Water Heater cold water hose fitting.

[Beachcamper]

I was doing my usual inspections and checking behind the water heater. This hose does not look good and I fear with up coming travel, that crimp will loosen. Would like to take care of this before we take off next month. Can someone confirm if this is the right brass fitting to order?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...XPTQG1EBE&th=1



I will also get a new hose as soon as I figure out where it attaches to on the other side.

[Yoda]

I believe it is a swivel 90, but cant tell from the pictures. If not you have the correct one. Home Depot /Lowe's has them in their brass fittings stock. The other end most likely goes to your Nautilus panel. I'm sure others know more than I do.

Hope this helps

[Cate&Rob]

Beachcamper
Hi Vivian,

That is a classic “about to fail” soft hose. The best (and most permanent) solution would be to replace this hose with Pex pipe.

Rob

[Beachcamper]

Beachcamper
Hi Vivian,

That is a classic “about to fail” soft hose. The best (and most permanent) solution would be to replace this hose with Pex pipe.

Rob

Yes, I plan to replace that hose with Pex Rob. I wish GD would have used pex throughout. Loews and HD are about an hour away, just wondering if that fitting linked is correct for the WH? Do you know? Or just leave the plastic one and reuse it.

[Yoda]

Beachcamper
Hi Vivian,

That is a classic “about to fail” soft hose. The best (and most permanent) solution would be to replace this hose with Pex pipe.

Rob

Beachcamper

Rob is correct. If you go to Pex pipe you can uses Shark Bite fittings to make the job easier. If you go this way be sure to pick up a fitting release tool. https://www.homedepot.com/p/SharkBit...0LFA/202270514 https://www.homedepot.com/p/SharkBit...710A/100638139

[Beachcamper]

Yoda, I do have a crimping tool and crimps. Are those shark bite fittings better than crimps? Definitely going with Pex.

[Cate&Rob]

Yes, I plan to replace that hose with Pex Rob. I wish GD would have used pex throughout. Loews and HD are about an hour away, just wondering if that fitting linked is correct for the WH? Do you know? Or just leave the plastic one and reuse it.

The linked fitting looks correct. It is difficult to tell for sure from the picture. I would be inclined to not mess with the fitting . . . just replace the hose with Pex.

Rob

[Beachcamper]

Thanks guys! Appreciate your time to reply. For reference, here is the same hose 2 years ago when I replaced the check valve on top. Too bad it was not replaced with Pex.

[Yoda]

Yoda, I do have a crimping tool and crimps. Are those shark bite fittings better than crimps? Definitely going with Pex.

I too have the Pex the rings & crimps and sometimes I have trouble getting a good crimp at times (hand strength) . With the shark bite you can take the fitting apart if needed. No issues so far using both. One think I have found is the plastic barb fittings to get brittle over time and had them break. I keep the brass ones on hand. There is one thing strange in your photo. Top fitting is a swivel, bottom is not and probably could be a straight fitting too. Was it replaced at some point? My water heater has swivel at both locations if I remember correctly.

Hope this helps

[Beachcamper]

I too have the Pex the rings & crimps and sometimes I have trouble getting a good crimp at times (hand strength) . With the shark bite you can take the fitting apart if needed. No issues so far using both. One think I have found is the plastic barb fittings to get brittle over time and had them break. I keep the brass ones on hand. There is one thing strange in your photo. Top fitting is a swivel, bottom is not and probably could be a straight fitting too. Was it replaced at some point? My water heater has swivel at both locations if I remember correctly.

Hope this helps

For now will keep using the crimp tool I have. It does take some strength but I have been able to make it work for a few projects. That top plastic elbow is stock, I did replace the check valve from plastic to brass 2 years ago. Looking at picture again, the white plastic elbows look to be the same to me. Going to head your advice and buy some more of those fittings just in case.

[Beachcamper]

The linked fitting looks correct. It is difficult to tell for sure from the picture. I would be inclined to not mess with the fitting . . . just replace the hose with Pex.

Rob

Rob, thank you again for posting this plumbing parts PDF it was handy to have that along when I went to Lowe’s yesterday. I also went ahead and purchased the plug and cap to have in hand to isolate a line for repairs. Could not find the female swivel fitting but will keep looking somewhere else. For now having the cap and plug will be nice.



Question to you, I went ahead and purchased 10’ of Pex to replace the hot water soft hose. Should I do this now or just keep hose monitored? It looks fine for now just concerned about disturbing even more at the back of the Nautilus. But it is not impossible to do.

[Beachcamper]

Finished changing out cold intake soft hose to PEX. I do not wish this on my worst enemy as it requires 2 people and working in very tight space, freaking out about disturbing the rats nest behind the nautilus and sometimes uncooperative crimps that won’t open. But it’s done, no leaks for last 24 hours will keep monitoring. Decided against doing the hot intake hose it looks fine for now.



The PEX has a limited flex I decided to extend out of the Nautilus as shown with red arrow so that I could run to intake shown above using a brass L fitting. Hopefully this is OK? I did support this with cable ties to adjacent lines that would prevent stress when traveling. I don’t like that the fittings are above the water pump wires. I plan to tuck them inside the foam pipe insulation after I finish with monitoring. Pipe insulation is to quiet water pump lines, it mostly works but not 100% quieter.

[Jlawles2]

I think it was Rob that had a nice setup on his pump. He added a layer of isolation using isolation dampers and plywood, then used what looked like washing machine hoses to plumb the pump into the system. Washing machine hoses are readily available at almost any big box or local hardware store if something should happen.

[Cate&Rob]

Finished changing out cold intake soft hose to PEX. I do not wish this on my worst enemy as it requires 2 people and working in very tight space, freaking out about disturbing the rats nest behind the nautilus and sometimes uncooperative crimps that won’t open. But it’s done, no leaks for last 24 hours will keep monitoring. Decided against doing the hot intake hose it looks fine for now.

Hi Vivian,

The repair looks good . . . this is probably now the best part of the whole plumbing system LOL! There is still a lot of soft hose in those pictures!

If the soft hose bends around something, don't be concerned about adding elbows to the replacement Pex run to route it securely and neatly. I added a lot of elbows in my complete plumbing system rebuild (mostly to get the water lines out of the necessary furnace removal path) and was quite surprised that this made almost no difference to water flow at the faucets. I also added threaded plumbing connections to every device (water heater, accumulator tank, water pump, etc) so that anything can be removed without tools, if need be for service. This also made little or no difference to water flow.

Rob

[Beachcamper]

Hi Vivian,

The repair looks good . . . this is probably now the best part of the whole plumbing system LOL! There is still a lot of soft hose in those pictures!

If the soft hose bends around something, don't be concerned about adding elbows to the replacement Pex run to route it securely and neatly. I added a lot of elbows in my complete plumbing system rebuild (mostly to get the water lines out of the necessary furnace removal path) and was quite surprised that this made almost no difference to water flow at the faucets. I also added threaded plumbing connections to every device (water heater, accumulator tank, water pump, etc) so that anything can be removed without tools, if need be for service. This also made little or no difference to water flow.

Rob

Rob, I am relieved you approve of my Pex repair. I will tackle the soft hose one at a time it is daunting. Still don’t know how to route the shower hoses if ever I needed to. I was on the other forum and saw many of your posts but none of the PDF’s you had posted with pictures of all you previous mods don’t come up. If you ever decide to go into business modifying people’s GD plumbing fiasco, you would be rich! LOL!

I have a question for you regarding the parts to isolate plumbing kit. I can’t find the MPT plug only NPT, is this for isolating toilet if there was a leak?