Gas Hot Water Heater in Empty house in winter


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Old 12-30-08, 07:27 PM
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Gas Hot Water Heater in Empty house in winter

Tenant is moving out of our rental townhome in Chicago this week and we live on the East coast, so the tenant and local friends are helping us secure the home till a new tenant is found.

The gas powered hot water heater is on the 2nd floor of the townhome. The furnace will be set to 55 degrees for the home and I was hoping that we could turn the temperature down to the lowest setting on the water heater and drain the water lines from the lower level as well. This would only leave water in the tank and with the heater on it's lowest setting should prevent the heater from freezing should the furnace fail. (hence the water lines are drained to prevent a rupture in the water lines too...)

Is there a problem with draining the water lines to the heater and leaving the heater on it's lowest setting for a couple months?? (don't want to damage it in any way)
 
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Old 12-30-08, 08:00 PM
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Gas Hot Water Heater in Empty house in winter

Why not just shut it off and drain the tank? Can you drain the entire system by opening the highest facets and the lowest first? This way you can even get rid of the scum in the bottom of the heater.

That way you are protected even if the furnace goes out because of a power or gas outage.
 
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Old 12-31-08, 04:44 PM
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I appreciate the input.

The bottom line is $$. I'd have to hire someone to go in and check it out and do a complete drain. I'm not going to fly back to the Midwest to do this and the tenant isn't comfortable draining the tank either (this based on their reaction on the phone when they were looking at the water heater)

Having them drain the upstairs lines via a downstairs bathroom and then the hose connection in side the garage (which is an even lower faucet), I thought this would be sufficient. To guard against the furnace going out, we'd leave the gas on to the water heater. I'll likely have an HVAC group come in and flush out the water heater once a new tenant is found...
But do I'm I risking any damage being done to the heater by leaving it on the lowest setting with the water lines drained???

Thanks!!
 
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Old 12-31-08, 08:44 PM
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Unfortunately, you illustrate why I would not want to be an out of town landlord. (I've been a landlord since 1986).

Draining out the water lines as you describe might help some, but you are still going to have water in the pipes that wont drain out. Water lines are actually somewhat forgiving about freezing, but toilet fixtures with water freezing in them are likely to be destroyed by the first good freeze.

Preparing a house to be protected from freezing takes some work, experience and skill. I wouldn't expect "friends" to be able to do the job, myself.

If I were you, I'd rather have the friends check in on the house every few days or a week if they will do that.

Will you use a local agent to find tenants? Perhaps that agent would look in from time to time as well, or have a contractor who can take the steps to protect the dwelling from freeze damage.

I know HUD used to have contractors come in a weatherproof foreclosed homes to their standards --- and they left warnings that no one should drain off water because sink, bath and other fixtures were protected.

Good luck.
 
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Old 01-01-09, 06:13 AM
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IMO, it's absolutely imperative that you establish some means of ensuring that the heat is on and stays on.

I inspect property for a living here in Chicago, including recently a lot of foreclosure property.

Until I had seen such properties which had gone unheated in a Chicago winter I would not have believed the amount of damage that can be done such property, or how fast it can happen, even if it is properly "winterized".

The problems seem to be related not only to temperature swings but humidity swings as well, I find properties which have not experienced "water damage" but which have paint and wallpaper peeling off the walls in sheets, paper delaminating from the gypsum backing on drywall, drywall which is popping loose from its fasteners, drywall corner bead and edging which is popping through the drywall, buckling floors, lath separating from plaster, trim separating from walls, paneling falling off walls, and a variety of just plain strange and inexplicable defects such as a house were almost every insulated thermal glass window had blown seals.

Also, lots of mold - sometimes lower half walls covered with mold in places where I would not normally expect to see water problems, were rising damp in walls not dried by heating has allowed mold growth.

These things can happen in a period of days or weeks, at one property (this was one I was looking at to purchase myself as a rehab) interior finish materials were in reasonably good condition the first time I saw it, but had dramatically deteriorated when I saw it again less than two weeks later.

Compared to the sort of damage, the cost of paying a reliable neighbor to check-in twice a day, or installing a temperature monitor and keeping a phone line on is negligible.
 

Last edited by Michael Thomas; 01-01-09 at 08:17 AM.
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Old 01-01-09, 04:36 PM
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I don't live in Chicago, but Michael Thomas's comments strike me as reasonable, rather than alarmist.

Here in Seattle things usually aren't so critical, but I don't doubt that Chicago is a whole nother story.
 
 

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