Water Heaters - Venting question

I just replaced our old gas water heater with a new Whirlpool. The old vent went up about 12-18 inches then did a 90 degree bend our the wall, another 18-20 inches. This is where it terminated. The vent was/is double walled. My problem is I used the same vent on my new heater but it will not draw enough to keep my pilot light lit. I saw this vent pipe joint at Lowes last night that lets you adjust your angle to whatever you need so you don't have a 90 degree bend. It's about 3 inches in diameter. It should hook up nicely to the inside tube of the vent that goes to the outside, but I still have the outside part of the double walled vent to worry with. Any suggestions on how to work this out? Did I put enough information about my setup? If not, I can add more.

Post a picture of your situation by going to www.photobucket.com and linking a picture back to this thread.


You are allowed to use 90's in flue piping, you just have to have pitch upwards in every turn of direction, not allowing any dips or reverse pitch. Follows the same idea of a drain line.

You're talking about the vent on a gas WH? A 90 degree turn, and then it terminates inside the wall??

NEITHER of those 2 things would be allowed under any code that I'm aware of. At least in CA, the most bend you can put in a gas vent is 45 degrees. (There are exceptions, where ONE 60 degree bend is OK, but NEVER a 90.)

And terminating inside a wall?? NOT GONNA HAPPEN!!!!

No, it doesn't terminate INSIDE the wall. The house would have burned down long ago. It terminates just outside the wall and doesn't go up the side of the house.

I'll work on getting pictures up, if my problem keeps up that is.

Sounds like the last heater was a direct vent unit. IE 90 degree termination and double wall. A conventional vent heater doesn't work in that case.

You have any idea what I could do to make this set up work out? I thought about getting a vent fan to pull more air with. Better yet, can I get a power vent for this water heater? All I have found online are for tankless water heaters.

First, you have to tell us whether or not this is a direct vent.

A more directr answer is that the manufacturer of the heater can tell you if a power vent option is available or recommended for your unit.