Strange direct vent

[Denray]

Saw this strange looking direct vent water heater a while back.

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[hoosier inspector]

Is it a closed combustion unit for a mobile home? If it is, the tank may have an air intake on the bottom that's sitting on the floor.

[John Kogel]

Hey, Robert "you can observe a lot by looking", I observe a concrete floor under that water heater. []

You are right about the mobile home heaters. Some models have that hidden air intake.

I think this one is a direct vent unit with the new flame guard feature, which allows them to be plopped on the floor like that even in a garage. Never seen that model, tho.

They forgot to install a sediment trap on the gas line and a TPRV discharge tube.

[Denray]

It looked way different to me. That lower enclosure does not seem that air tight. I pulled it off and there was a lot of rust and a yellow flame so I called it out for that.

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[hausdok]

It's just a plain ol' direct vent gas water heater. Nothing strange or unusual about it. It has a concentric vent that allows combustion air in and exhaust gases out. I see them all the time.

Of course it's got a yellow flame; you opened it up. Close it up and the flame changes color.

It looks like the first three digits in the serial are G98, so it was manufactured in July 1998 which makes it pretty danged old, so finding a lot of rust sloughed off the inside surface of the flue would be about par for the course.

A 14 year old water heater is like grandpa in the nursing home under 24 hour hospice watch. You were lucky it didn't fail as you were backing out of the driveway.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Brandon Whitmore]

Of course it's got a yellow flame; you opened it up. Close it up and the flame changes color.

It's that color because there's incomplete combustion due to a dirty burner. I pull and clean those burners pretty much every day, and can go from awful looking flames to perfect blue flames with just a quick cleaning.