Water Heater Problem

[RJSakowski]

It’s not ‘just because’. Ask many of my customers about not listening to me when I recommended replacing the water heater and how they enjoyed their flooded basement or house. Insurance claims, and misery, lots of them.

I have had a flooded basement from rain water numerous times in the past. As a result, I have a gutter around the entire inside perimeter and a gravity drain to the outside. I doubt that I would see a catastrophic failure of the water heater but rather a small leak to start. when that happened, I would take remedial action. If there was a catastrophic failure, I have a low pressure shutoff on my pressure switch for the well which will shut the system down in the event of a large scale leak. Thus, the maximum amount of water would be limited to that contained in the hot water heater and pressure tank or about 160 gallons.

 

[pdentrem]

I had the pressure relief valve stick open and turned the house into a sauna. No idea why it happened, the service guy said maybe the heater stacked? I had not been home for over 8 hours so who knows.
Pierre

 

[extropic]

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I'll test the thermocouple later and report back.
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A few days have passed and the water heater is still running as it should. I'm not going to wake that sleeping dog.
If it gives me more trouble, thanks to many contributors, I feel armed with good advice regarding what/how to troubleshoot it.
Thanks again.