My water heater has failed after nearly nine years. Water was spewing out of the top from both the hot and cold water lines. I closed the valve located on the cold water line to stop the spewing, but there is still water seeping out of the top from both pipes. I have turned off the water heater. Should I drain the tank or will it eventually stop leaking. It is late, but I don’t want to go to bed and have an even bigger mess in my garage when I wake up. What do you advise. Thanks!
Turn off the household’s water supply,
Then turn on the water taps in your place, to reduce the pressure.
That way the water is dripping into a sink, and there will hardly be a drip at the water heater.
it will leak out of the hot outlet pipe until the water in the pipes higher than the heater drain. you will need to drain the tank using the valve at the bottom of the tank. if you drain out a bit (maybe 10 gallons or so) then it will leave water in the tank but not leaking out the top.
If you have a water tap that is lower the the heater open it. Otherwisw use drain on the heater as stated above.
Thank you all very much! I drained out the water using the drain at the bottom of the tank and that stopped the seeping water. Now I believe I can go to bed and wake up to the prospect of a cold shower, but nothing worse! Thanks again. I just joined SDMB tonight and it has already paid dividends!
Now I’m curious about the nature of the failure. Did something heavy fall on top of the heater or slam across the water lines, breaking both of them? Odd for them both to fail otherwise.
If you can afford it, I’d suggest having a tankless water heater installed. They’re not expensive, but it usually requires a new separate cold water feed line, which means a few hundred for the plumber. Upside: no more leaking tanks and ruined basements, and limitless hot water. Also lower gas bills.
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers]
Now I’m curious about the nature of the failure. Did something heavy fall on top of the heater or slam across the water lines, breaking both of them? Odd for them both to fail otherwise.
[/QUOTE]
I was pondering that too. Normally, you get just one leak, unless there were multiple spots just waiting to leak, and there was a physical impact to the heater or a large pressure surge. But, once the water’s spraying out, it’s a fairly pointless question. 
FWIW, if it was the connections that let go, a tankless heater would not have prevented the leak.
Unless you’re able to refit the house with small “local” electric tankless heaters (eg: one under the kitchen sink, one in the bathroom) changing from a large standing tank to tankless is not trivial. You’ll generally need a larger gas line and a larger exhaust vent, and possibly a new electric circuit to power the ignition.
I’d wager a guess that something under the sheet metal casing cracked and it’s just spewing out of the area where the the intake/outputs are. Not that the actual waterlines themselves both happened to break at exactly the same time.
I’ll bet it’s also leaking down at the bottom too. If something internally breaks/ruptures, the water is going to start looking for a place to get out, once it breaks through the internal vessel, it’s just a bunch of insulation and some cheap sheet metal with holes punched in it for water lines, electrical/gas etc. Nothing’s waterproof at that point. The water is just going to push around until it finds a way out.
This.
Exactly how mine failed last time. Water was spewing out all over the place, but the tank had only failed at the hot water outlet.
Reminds me though, I’m probably on borrowed time, my water heater is about 9 years old. I need to be checking into a tankless.
Gas line, not water line. :smack: They’re not cheap to install, but often there is an energy tax rebate that goes along with it. I prefer the local heaters since having them in Europe, but it would have meant some rewiring, and we’re limited in space.
Well, if it’s corrosion that killed your tank and you replace it with a similar model be sure to check the anode every few years. It’s basically a rod dipped into the water that sacrifices itself by taking the corrosion that would otherwise consume the tank liner. Nine years is about about as long as they last. You could replace them before they are completely consumed (maybe every five years or so), at far less expense than a new tank.