How to isolate a water heater from the main water supply?
Posted on | March 25, 2010 | 5 Comments
My water heater is leaking terribly and as its the weekend the local friendly plumber wants my kidney to do a call out. Ive turned the water mains off but I cant seem to isolate the water going into the waterheater. The large red knob by the water heater is turned as hard as it will go clockwise, but water still enters it when I turn the mains back on, Its a “Starkie quick recovery gas storage heater”
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5 Responses to “How to isolate a water heater from the main water supply?”
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March 25th, 2010 @ 5:31 pm
the large red knob keep opening and closeing the valve it has deposits in the seat. by doing this u will clean the seat
March 25th, 2010 @ 5:32 pm
There are two possibilities.
One: The shutoff valve is bad, and it’s not closed all the way. Try opening and closing it several times. If there is sediment buildup, cycling the valve may help.
Two: There is water bleeding from the cold to the hot side through one of your fixtures. If this is the case, there is nothing you can do except leave the water off to the house.
Ask the plumber to put a shutoff valve on the hot water side when they install the new heater.
March 25th, 2010 @ 5:50 pm
If you have an older home you man not have a shut off before the hot water heater. You might have to turn the main off, then find the next valve behind the water heater & turn that off. Then you can drain the heater (plug is at the bottom & on the side). to keep water from getting back into the house. Either way water shouldn’t becoming from the hot side of the tap.
-If the home is newer, then trace the pipes back towards the main & see if you can find the right valve.
-Do NOT touch any of the BLACK pipes they’re for gas.
-Water pipes are PVC (plastic)or Silver (galvenized I think)
We just did the same at our home. We left the water main off until we finished with all the new flex pipes & added a new shut off. Because we didn’t have one.
Good Luck!!
March 25th, 2010 @ 6:08 pm
The valve is usually on the outlet side of the heater to prevent people from shutting water off to pressure vessel and creating dangerous condition. First, shut off the energy source. Follow the line without the valve and see if there is another valve between heater and main, not likely. You need to install a valve on the inlet[cold] side of the heater, you could get a compression valve at the home store, simply cut the line and tighten the compression fitting.
March 25th, 2010 @ 6:45 pm
You should be aware that even after closing the valve, there’s still water in the tank. You’d have to drain that off before it’ll stop leaking (if the tank has ruptured near the bottom). There should be a drain near the bottom of the unit that you can connect a hose to.