How to Fix Water Heater Leak

Posted by articlelink01 on June 26th, 2014

It’s just natural for water heaters to develop leaks overtime, but there are few reasons that you must be aware of to detect water leaks. Some causes of leaks may lead to repair while there are some that cannot be repaired. Some simple steps will be helpful to you in checking and fixing water heater leak.

Assessing the leak of your water heater

Water heaters are known as sealed units. This is the tank itself, it is usually in line with a glass or with a protective surface. It cannot be repaired by DIY kits. Even if water heaters leaks rarely occur from your tank that haven’t been repaired you have to check if they are repairable or if they need to be replaced. With this, you need to look at your water heater and try to analyze where the leak came from. If you are sure it came from the tank, it might be coming from the piping and to the fittings attached to it. In this case, the leak is repairable. You can call for help and Leak Detection Austin can help you with your concern.

The only kind that is repairable

If you know that the leak came from one of the fittings or pipes just outside of the tank, you can stop it by tightening the fittings involved. This may be done by anyone but you need to be aware of it because when you tightened it enough, it might rupture. This process can be done when you assume that the leak is well plumbed with fittings that are well threaded. Water heaters well plumbed in with copper tubes & sweat fittings may require cutting out and changing the leaky fittings though. If they cannot be re-soldered, you can make a thorough research about how to do soldering of copper tubes and fittings to help you with the process. Leak Detection Austin is composed of expert plumbers and they can help you with your needs.

There may be times when the water heater pressure valve went so bad. You will know because that is the odd looking fitting that is attached to the side of the water heater tank and has a small handle at the top of the operational manual. When the device is leaking, it should be replaced. It is an indicator that it should be changed though. You still need to drain the water heater for some time. You can also check some references online for shutting down & for draining the tank before you work on the pressure valve.

Preparation for draining by Austin Plumbing

Shutting off the power is a must before the draining takes place. If the water heater is electric powered, turn it off using the circuit breaker, locking it is also a must. But if you are using a gas powered water heater, turn off the gas feed. You will see a small valve just nearby the appliance and this is the one that must be turn off, all you need to do is to just turn it 1 quarter turn and see if the arrow is on top of the vertical pipe where it is installed.

Fix the leak

Now that the water heater is free standing, working on the pipes and fittings will be much easier for you. Austin Plumbing plumbers can tighten the fittings and the pipes and you can also re-seal them if possible.

Austin plumbing - http://austenplumbing.com/ - plumbers offers you help and services at reasonable cost. When leak problems arise you need to know whom to call and they are Leak Detection Austin .