How close can I put a wall to my water heater?

these are both good answers, 0 clearance is acceptable (reference cal. code to secure water heater to wall) however i might also consider leaving enough room to install water heater insulation(blanket)

other than that your only consideration should be ease of installation and repair/replacement...goodluck Barry

That's a code - and it differs with each state. So you could call the building inspector. You might also have to sheet rock that wall with 'fire code' rock. But if you don't want to do that and get inspected and so forth, just give the water heater a foot of room - that should be plenty for anything.

But keep in mind... at some point you'll be removing that water heater - so make sure you can still get it out of the closet and do the plumbing and so forth.

Furniture should be a minimum of 6" from the heaters. I would suck it up in the colder months. Then move it the way you want. The dust and heat coming up will be annoying. It will dry the wood frame of the bed you will need to oil it more often (weekly instead of monthly). Normally heaters are put on outside walls with the combination of the cold wall and the hot heater that's also another issue. Think about putting your bed on an angle in a corner with a screen behind it if there is room. That will put your bed more toward the center of the room and allow you the best heating option.

Depends on where you are. Some seismically active states like CA expect you to restrain a WH from tipping by strapping it to an adjacent wall. So you can safely assume that the clearances on water heaters in California are pretty small - like, touching. You'll have to check local codes, and remember that codes are sometimes different for gas vs. electric heaters.

Water heaters wear out. Make sure you can get to it for the eventual replacement. And for that matter, whatever you do don't forget that it's there. Include a catch pan under it, and plumb that pan's drain to somewhere you'll see drips, otherwise the thing might leak for months and cost you a lot in utilities.

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