrapped a few dozen duct tape wraps near the end of the pipe wrench handle.
I guess the extra handle probably sagged that way anyways, and got stabilized.

But you can’t argue with success!

 

[Jeff Handy]

And the water heater manual likely says to “inspect” the anode rod every year, like it is so easy to pop it out for a quick peek.

Also, most basements don’t have high ceilings, so the rod can’t always come up and out.

 

[LifeFlicks]

So the AO Smith brand of hot water heater has the anode rod incorporated with the hot water nipple?

 

[TomFOhio]

Bradford White is set up like that too.

 

[Jeff Handy]

Why did you have to cut the sheet metal around the nipple?

 

[Matt30]

Why did you have to cut the sheet metal around the nipple?

I’m gonna assume to get penetrating fluid into the threads

 

[kiwiman]

So the AO Smith brand of hot water heater has the anode rod incorporated with the hot water nipple?

Yes - for some reason they put the TP valve on top which meant that the anode rod had to be part of the hot water outlet. I removed the TP valve and put it on the side which had an 3/4" NPT plug. I put 1 anode rod in the spot where the TP valve was before.

 

[kiwiman]

Why did you have to cut the sheet metal around the nipple?

I don't have a picture of it originally, but it was very compact and I wanted to get close up to the threads to spray liquid wrench / pb blaster to loosen the threads. I used a chisel to cut the metal. In the end I covered it up with the plastic red hot water cover.

 

[Jeff Handy]

Thanks, I was curious.