Water Heaters - Is Vacuum Valve Needed?

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susb8383
11-20-06, 06:25 AM
Hi,

I just replaced our electric water heater (50 gallons). The old heater had a vacuum valve threaded to a T connector on the cold water nipple.

I used plenty of teflon tape when attaching the T connector to the cold water nipple, but I still have a slight leak. If I tighten it more, it seems to leak worse.

The T connector isn't easy to take off and redo because I connected it to a small bit of copper pipe and an elbow connector (sweated it all before I screwed it on so I wouldn't damage the plastic of the nipple with heat). But when I screwed it on, it was ok for a few rotations, but then it started to bump up against the pressure relief valve.

So here's my question. Is the vacuum valve really necessary? It would be a lot easier if I removed it and just connected my water line to the nipple via a flexible copper connector.

Any advice?

Thanks.