Can you turn off the water to a water heater and not turn off the pilot. I have a water heater where you have to physically light the pilot and it is a pain to restart when we get back from vacations (especially when we get back in during the night). So, I was wondering, any reason I can't turn off the water supply to the filled heater (so if it goes bad the damage is limited) while keeping the pilot on?
I'd say that the danger of damaging the water heater is slim.
But I wonder about your priorities. Shutting off the water to the heater will limit water damage to 20-50 gallons or so if a leak should develop while you're gone.
The pilot, however, is an open flame. It would definitely be an unusual circumstance, but potentially devastating, if there was a gas leak.
I'd be shutting off gas in my house before water if I was going to be gone for a great length of time.
Jim
that should be safe, we routinely go on vacation and leave everything on.
the chance of a tank leak with zero pressure should be low, and the pilot so small a heat source it cant damage anything.
might be a good idea to firstr shut off water, then open both hot and cold valves say in a sink a little to take pressure off everything, then close those valves.
heck why worry if worse comes to worse homeowners insurane will pay the damages.
while your away a kid could torch your home as a prank
a electrical malfunction could start a fire and level your home.
in the winter your furnace could fail and freeze everything, cracking toilets and everything with a trap.
or someone could vandalize your home.
cant prevent everything, and worry to much can lead to health troubles and early death.
in the winter shutting off gas could mean no heat, and repeatedly turning off main gas valve might lead to a valve leak.
trying to prevent everything leads to a endless spiral of worrisome what iffs....
while the biggest danger is likely a traffic accident while your away: (
personally getting hurt is way worse than any home disaster.......
When I leave I shut the water main open a main drain and open all faucets incase the heat goes out, I have 1/4 turn ball valves so it all takes a few minutes and no water will freeze, with no pressure your tank wont suddenly give away.
i think the important thing to do if shutting water off and leaving pilot on is to turn the thermostat all the way down on the w-heater and youll be ok.
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From 9+ years in the fire service (albeit 20+ years ago), my personal preference for a gas leak occurring would be while I was on vacation. Unless turning off the water will increase the likelihood of a gas leak, I view the gas leak as a random event with much lower odds that it would occur. For every gas leak explosion, there is probably 10 water heaters that break. The odds are even higher if you focus only on water heaters (and ignore the meters which tend to be high level offender, furnaces, etc.).
This is just a couple weeks.
You worry too much. It's called OCD. Leave things alone.
That's the way I've been doing it for the last 10 years without problems - water off and thermostat to minimum. BTW, I've come back
3-4 weeks later and the water temp is comfortably warm (not hot) - thats a 40gal tank with a standard pilot and no input of cold water during that time. KC
The only way I would do that is if you also turn the control to "pilot" so that the heater doesn't kick on. Otherwise when the heater kicks on and the valves are shut, it'll pressurize the tank and possibly release the T/P valve, thus causing the exact problem you're trying to avoid :)
Personally I would turn the heater to "pilot" and shut off ALL the water to the house and drain it down that way if the furnace fails while I'm gone it won't burst any pipes. I wouldn't be worried about getting all the water out of the heater, *some* is good enough. I say this because the last time my house was unoccupied for more than a day or two my furnace apparently failed to light at some point during that time period and I came home to a 45 degree house (I think I had the thermostat set at 55) if it'd been below freezing, and I hadn't shut the water off, it coulda been ugly. Of course that has never happened since, Murphy's Law says that if a random, rare failure occurs it will happen of course when you're not around to correct it.
nate
I drained my pipes and the water in the toilet tank, but didn't think about the water in the toilet bowl. It had about 1 1/2" of ice in it
- luckily it didn't freeze solid and break the thing. That was a lesson learned the 'easy' way.
KC
theres tons of stuff that might be damaged in our home if it freezes, water lines, sewer traps, water lines with low spots, bottled water, chemicals and such in bottles, what about water trapped in dishwashers, washing machines, and fridge ice makers? just to name a few.........
worrying too much about stuff like this can lead to ill health and early death, and then none of these trivial matters mean squat.
read where a homeowner turned his water off before leaving on a trip. good safety move huh?
well some kids lit a small fire on the fellows wood porch, a neighbor noticed the fire and attempted to put it out with the homeowners garden hose, which obviously didnt work since all water was off:(
the fire got out of hand causing 50 grand in damages... that could of easily been prevented if the homowner hadnt stressed about leaving his home for the day and turning off the water.
you cant be perfectly safe:(
I'd be more concerned with the gas wasted running the pilot. It adds up to a significant amount over time.
You might be interested in these:
Or a whole house unit with vacation-mode that wont allow over a certain pre-set GPM to flow while on vacation:
Yes you can - just set the gas valve to the "away" or "pilot" position. On a Unitrol gas valve there is a pilot position on the gas control and a "vacation" setting on the thermostat (which is for all intents and purposes "off".
leaving the pilot going is not only ok, it's recommended. it helps keep the burner plenum and stack dry.
s
How much is really wasted? If the house is occupied, the pilot just helps to keep the water hot between uses.
i hope you're trying to be funny. You could run a pilot light for a year on about a dime. You're certainly not going over the gas companies minimum with one.
s
I've seen quotes of 5-15 therms per month, I don't know if this has been reduced significantly on modern equipment but at $1.30 or so per therm that I pay that works out to at least $78 per year, which is considerably more than "about a dime"! Is this accurate? I don't know, I'd love to see some solid modern data, but there's a reason standing pilots were banned on most gas fired appliances, water heaters being the exception given that the pilot heat is not really wasted as it goes towards keeping the water hot, but we're talking about shutting down a dormant water heater in which case the water doesn't need to be kept hot.
" The exact cost of operating the pilot light will depend on the design of the heater and price of gas, but could range from $12 to $20 per year"
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