What are your thoughts on this installation?
Gas was OFF at time of inspection.
Gas Natural draft with no draft hood - not good
Are you sure? Normally a natural draft water heater has little slots in the top for the draft hood legs to fit into. I don’t see any. But then they could be covered with corrosion.
To the OP. Any model or serial numbers? Is it a shared vent with the furnace? A far back picture?
Its a Richmond, I’m away from the office now and don’t have model # off hand, there are NO slots or mounting holes in the top that you would typically see a diverter mount to, sorry for the lack of far back picture, its the lack of mounting holes for the diverter that through me off too
In a nutshell I wrote up that the flue does not appear to be correctly installed, there is no diverter, and no way to check for proper draft or carbon monoxide because gas is off, recommended a qualified HVAC technician further evaluate and repair as needed after gas is turned on, and included some extra info on what kind of harm can be caused if a diverter is required but not present.
Why an HVAC instead of a plumber?
sorry I actually said Plumber* or* HVAC tech and included HVAC tech because I had also written up some issues with the HVAC system that were apparent without even having any gas available.
I would say that flue pipe is covering the slots, if you didnt see any other form of induced draft mechanics then i would think its a natural draft model that is incorrectly vented with no hood vent. Just run the model number and verify this.
Is this in a Manufactured/Modular home? Did you check to see if the WH has a bottom air intake?
Very good question, but no its a slab home. Makeup air fed to utility closet through ceiling from attic.
This was from a couple weeks ago,
I returned first thing this morning for a re-inspect of electrical repairs, and to also inspect furnace and water heater performance because Citizens Gas (Indianapolis) had turned it on this week, and found a WARNING tag attached to it by the gas company stating it needs a Draft Diverter installed. They left the gas to the home on but turned off the gas to the water heater.
Thanks guys, and thanks for reminding me of bottom air intake Jeffrey cause I forgot all about that!