House Had to be Leveled Because of Electric Water Heater

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1

Originally Posted By: aroden
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So that’s why the t&p drain shouldN’T be reduced. I just saw it on the San Antonio news - an electric water heater exploded, rocketed through the roof…it was heard by people two miles away.


They said it damaged the house so severely, it had to be bull-dozed.

http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=180&xlc=1114920

2

Originally Posted By: kpapp
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would that be called a sky rocketing hot water bill icon_rolleyes.gif

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_______________________________________


If you dont have time to do it right the first time, When will you have the time to go back and fix it?

3

Originally Posted By: dvalley
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I can’t believe this idiot capped off the PTR valve to stop the leak. What are homeowners thinking nowadays? If you don’t know what you’re doing, pay a few more dollars to have a professional correct your deficiencies, for safety sake.


Now the terrorists are going to catch on to this home-made Rocket idea.![](upload://igGbBCm2v1Yc8j5aqku7wYLcTtb.gif)

--
David Valley
MAB Member

Massachusetts Certified Home Inspections
http://www.masscertified.com

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go."

4

Originally Posted By: jmyers
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I have never heard of one blowing up, interesting story. I hope everyone all over the world is listening to this story and hopefully paying someone that knows what they are doing instead of watching Bob Vila. icon_cool.gif


Joe Myers

5

Originally Posted By: jfarsetta
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I was in a restaurant where the water heater exploded. It didnt level the place, or cause a lot of damage. It was apparently in the basement, and the floor of the restaurant was concrete. Nothing worse than soggy linguini and a runny waiter.


Not even a free after dinner drink from the owner for scaring us all to hell. What a cheap ba$tard! ![icon_wink.gif](upload://ssT9V5t45yjlgXqiFRXL04eXtqw.gif)

--
Joe Farsetta

Illigitimi Non Carborundum
"Dont let the bastards grind you down..."

6

Originally Posted By: gbeaumont
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Hi to all,


I've read of quite a few of these and have a few photo's on file of similar incidents, this one was at a school in Massachusetts:

http://www.safteng.net/Accident%20Photos/Hot%20Water%20heater%20explosion.htm

[img]http://www.nachi.org/

Regards

Gerry

--
Gerry Beaumont
NACHI Education Committee
e-mail : education@nachi.org
NACHI phone 484-429-5466

Inspection Depot Education
gbeaumont@inspectiondepot.com

"Education is a journey, not a destination"

7

Originally Posted By: jmyers
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Wonder if the ATF is gonna start regulating water heaters because of their explosive ability! icon_cool.gif


Good post Gerry. I have never heard of one blowing till now, now I have heard of two!

Joe Myers

8

Originally Posted By: Mike Parks
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Same thing can happen if you turn your water, to your home, off and go away for months and forget to turn the gas to the tank off.


Mike P.

9

Originally Posted By: aroden
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Technical Bulletin: Saturday, a day after I made the post about the water heater explosion, I heard an LOUD explosion that appeared to come the garage - not a good way to start the weekend.


I went out and found water POURING out of the wall below my two year old natural gas powered Bosch on-demand water heater. When I cut into the wall, I found that one of my NEW Raupex water pipes (the cold water supply to the water heater) had burst just beyond the point where the Raupex connected into the rigid copper.

The water pipe had MELTED and burst. So I had the plumber out, fixed the pipe and cranked the water heater back up - the gas burners fired up even though there was NO hot water turned on inside the house. After a minute or so, the copper cold water supply pipe got too hot to touch - the heat had traveled up the copper and had melted the Raupex pipe.

Not once during this episode did any heat get anywhere near the t&p valve.

So after going to the Bosch website, I find that this is a COMMON problem - minerals in the water clog up the screen inside the water valve on the heater and CAN cause the unit to run continuously even though hot water is NOT being used.

GEE...thanks Bosch for LETTING ME KNOW!

Buried in their website is a service bulletin recommending that the valve be broken down and cleaned and/or rebuilt every two years or so.

I tore the heater apart and found ALL KIND OF MINERAL BUILD-UP. After I cleaned and blew all the mineral debris away and put it back together it worked just fine.

So if you ever see these things out there, you might want to make a note of what can happen to them after a couple of years and recommend periodic maintenance by an EXPERIENCED plumbing professional.

Of course, neither plumber I called out, knew a ANYTHING about these heaters - so I HAD TO REPAIR IT MYSELF. Again, thanks Bosch.

I don't know how many of these things are out there, but Lowe's sells them so there must be quite a few. And my little episode is going on my reports when I do come across another one.