Shouldn't a leaking water heater be replaced? A new one won't leak, wouldn't that solve your problem?

Of course the leaking one has been yanked outta there. My questions pertain to the purchase of a new one and any and all precautions I can take to prevent such a mess again. We have extremely hard water and it is notorious for eating hot water heaters. I even wondered if a tankless heater might be a better way to go, but after a little research, I don't think so. Was just hoping to pick some brains here for suggestions.

BTW, brand new hot water heaters CAN leak. We had a new one put in in this very spot years ago, and the plumber asked me to be sure and check it the next day for any leaks.....just in case. Couldn't believe it, there was water on the closet floor! This brand new heater was defective. He had to take it out and order another one.

Hard water will definitely shorten the service life of plumbing and appliances and REALLY hard water even quicker.

You could cure the disease instead of looking to treat the symptom and correct the hardness and whatever else in your water needs to be treated.

Short of that you can routinely drain your WH and that will help a tiny little bit. With the WH in an internal closet installing a pan and running the pan drain outdoors may be problematic. Have you reviewed current plumbing code controlling WH installations in closets?

There are leak alarms that will shut off the water to the WH when triggered but the 40 or 50 gallons in the WH will do damage on its own.

Curious what brands of WH you're buying?

Rheem is a quality WH. Lots of homes have WHers in closets... another better idea that proved a mistake.

You have hard water... no big deal. Lots of people do. Around here hardness runs around 40gpg now days and WHers last about two years. Mine was installed in 1996 and is still going strong. I have a correctly sized water softener. Get my point?

Your hard water is also affecting your plumbing, fixtures, and all tour appliances... not just the WH.

When you replace a WH you have to bring it up to current code requirements so I ask again... have you reviewed current plumbing code controlling WH installations in closets?

Often times WHers can be relocated to a garage or utility area and be made code compliant.

There are several things you can do:

They make pans specifically for water heaters. The pan has a threaded outlet - so you can route the water to a drain. In the pad - install one of these Floodmaster sensors.

Check out Floodmaster:

http://www.plumbingsupply.com/floodsafe-water-detector-shutoff.html

Until a more permanent solution is found You can disconnect the electric and turn off the water that feeds the water heater.
An electric disconnect should be right by the heater and also a shutoff on the cold water feeding into the heater.
Disconnect electric, close the infeed water, open a hot water faucet to take pressure off the water heater and hot water lines.

Why is it so hard to turn off the main? If the valve is old & hard to turn, replace it so that it is not difficult to shut off. I would never consider leaving a house for months at a time without turning off the main.

Is there a basement or crawl space below the closet the water heater is located? If so put in a pan & connect to the sewer.

Thank you ALL for your thoughts and suggestions. I guess strike number three here is that this house is built on a slab. There's no way to have any kind of drain tubey thing. It is also a large two story house. There are two hot water heaters....this electric one inside the house supplies water to the kitchen, a downstairs bathroom, and the upstairs master bath. There is a gas water heater in the garage that feeds the laundry room and an upstairs bathroom. In twenty years of owning this home, the gas heater has only had to be replaced once, and that was about a year ago. It had lasted nineteen years. This will be the THIRD electric heater we have had to buy...could be the fourth. I've kinda lost track.

Justalurker, I live in a tiny town. I assume if this thing was up to code when the house was built twenty years ago, it's still good to go. I don't know. There is no way this water heater will be relocated.

Turning the water off at the valve in the yard is a good thought. Definitely going to persue that idea. It just makes sense because other disasters could be lurking around the corner. You never know. I'll never forget one evening when hubby and I were sitting in the den we suddenly heard this loud noise and then water splashing. HUH? The hose to the washing machine had burst. Thank goodness we were right there.

Thanks again for all the responses. I appreciate you all!

1. put in a moisture alarm.
2. when you leave the house for an extended period, turn off the water and turn off the HWH. I would suggest draining it, but I bet it wouldn't be that easy.

Mine is on a slab, but luckily by an outside wall. I put the new one in a pan and plumbed a drain to the outside.

Thanks Weedmeister. Hmmmm, this brings up another issue I briefly read about on another thread. I don't know anything about this and would have never thought of it on my own. If we turn off the water supply, flip the breaker on the hot water heater and don't drain it, will the water be skunky monkey when we return a couple months later? Or, when we fire it up upon returning will that kill the bugs? After all, this does supply our kitchen. Draining it is not gonna happen, and I am probably making a mountain out of a mole hill here, but just thinking out loud.

I wish my heater was on an outside wall. That would help. No such luck. The original floor plans called for this water heater to be installed in the attic. Our builders told us how much more trouble and expense it would be to install it that way. They convinced us to put it in this pantry closet. I don't think the attic would have been any better.....maybe in some ways even worse. Every replacement would have meant dragging a water heater up one of those pull down attic stair deals. Yikes! Makes my back hurt just thinking about it.

Thank you.....thank you all.

Another question you should ask since we can't see where you live... if we turn off the water supply, flip the breaker on the hot water heater and don't drain it, will the water freeze?

Turning off water during an extended absence is always a good idea even ignoring the 40-50 gallons of water in the tank.

As for the water heater, how about a pan and some kind of condensate pump?

No worries of freezing. Thanks.

I want a BIG pan....one that will hold 50 gallons of water. HA! I'm not sure I know what a condensate pump is?

condensate pumps are small electric pumps used on air conditioners when they can't drain their condensate to the outside by gravity. Depending on the layout, the condensate drains to the pump and when there is enough (float switch activates), it pumps to the outside of the structure.

You can always block up the heater a few inches to get height for the drain line from the pan.

When WHers leak enough to destroy floors there is far more water volume than a condensate pump can manage.

If there's a place for a drain from a condensate pump then there might be a place to drain a WH pan.

Replace the shut off valve. Shut off the water supply.

Turn off the power supply to the tank.

Drain the tank if not on a catch pan.

2 months of what was it "skunky monkeys"? We have a southern home and we leave the tank full for 6 months. I believe you need oxygen as well as light for skunky monkey growth. Also have a Fla. Condo that also has a tank in a closet we call the laundry room. That is on a slab as well. You don't need a pan below the tank if the tank is MT. But I sure would have one as do we because you never know. We have a moisture sensor at the condo as it is required for all residents, and the condo police check regularly. Same goes for the water supply to the washer, has auto shut off when the moisture sensor reads moisture where there shouldn't be any. I would have one anywhere I lived. Does your supply to your washer not have one? Those hoses could let go anytime, especially with a home on slab.

I just came across the attached link, seems like a good idea and cheaper than the above product (better late than never haha)

Here is a link that might be useful: water heater alarm

Given my recent experience with the "skunk monkey" syndrome, I would think at least thrice before opting to turn off a hot water heater during extended absences. The home I recently purchased was vacant for many months with the power to the two water heaters cut off. One WH succumbed to SK syndrome. The rotten-egg smell which I initially thought to be sewer gas was from the WH. After replacing the WH, I still had to flush the entire downstairs system with a chlorine to eliminate the microscopic critters. While less offensive than the smell of rotten eggs, the smell of chlorine is far from pleasant. And, once the chlorine is pulled through all of the pipes, the water gets turned off for a 48-hour period. It was both an unpleasant and inconvenient experience.

Were I in your place with your concerns, I would install a pan and an alarm with an automatic shut-off.