Water Heater Installed

Thanks to Johnathan Jones, the water heater problems are history. I found the model I wanted online and the local Home Depot had 8 in stock. It had to be a Medium, not a Tall, or we would have needed to modify the hot and cold pipes. We bought the thing for around $610, carried it home (it's 127 pounds in the box) and hand-trucked it down the basement stairs. Draining the old tank added considerably to the water in the basement, but the sump pump at the door did its job. John made disconnecting the water and power look easy.

We wrestled the old tank toward the door, unpacked and wrestled the new one onto an insulated base (styrofoam) in a special plastic pan made for this purpose, and John made hooking it up look easy. We had to run to Home Depot for some ground wire and a ground clamp, but the new unit was quickly up and serving hot water.

The white PVC directs the pressure relief valve output to the floor (there's a drain to the right)

The next morning, the floor was largely dry. I installed the leak detector in the pan and the special WiFi module. It wouldn't let me set it up, so after three tries I contacted Rheem tech support. To my delight, they got back to me pretty quickly with alternate instructions involving my laptop. That worked, and my phone can now switch the water heater to vacation mode from anywhere in the world.

Model: Rheem XE50M12EC55U1W
Serial: M071709451
Manufactured: 2/13/2017
Bought/Installed: 3/22/2017
Electrical: 240V, dual 5500-watt elements
Warranty: 12 years parts / 3 years in home labor (warranty ends in 2029)

The owner's manual says to pull the anode every year and check it.