Bomb In Basement

Chris V

Just thinking Out loud...Other Than Cost...Would'nt It Be A Good Idea To Have 2 Openings In A Water Heater For 2 Relief Valves in case one does'nt open?

Chris V

Water Heaters

Just thinking Out loud...Other Than Cost...Would'nt It Be A Good Idea To Have 2 Openings In A Water Heater For 2 Relief Valves in case one does'nt open?

Chris V

Water Heaters

Just thinking Out loud...Other Than Cost...Would'nt It Be A Good Idea To Have 2 Openings In A Water Heater For 2 Relief Valves in case one does'nt open?

Chris V

Water Heaters

Just thinking Out loud...Other Than Cost...Would'nt It Be A Good Idea To Have 2 Openings In A Water Heater For 2 Relief Valves in case one does'nt open?

Chris V

Water Heaters

Just thinking Out loud...Other Than Cost...Would'nt It Be A Good Idea To Have 2 Openings In A Water Heater For 2 Relief Valves in case one does'nt open?

Chris V

Water Heaters

Just thinking Out loud...Other Than Cost...Would'nt It Be A Good Idea To Have 2 Openings In A Water Heater For 2 Relief Valves in case one does'nt open?

Maine doug_10

Be careful

the Department of Redundency Department will get you.

jim lockard

If you

install as many T&P reliefs as you do posts you should be ok. Best Wishes J.Lockard

Aidan (UK)

Bomb in Basement

The UK practice is to have a pressure relief valve on the cold feed and a T&P relief valve screwed into the water heater body.

If you'd like to read about the effects of a water heater bursting, you might be interested in the report at:

http://www.maib.dft.gov.uk/sites/maib/cms_resources/dft_masafety_504222.pdf

This is a report of an enquiry into the sinking of a 54' fishing vessel, which sank about 10 or 12 minutes after the on-board water heater exploded.

"The water cylinder (heater) body would form a missile as a result of the explosion. The missile velocities calculated were such that the missile would have been expected to breach the hull in both cases."

The water heater exploded because of the use of inappropriate plumbing components, possibly to cut costs. The crew survived only because of their safety precautions, i.e., radio batteries stored at high level & life-jackets stored on deck.

Constantin

Another reason to sail catamarans...

... more redundancy, more air chambers, no keel to suck you down to King Neptune.

But seriously, how is one to fit multiple T&P valves into a water heater in such a way that the T&P valve sees the critical temperatures that are meant to set it off? That thermostat has to stick way into the water heater or it'll only release on pressure, not the super-hot temperatures that can occur if you do a stacking test (either in a lab or through normal usage in the home).

We have a water heater in our boat. It has a OEM T&P... and it'll soon have a TRV on the output because the current water temps that thing is producing are melting the components in our hot water system.

Larry Weingarten

In small print...

... on the box the T&P comes in it says to test the valve yearly. I've found lots of plugged T&Ps. Fortunately, modern thermostats work pretty well, or water heaters would be in the news more. By the way, it is the action of the anode, attempting to protect "noble" metals that can plug a T&P. A second T&P would get plugged the same way. Testing is just possibly a better fix. ;~)

Yours, Larry

John Mills_5

Too much thinkin'

We have a customer that had his generic gas WH blow on him a few years back. He was in the living room, it was in a closet off the LR. Blew a big mirror off the wall across the room, barely missing him. 2nd relief could have helped.

Test them? Usually that just leads to dripping from my experience.

Boiler Guy

Watts has a good training video on water heaters

that shows the effects of faulty controls and exploding units

EJW

Relief valves

a 2nd wouldnt have helped but him but piping it down to the floor would have. EJW