Water Heater Failure----HELP

[Jeddak]

 

[Shovelhead]

Sorry it happened to you. When Lowe's replaces the heater ask them to install a whole house shut off valve, as well. Ask for for all valves to be 1/4" turn ball valves. They won't leak. I second an expansion tank. You probably have a back flow preventer installed, with that you have to have an expansion tank. Are they quoting you a drip pan with plumbing? If heater is against the exterior wall, I'd insist on drip pan with overflow piped to to the outside, same with the pressure valve on the heater.

Heater really is not that difficult to replace yourself if you want to try....If you were in Carrol Co, I'd give you a hand.

Not sure on the drip pan. Also not sure how the plumber could install a valve the line goes from the curb, under the driveway and into the house. House is on a slab. There is a valve in the garage that I always thought was the main but all it is for is exterior spigots.

A real pain in the neck...

 

[GeauxLSU]

Damn it Jim I'm a Doctor not a Plumber.. Oh wait wrong TV... Really I dont know what to look for "pressure reducer valve" There was / is
a valve on the tank intake but it's froze up....

http://www.lowes.com/Search=pressur...=0&newSearch=true&Ntt=pressure+reducing+valve#!
You should have something like that, somewhere on the main line coming into your home. It is the valve that regulates the pressure coming into your home (since sometimes the pressure at the curb could be too high for residential fixtures). Right before that PRV should be a shutoff valve.

 

[Jeddak]

Line should come into house somewhere above the ground level inside. Follow the straight line from the meter to the house.
Drip pan looks like this
I do not know why builders do not include them as a matter of course. Even if it is not quoted, buy one (confirm the diameter of the heater Lowe's is selling you + 4", so you'd have clearance for the heater bottom drain valve), you can plumb it yourself later. Ask the plumber to put it under the heater.

 

[Shovelhead]

I believe that the line coming from the curb follows the driveway then cuts under the driveway into the slab through garage walls. This is an assumption since I see no pipes in the garage and the pipe coming down into the utility room to the heater goes into the garage wall.... I'm moving stuff trying to locate that reducer valve.

 

[Shovelhead]

Found the reducer valve and yes there was a valve in line. The utility room is in near center of the house the main water line is coming up out of the slab into that reducer valve and from there the rest of the house. Now I'm concerned ... What happens should there be a pipe failure from the curb up the driveway and into the slab. I can just see it if that occurred digging up driveways and pipes Holy Crap... Thanks guys for leading me to that cut off valve.

 

[Old_School]

You don't have a shutoff valve inside your home next to your pressure reducing valve?

He may not have a PRV...

Both of my houses have had them, but one of my old neighbors in Duluth didn't have a pressure reducing valve! He wondered why he had to replace 3 water heaters in 7 years and finally discovered the contractor had left off that particular item. And in that neighborhood, we had 145 psi line pressure!

I had to buy a commercial garden hose for our front spigot because I was always rupturing consumer-grade hoses if I left the water turned on for more than 10 minutes.

 

[Jeddak]

Glad you found it. Keep us posted and hope that Lowe's will come thru.

 

[Shovelhead]

Thanks again guys... I also called ServiceMaster. Hopefully I get no grief from USAA for that.

 

[Old_School]

Are they quoting you a drip pan with plumbing? If heater is against the exterior wall, I'd insist on drip pan with overflow piped to to the outside, same with the pressure valve on the heater.

I second the drip pan. After my first water heater ruptured, I've always had a drip pan installed (like you, it flooded my entire basement...soaked my entire Gun Digest collection from the 1960s, darnit!). Even if it's not on an outside wall, you can mount the water heater on an elevated platform and plumb the pan to an A/C condensate pump to take any leaks to an outside wall.