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Water Heater OT

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Anonymous-0

Well-known Member
Here to tap the wisdom of the board. The situation is I have a water heater that is some times wet around the base. The water heater electric and is 9 years old. It is on city water regulated to 70 psi. It is fed by another water heater that is being used as a warm water storage tank that is heated by my geothermal heat pump but not hooked to the power. The water going into the sometimes wet water heater is warm (above room temp) so there should be no condensation being formed. I have limited access to the water jacket due to the insulation and case but the insulation near the heating elements is dry.
Does anyone have any ideas? I can understand one that is wet all of the time. This is really weird.
 
Have you checked around all the holes in the tank for the anode, inlet, outlet, heating elements, and PT valve? Once in a great while one will leak at one of those holes.

If you have a crack, it will open and close enough based on the water temperature to leak on an intermittent basis. You can either replace the heater or set the temperature a little higher and see if it quits leaking.
 
Oh, I will to replace it tomorrow then. I just though it was very odd that it is wet sometimes and not others. I guess the tank expanding and contracting with the change in temperature could open a crack to allow the water to seep out intermittently. If I were to bump the regulator to full city pressuer (around 125 psi) it would probably leak all of the time then.
 

I had an electric water heater doing the same thing. I removed the bottom access door and dug into the insulation a bit until I got to the lower heating element. Found ALL of the wiring so corroded that there was a very real potential for an electrical arc and a resulting fire. I went straight to town and bought a new unit.
 
I am interested in your pressure..it sounds exceedingly high to me..I don't believe it is a factor in your problem, I believe your tank is done at 9 years whuch is about the life of one nowadays. My farm and cottage system is set at 20/40 by the well experts. When the pressure drops to 20 PSI the pump kicks in and when it hits 40 PSI the pump shuts off....if our pressure was what you claim, every pipe and faucette on the place would be leaking...75-125 PSI??..oughttta blow the faucettes off the wall
 
I would install a pressure regulator to get that pressure down to around 40psi. My water heater is 17 years old and was sold by Sears. They only sold them for a few years and they were very expensive. They sold for about $800.00, but I bought this one from the Sears Surplus store that we had in town back in the 1980's and 90's for less than half. I'm on town water too. Hal
 
mike is RIGHT!, we drill water wells and install water system for a liveing. we used 40-60 press. switchs. on at 40 off at 60psi. most pluming parts are only rated for 70psi we alway install 75psi press. relife valve on the cold water tank. 125 psi is way to high and VERY DANGEROUS !!! we all know what can happen when a air tank expiodes. water tanks will too. I also feel your press relife may be opening a bit at that high of press.
 
Here is a pic of the unregulated pressure, looks to be about 129psi. I checked the regulated side and it is showing 60 psi now but when I set it up I set it to 75. I am going to kick it back to at least 70 once i change the water heater. I have not had problems with any faucets leaking in 9 years.
I hope the photo posts i put it in the test photo area.
a1876.jpg
 
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