Troubleshooting Water Heater Seepage?

Factual Questions
1

I am a new homeowner, so I have a one-year warranty on everything in here.

I have two hot water heaters in this place, one in a side closet on a concrete floor in my downstairs bathroom, and the other in the unfinished portion of my house (the work/storage) room.

I noticed today that the one in the downstairs bathroom is leaking water, and not from the bottom, it is seeping out from the top, where all the connections are.

There are small indentations in the sheet metal cap on top of the heater where the hot/cold water lines connect into the heater, as well as where the electrical conduit runs into the top and under the TPV valve, and small amounts of water are pooling up there and overflowing gently down the sides of the heater and onto the floor.

IANAP, but I am wondering if this is some kind of overpressurization and I have a bad TPV valve. There’s a drain in the concrete floor (thank god no plywood under the thing to get saturated) but it doesn’t quite match up with the TPV valve’s drain pipe so I am reluctant to open the valve to check it.

Is there anything else it could be? I’m leaning towards just calling a plumber and letting the warranty take care of it less a $75 deductible, but I am worried about any potential danger from overpressurization/overheating, or that it’s something stupid and simple that I can do myself and save the $75.

Any thoughts?

2

Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi Plumber, you are my only hope. Just kidding. No really. I am looking to see if there’s a fix I’m unaware of that I can try before I call the plumber.

3 
It's possible that one of the threaded connections is loose or not taped/doped.This has happened to me numerous times, not only with water heaters. If you touch the thing, the warranty is usually void, so if you have coverage, use it.
  Not knowing system history, I cannot say for sure re: your T&PRV, but would suspect loose threads first. A bad valve/condition causing discharge would be evidenced by water on the floor.
My comments are predicated on the heater being new and recently commissioned.
4

The thing is that the water is collecting around all four inlet connections: hot water (which I suppose is actually an OUTLET), cold water, TPV and electrical conduit. There are four seperate connections and each has a seperate indented input tray into the sheet metal of the cap on top of the unit, and that is where the water is pooling, and subsequentloy dribbling down the side of the tank and onto the floor.

5

I am pretty handy with plumbing, but when this happened to me, I called a plumber. The most likely place for the leak is the cutoff valve. Most people use cheap valves there since it won’t be used much if at all-which is exactly where you need a high quality valve…, and eventually the packing/seals leak. A how-to plumber’s book can show you how to tighten the packing on many valves. That is easy. But it is only temporary. Eventually the valve will have to be replaced. Might as well do it now when someone will help you with the bill. Hot water heaters are just part of the plumbing-but they are the one place where you have water + hot water + electricity + cramped quarters. Like I said, I called a plumber.

6

If you are concerned with your immediate safety, find the appropriate breaker and open it, shut the cold water inlet valve to the heater and crack a hot water tap or the tank drain to relieve pressure.
There are only three ports into the tank top- the electric junction runs inside the sheet metal cover but outside the vessel.
Chances are but one is leaking and filling the others. Take a good look at them, wiping away water to see where it originates.(Supply valve needs to be open) Don’t discount leaks from piping above!

7

It has to be something with the unit…I already flashlighted the plumbing above and all the PVC seems good to go.

8

Does your water heater have flexible connectors on the hot and cold water lines, or does the piping connect directly to the water heater? Flex hoses have gaskets that can harden from age and can leak if the water was off for a time and then restored.

Also, I see you mentioned PVC piping. Am I correct in assuming that you do not have copper pipes at the water heater? If so, that eliminates one of my guesses regarding a leaky solder joint (what my last water heater repair was).

Finally, since you’ve just moved in, is it possible that the water heater has been shifted or moved about even slightly during the move-out /move-in process? This could loosen the fittings or break loose some rust on the pipe nipples in the tank that was previously water tight.

Step one, soak up all of the water with rags or towels. Fasten a dry paper towel around each water pipe where it protrudes from the tank and see which one gets wet first. This is the source of the leak. Once you know where it’s coming from, the repair is usually obvious.

Or call your home warranty company and have them send out a plumber.

9

Well, I just got off the phone with the plumber. Since the house is under warranty, he’s just going to replace the heater. Good for me, good for him. $75.

That was a good piece of news.

Thanks to you all for the advice.

10

Good news indeed! The insurance company probably got tired of sending plumbers out on leak-finder missions - at some point, the labor to track down and fix leaks will exceed the cost of swapping out the heater, especially since once an “experienced” heater starts leaking in one spot, it’s pretty much Swiss cheese and it’ll spring a new leak in a couple of days.

So, they cut their losses right at the start. Plumbers hate call-backs just as much as homeowners, so they end up with happy customers and happy contractors.