Rebuild Hot Water Heater Access Door
Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 7:11 am
I have removed the hot water heater access door thinking to replace it but that won't be possible. So, I must rebuild this door. It is slightly bent but I can still get it to close if I hammer on it a bit.
http://s162.photobucket.com/albums/t243 ... lldoor.jpg
I have replaced the piece of paneling that formed the door with a piece of something I had around here and then laid the old metal back on top of it. The way it was originally found by me, someone had set screws along the edge of the aluminum frame to hold the paneling and metal in place. I have not done this yet since I'm not happy with the board I used. It seems that 1/4" plywood would be a better deal, but I don't see how you could bend it enough to get it inside the frame. Also, I have thought to make a flap or small door in the bottom of this so that I would not have to open the whole door just to light the pilot on the hot water heater when I run out of propane. (this happens often) That way, I would not have to struggle with opening the whole door which, as you recall, I will have to hammer in at the top in order to make it close.
http://s162.photobucket.com/albums/t243 ... heater.jpg
You can see in the above photo that the small flap would only need to be about 15" tall in order to access the pilot light.
Here are some other pictures. Please take a look and please let me know if anyone has any suggestions. Also, when I took the door down, there was some sort of putty behind it which was about an inch wide and seemed to provide a water-proof seal. Does anyone know the name of that stuff? Thanks for all your suggestions.
ttp://s162.photobucket.com/albums/t243/Busybee1952/?action=view¤t=hotwaterheateraccessdoor.jpg
http://s162.photobucket.com/albums/t243 ... ofdoor.jpg
http://s162.photobucket.com/albums/t243 ... oropen.jpg
http://s162.photobucket.com/albums/t243 ... lldoor.jpg
I have replaced the piece of paneling that formed the door with a piece of something I had around here and then laid the old metal back on top of it. The way it was originally found by me, someone had set screws along the edge of the aluminum frame to hold the paneling and metal in place. I have not done this yet since I'm not happy with the board I used. It seems that 1/4" plywood would be a better deal, but I don't see how you could bend it enough to get it inside the frame. Also, I have thought to make a flap or small door in the bottom of this so that I would not have to open the whole door just to light the pilot on the hot water heater when I run out of propane. (this happens often) That way, I would not have to struggle with opening the whole door which, as you recall, I will have to hammer in at the top in order to make it close.
http://s162.photobucket.com/albums/t243 ... heater.jpg
You can see in the above photo that the small flap would only need to be about 15" tall in order to access the pilot light.
Here are some other pictures. Please take a look and please let me know if anyone has any suggestions. Also, when I took the door down, there was some sort of putty behind it which was about an inch wide and seemed to provide a water-proof seal. Does anyone know the name of that stuff? Thanks for all your suggestions.
ttp://s162.photobucket.com/albums/t243/Busybee1952/?action=view¤t=hotwaterheateraccessdoor.jpg
http://s162.photobucket.com/albums/t243 ... ofdoor.jpg
http://s162.photobucket.com/albums/t243 ... oropen.jpg