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Hot water heater leak

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ChadTower:

---fudgesicle---... just discovered my hot water heater leaking from the pressure release valve.  Not sure why yet, my knowledge of hot water heaters is low novice at best.  Have a quarter inch of water in parts of the basement.

saint:
That blows. From what I understand it's usually a question of *when* and not *if* one of those goes. If you need to replace it, take a look at a tankless heater if you have gas service -- electrical units don't have the oomph for a full house yet...

ChadTower:

Oil fired.  No gas.

It pretty much *is* a question of when... the tank itself is fine.  The water is coming from the pvc pipe hanging from the pressure relief valve.  I just had a guy in two weeks ago to clean/adjust the furnace and he told me he did the water heater to as a favor because I let him play pinball.  I suspect he upped the temp a little bit, both me and my wife noticed it... I just looked at the thermostat and it's still set below normal if I'm reading it right, so he didn't set it too high.

Since the water is coming through where it normally would in case of too much pressure... I'm guessing that the pressure relief valve itself is failing.  It's not coming from the bottom of the tank, as in corroded tank failure, which is when you normally would replace the heater (I think).

ChadTower:

Electricity and cold water supply are off.  I'm in the process of draining the tank now, one bucket at a time, since there is no drain in the basement.  The kitchen hot water faucet is open.  Already had a hose on the drain faucet since I flush the bottom few gallons every three months or so.

The relief valve has a PVC pipe leading downwards, I guess to prevent a person from getting sprayed in the face when it opens.  That is where the water is coming from.  It's the relief valve, probably.  Not a major failure yet, a slow leak, but enough that it seems to have happened overnight and there is a quarter inch of water in parts of the basement.  Fortunately, no cabs have been damaged that I have seen yet.

I just have to figure out how to get this sucker off.  I'm good with wiring (I rebuild pinball machines as a hobby) but don't know tons/have good tools for plumbing.

ChadTower:

We had a guy come in a couple weeks ago to service the furnace.  He is an old pinball fan and played Shadow for a few minutes, then did the water heater too as a favor.  What I think happened is that he tested the relief valve in the process.  A bit of reading turns up that it is not unusual for an old relief valve to fail shortly after being tested.  We are very lucky it held out until we got back from FL, I guess.  We've been out of state nearly the whole time since he tested it.

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