I have to replace the valve entering the house, and am being told by the local water district that I need to install a backflow preventer too. I’ve also been told that I should install an expansion tank to take the pressure off the system when we’re away.
A local plumber quoted me $400 for the job. I’m considering doing it myself.
Can anyone recommend brands/ sizes etc which I should use if I do this?
Its a 3BR, 2bath on city water in Maine.
Replies
pay the man. thats a good price thatll be hard to beat doing it yourself.
I am new to this site but if that price includes parts and larbor it's a pretty good deal.
Ask him if he recommends a bladder tank instead of an expansion tank. I think it would be a better choice because it can't become waterlogged and cease to function as an ordinary expansion tank would.
I would recommend installing a pressure gauge somewhere in the system.
Generally a small (about 2 gallon) expansion tank should suffice. The ones I've seen have a bladder or piston in them, like a big hammer arrester.
Thank you all for your input. I'm a relatively new home owner and are renovating the place so I've trying my hand at all sorts of new things.
Perhaps this isn't something to be adventurous about.
If you're comfortable with plumbing, the situation isn't too cramped, and the pipes are copper, it's not a real big task. The expansion tank can be installed just about anywhere (just not on a hot water line or within NN feet of the water heater). Some of them are even designed for clamp-on mounting, like "vampire" you use to hook up a refrigerator. The check valve is the slightly more challenging part -- not something to begin work on on Saturday night, since you'll have water shut off in the entire house until it's done.
check valves and backflow preventers are 2 very direrent things. if the price quoted is for a check valve then HO should try it.
Please stop using self tapping saddle tee valves. I have yet to see an old one that has not failed to some degree.
as for the expansion tank. it needs to be a percentage of the size of your water heater. (20%+-???) imagine your tank has gone cold. then its full and cold then you heat it.
please let the plumber do it. read some of the things in here about HHO doing plumbing. Clogged supplys, no hot, no cold, no pressure.
I've done the expansion tank job on both our houses. It's really not hard at all. You just put in a tee on a cold line and hook up the tank. I used flex lines, just like for a water heater. There's a couple sizes, I used the big ones which are about the size of a barbecue propane tank. They all have the rubber diaphragm, and come pre-charged with air to 40 PSI. I also strapped the tanks in place using the same seismic straps as for the heater. I also put in pressure gauges on both sides of the regulator. IIRC, the tanks were under $40 each.
-- J.S.