Are these water heater conditions defects? or should I list them as recommended for further evaluation
1: interior gas fired water heater with B-vent is located in a narrow ‘utility-hallway’ in center of house about 8 feet away from electric clothes dryer. Course materials say the water heater should not draw combustion air from any room where there might be negative pressure from a dryer vent.
2: T &P drains into the drip pan and the drip pan drains into the crawlspace.
3: B-vent has a Y connection shared with a disconnected gas furnace. A single vent pipe enters a masonry chimney.
Pictures will help.
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This picture shows the abandoned gas furnace connected to the water heater using a y connection at the b vent. The beavent then goes inside a masonry chimney, which terminates on top of the roof. Just barely visible in the picture is the edge of the clothes dryer.
One of the issues regarding your specific questions that I see/can think of would be lack of vents to supply make up air. Was there a door on the utility room, what type? were there any make up vents inside the utility room? the second issue might be with dumping drain pan into crawl. What was on/covering the floor of the crawl? you don’t want to dump the drain pan onto the floor of a vapor barrier covered crawl. Ideally, it would not terminate into crawl at all, regardless of what makes up its floor.
I once worked in a house where a very small utility room was behind a solid door in a clothes closet inside a bedroom. The utility room had no make up air. It was nuts, I told the owner, no idea if they did anything about it.
There are no make up vents. The interior hallway is also sort of an informal utility room with washer and dryer. So air can enter from a 3’ wide hallway on either end, the hallway is roughly 3’ x 15’, open to the kitchen and the living room on the ends.
That’s the only problem I can see. Water heater drain pans should terminate into a floor drain or the outside.
OK, I thought the course materials say that two B vent pipes cannot enter the flue without vertical separation. A ‘Y’ connection in a B vent with two gas appliances is OK?
You may be thinking of the vent connectors terminating into a chimney. It wasn’t done this way years ago. I wouldn’t call this out as you cannot expect a change in the chimney to reflect new codes. Now if the chimney is being removed and a new one installed that is a different matter.
thanks for your help. I really appreciate it. This was a mock inspection for pre licensing. Should I list removal of the unused furnace as a defect? The unused ducts must have an energy leak like having an open window, so I will note that as a defect requiring correction.
Your call David. I wouldn’t do it, if this had been a real inspection maybe the new owners would want to replace that furnace or get it back up and running. Just make a note that the furnace did not operate using normal controls. Often we don’t have input from the owners about the furnace condition. Most inspectors are in the home inspecting by themselves.
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Best of luck David. Now a “inspector” from Canada is going to chime in and ask you model numbers of the water heater and furnace. He will have no REAL helpful information to offer you. He will likely list the size of the water heater and think he’s providing some kind of help. Best to do what everyone here does…ignore him🤣
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We’ll be right back after this commercial break… 
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WAFI alert!
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