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Is this corroded water heater a safety concern?

pete6032

pete6032

Diamond Member
This is not my water heater but it belongs to someone in our building. It is leaking on the floor. I notified our property manager about it but I'm concerned it might be an immediate safety issue. Thoughts? Should I get an emergency maintenance person to address this? There is water occasionally bubbling out the top where the water pipe comes in. Is this liable to explode?

If link isn't working try this. https:// imgur.com/a/oIoiNvS and delete the space

https://imgur.com/a/oIoiNvS
 
Explode, probably not. Flooding what ever floor it is on, and those below... yea.. and probably soon. When the tank ruptures/splits, water will flow however fast the supply can provide, at least 10's of gallons per minute.
 
My larger concern from a safety standpoint might be, if something's corroding that thing from the inside out, is it also corroding the heating element? How long until it starts electrifying the water/the wall of the heater?
 
[DHT]Osiris said:
My larger concern from a safety standpoint might be, if something's corroding that thing from the inside out, is it also corroding the heating element? How long until it starts electrifying the water/the wall of the heater?
Click to expand...

Judging from the picture, I'm pretty sure it's a gas water heater...so, probably never...
 
Considering it is a water heater, I'd imagine there has to be some protection from electrical shorting, considering the electricity would only be for the ignition circuit for this gas heater.

Every water heater eventually fails to a leak state if not some other fault. It is not usually a safety concern, more a waste of water as the leak gets worse and eventual flooding of the floor and over time, could cause the health concern of fungus buildup.

Not an emergency, but if this is metered and billed water per tenant/owner/etc you might try to contact that person if the manager hasn't.
 
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mindless1 said:
Considering it is a water heater, I'd imagine there has to be some protection from electrical shorting, considering the electricity would only be for the ignition circuit for this gas heater.

Every water heater eventually fails to a leak state if not some other fault. It is not usually a safety concern, more a waste of water as the leak gets worse and eventual flooding of the floor and over time, could cause the health concern of fungus buildup.

Not an emergency, but if this is metered per tenant you might try to contact that person if the manager hasn't.
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I didn't catch the gas furnace part.

Had someone replace our electric heating element when I was a kid, they didn't let it fill fully before firing it up and the element melted itself. Made contact with the outer wall and electrified it. Thankfully it was grounded enough that the next person that touched it (me) only felt a disconcerting tingle.
 
[DHT]Osiris said:
My larger concern from a safety standpoint might be, if something's corroding that thing from the inside out, is it also corroding the heating element? How long until it starts electrifying the water/the wall of the heater?
Click to expand...
It's a gas water heater, they don't require any electrical connections.
 
It's a gas water heater. The owner of the unit has been notified. I hope they fix it, I don't want it to flood. I am almost inclined to turn it off so they actually go down and inspect it and see it leaking all over the floor.
 
^ If you already told them, all turning it off would do is piss them off then they turn it back on.

I don't understand how this is any of your business until it does finally fail and you suffer some damage from that?

I could be wrong, you didn't include pics of the floor so we can see how extensive the leak is. If it is leaking enough to not dry out on the floor, is making it over to a wall rather than down a drain (which this area MOST DEFINITELY should have and be graded correctly for the drain to be effective), then it is time to notify them to turn it off or it will be turned off for them, but let them have the chance to do it. This assumes concrete floor, nobody in their right mind would put these on a wood floor without drain pans under all of them.
 
MtnMan said:
It's a gas water heater, they don't require any electrical connections.
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I couldn't make out the model # to look it up, but the very old type with a pilot light didn't need power. The newer type which started dominating the market around a dozen years ago, uses either an electric coil spark system, or a piezo sparker element. The former needs power, the latter generates its own like one of those $1 fireplace lighters does. I know that at least some of the A.O Smith used a piezo sparker w/o need for external power input.
 
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mindless1 said:
^ If you already told them, all turning it off would do is piss them off then they turn it back on.

I don't understand how this is any of your business until it does finally fail and you suffer some damage from that?

I could be wrong, you didn't include pics of the floor so we can see how extensive the leak is. If it is leaking enough to not dry out on the floor, is making it over to a wall rather than down a drain (which this area MOST DEFINITELY should have and be graded correctly for the drain to be effective), then it is time to notify them to turn it off or it will be turned off for them, but let them have the chance to do it. This assumes concrete floor, nobody in their right mind would put these on a wood floor without drain pans under all of them.
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Yep. Make sure none of your stuff is in danger of getting wet and call it a day. Not your problem.
 
mindless1 said:
^ If you already told them, all turning it off would do is piss them off then they turn it back on.

I don't understand how this is any of your business until it does finally fail and you suffer some damage from that?

I could be wrong, you didn't include pics of the floor so we can see how extensive the leak is. If it is leaking enough to not dry out on the floor, is making it over to a wall rather than down a drain (which this area MOST DEFINITELY should have and be graded correctly for the drain to be effective), then it is time to notify them to turn it off or it will be turned off for them, but let them have the chance to do it. This assumes concrete floor, nobody in their right mind would put these on a wood floor without drain pans under all of them.
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It's pretty bad. It's bad enough to the point that the water is not drying, which of course means it could attract insects and other pests. Pretty sure it is an investor owner so they aren't there to maintain their stuff when it breaks down.
 
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Then my first concern would be pest proofing the area, second would be fungus and air quality if the area is not sealed off from living space. However this would be so there isn't a mess, water alone does not attract insects and other pests nearly as much as food source does, unless rotting the wood then potentially termites.

How long has it been since the manager was notified? Even if there is water, if it is going down the drain, it seems an undue hardship to make the owner of the heater, do without hot water if they aren't in a position to fix it, or they might have even ordered one but covid shortages are causing a delay in getting it.

Either way you should not resort to self help. If you do spot insects or other pests, or find fungus growing, collect evidence and notify the manager of it, except that your main issue here is still that you have not demonstrated exactly how this affects you. So what if there is water? So what if insects or pests drink some?

The point is that you are likely to alienate the resident or manager if you get anxious about something that so far, I don't see as something impacting you, hasn't been mentioned.
 
Probably not a safety issue, but still should be addressed. I suppose there is a chance water gets into the flue and gets into the burner compartment and cause weird issues. I think the thermocouple would eventually go out at that point and cut gas to it though.

If I was the property manager I would definitely want to fix that asap. It's more his problem that yours really since it's his property that's in danger of being further damaged.
 
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