Are Water heaters worth picking up. What is inside them Any Non-ferrous metals?
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Are Water heaters worth picking up. What is inside them Any Non-ferrous metals?
Look for brass attachments. There is a small amount of copper wiring, if you want to go to the effort.
Thanks. Thats what I thought. I see a lot of them but didnt figure they would be worth the effort.
I didnt say they werent worth it. Depends on your situation. Myself, I take off the brass spigots and throw the rest in light iron. Adds quite a bit of weight for the space taken.
Au contrair, they actually are worth the effort, especially if you see a lot of them. They are worth 6 - 8 cents a pound. depending on your area. What Mick meant was to remove the non-ferrous items (brass and copper) as they are worth more, then scrap the rest as tin. If you have a water heater that weighs 100 lbs, then is is worht 6 - 8 dollars, and if you know of a lot then multiply that by that number. But for sure remove the brass and collect it for selling later as it is worth 20X what you get for the steel.
Ripping them apart is worth it. If you have the time like I do.
On the electric water heaters the thermostats/temp controls have silver contacts in them.
I definitely think they're worth it. I just got one this week - 100+lbs of shred, 2 nice pieces of copper pipe, some copper wire, and a brass valve.
I love getting hot water tanks. As mentioned, they have some brass, usually some length of copper piping still attached (if you get lucky) some can weight up to 200lbs or more depending on their size and they are plentiful. They are easy to move and do not take up much room on a trailer or truck as say a fridge does so you can pack them in pretty tight. Not bad for a rainy day. Grab as many as you can in my opinion!
On the large (100 gal and up) check inside the unit to make sure there are not large slabs of copper.
Give the brass pressure relief valve a good smack with a hammer it will break off cleanly at the threaded section..
I have heard some inner tanks are stainless steel, too..
Haven't gotten one though.
so has anyone ever cut 1 open to see what is inside of it? is it worth cutting open? got one sittin in the garage just havent had time to waste yet to cut it open.
I started to type something out...but this guy explains it better than I could.
Rare look inside a Rheem water heater! | Oconomowoc Plumbing
Only thing I grab from a water heater is the brass valve(s), any copper and wiring. Sometimes I pop off the part the wires connect to. Am told they have silver but I haven't confirmed this.
ya after reading and seeing whats inside no need to cut it open nothin there to get. guess ill just take a whack at the valves and get the copper pipes and throw it in the sheet iron pile
I love finding hot water tanks!! The biggest I ever got into my truck was 156# and it had no feet to grab onto, no brass pieces left to grab onto and the aluminum box was also gone. Took me a half hour and a wakeup call to my dad to bring his movers dolly at 1am to strap it to and used that to pick it up into my truck. Lol, no friggin WAY was I gonna drive away from that thing and leave it for someone else. The boards I had kept sliding off the truck so I couldnt use them to slide it up. I can usually get anything into the truck myself (exception are large fridges I need help with those) but for some reason that 156 pounder felt and acted like 300!! At that point I didn't even care if I lost gas on the dang thing, I hate to lose and I wasn't going to let that thing win for someone else to pick up!!! ROF!!!
I look at it this way, its a good truck filler and some pretty decent weight and its at *least* $8.00 I wouldn't have if I didn't get it.
It might have been 300 # with all the rust they accumulate inside, I junked mine out of the house when it started leaking. A 40 gal and it was almost half full of rust, took two of us to get it outside.Quote:
Originally Posted by newattitude
Be carefull with them, sometimes they have some kind of slime in them that gets all over. One time trying to load one in my truck both feet got slimed, it was nasty.