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Leaking Gas Hot Water Heater
We have two 40 gallon atmospheric gas hot water heaters in our 5 unit apartment building. One was replaced in July, the other is 5 years old.
Our tennents complained they had little/no hot water yesterday, so we went over to check it out and saw several gallons of water on the floor last night. We shut off the gas & water supply valves to let it dry out overnight, then tried it today.
It was able to start up ok with the spark ignition to light the pilot and ran for 5-10 minutes before we noticed the water leaking from the top center shaft area just below the vent hood & dripping down the side of the vent hood onto the top of the water heater before it went down the sides onto the floor about a gallon per minute or two. It looks like small a sputtering old faithful at the top center, running down the side onto the basement floor.
Does this suggest water leaked inside and filled the burner area, putting out the pilot eventually, stopping the water from heating? Or something else causing the small geyser-like sputtering at the top of the center shaft at the top of the heater, just below the vent exhaust hood leading up to the chimney?
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We don't have any expansion tanks for the two 40 gal. hot water heaters connected in parallel to serve the building & I didn't see a backflow device other than on the boiler water supply, basement utility sink, and 2 outside garden hose hookups.
Since connected in parallel, could we get by with a shared expansion tank between them, or it is better to have one for each water heater?
You also should look at your incoming water pressure. If it gets over 70 psi at night, you should install a pressure reducing valve.
Municipal water pressure will get above 125 psi late night around here.
You can choose to do what you want, but you cannot choose the consequences.
Yours, Larry
D look into a regulator and expansion tank. 50-70psi is plenty for residential unless you have a sprinkler system.