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can a water heater leak intermittently?

16 years ago

Hello everyone

Longtime lurker (five years) to this forum and also electrical. Very entertaining and educational and love both of them (BTW whatever happened to Pinnochio?).

Anyways my sister came home to her house with the basement floors soaking wet(steady rain outside). The laundry room (no carpets) containing the furnace and water heater was all wet and the finished part of the basement (carpets) was wet in a pattern which seemed to center opposite to where the water heater is located but no way to tell 100%. We felt the carpets all around the exterior walls and nowhere was it wet anywhere within 5 feet. No leaking copper, no backed up drains, sump pump working fine so my best deduction was the water heater. However we dried the floor next to the water heater but 6 hours later not a drop has come out.

This happened a few weeks ago to a much smaller extent (when it was not raining) so my question is can a water heater somehow leak and then not leak?

Thank you

Featured Answer

pikerssister

16 years ago

hey brother piker, they installed my new Gas water heater today and when they removed the old one (7 years old) the bottom completely fell out. (d/t rust) Problem solved. Thanks for all your help, once again I owe you.

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Comments (10)

rjoh878646
16 years ago
The only thing i can think of that would leak intermintently
is the T & P valve on the side of the tank. I had one that would leak slightly off and on. A rust hole in the tank will leak continuosly.
bus_driver
16 years ago
Is this a gas water heater? Continually, folks post questions about problems and fail to provide essential information.
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piker
Original Author
16 years ago
Yes it is a gas water heater. Merry Christmas
bus_driver
16 years ago
Natural gas when burned gives off twice as much water vapor as it does carbon dioxide. Those are the main byproducts of combustion of natural gas, theoretically the only ones under perfect conditions. If the heater is set to a low temperature and the use of hot water is heavy or prolonged, the cold incoming water can chill the tank resulting in condensation of the water vapor in the flue gases. That could be interpreted as an intermittent leak. The cures might include increasing the temperature of the heater, being more conservative in the use of hot water (shorter showers?), or replacing with a larger heater. This condition would not happen with an electric heater. Merry Christmas to you, too.
bus_driver
16 years ago
So the heater leaked only intermittently while holding full system water pressure, but the bottom completely fell out while the heater was being removed? Interesting story, to say the least.
piker
Original Author
16 years ago
I can't explain it as I wasn't there when they took it out so I didn't see the extent of the damage. Thanks to Bus Driver and rjoh for their help.

Anyways off to open presents!!!!
rysox
16 years ago
Good question about old Pinochio.... he was not only extremely knowledgable when it came to this stuff he was funny as hell. I think he was banned for awhile if you remember for saying some off color stuff. Little does the moderator know, they kicked off the best guy on the list.

Pinochio, you da man.
jason1083
16 years ago
Pinnochio voluntarily decided to call it quits after his last 'vacation' from what I was told.
brickeyee
16 years ago
"...when they removed the old one (7 years old) the bottom completely fell out."

Most likely the sheet metal shell around the pressure tank and not the actual tank bottom.
The water pressure would have caused a massive leak if the tank itself was that rusted.

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