Water Heater dripping like noise

[trader_4]

+1 x 10

[trader_4]

That's a good catch. I assume you still need one, even if it's hooked up with flex pipe, since the purpose, ie to catch any small debris that might come along before it goes into the valve, would be the same. The fact that it's missing would be another indication that whoever put it in didn't know what they were doing and it probably wasn't inspected either.

[21blackswan]

opening the outside wall today

the outside pipe is painted copper [it did look like pvc]

thanks marc

[trader_4]

As Derby suggested, I would not open the outside wall. Why do you want to do that instead of opening an interior wall? How do you plan on matching that stucco or whatever the outside finish is?

[TimR]

I don't see any water on the inside of the wall.

If the pipe is copper it probably is from the TPR. If the pipe is dry then the TPR is probably not at fault or there would be water inside the room or the drip pan.

I suspect the laundry area.

There is no way I would open an exterior wall except as a last resort. I can patch interior much more easily.

[trader_4]

The drywall on both walls where the WH is has large water stains on the lower part.

+1

[21blackswan]

thanks all,

big change/break; a neighbor told about a leak in this house, above the water heater, in the wall; so I cut a few holes up there, and sure enough, there was the leak

[I thought I would have to move the water heater, to get at the inside of the wall; that's why the stucco seemed simpler]

Now it's just a leaking copper to PVC joint to fix

marc

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, That's good. But remember there is tool you can use to pin point a spot where water is leaking. Plumbing outfits have it. It is very sensitive high power microphone so to speak of. It can detect leaks right on.

[21blackswan]

for those interested leak revealed

[click on photo to enlarge]

thank goodness for my neighbor, pointing out the location; i would have started at the bottom, and would have removed the water heater, or worse, cut into the lower stucco, outside

thanks marc

[trader_4]

Thanks for the update, glad you found it so easy. And I agree, you got very lucky with the neighbor.

IDK what we're even looking at there. Never seen anything like it. They transitioned from copper to cpvc, but what kind of connection is that? It looks like it's a crimp? And what's that greatly reduced size elbow doing there? Good grief. You have to wonder what else they screwed that you don't know about.

[DerbyDad03]

That's quite a butchered plumbing job. I wonder what else is hidden behind that wall.

Since you will probably want to enlarge and square off that hole in order to insert a neat patch, it might make sense to enlarge it enough to see (and replace) the connection for the other WH pipe. I doubt they did a better job on that one. It's better to fix them both now instead of having to open the wall again when the other one starts to leak.

[DerbyDad03]

How did the neighbor know where to look?

[21blackswan]

my neighbor said the previous owner had a leak in the same spot. Possibly the same joint.

marc

[trader_4]

Well, then maybe there's hope..... Whatever that mess is, maybe it was the previous owner or some hack that did it, not the guys who did the plumbing for the whole house.

[DerbyDad03]

Except for the fact that the original connection leaked also so we don't know if the first plumber was any better than the last.

[Guv Bob]

Thanks for posting all the photos thru the end. I was going to suggest popping off one side of the stand, but you solved it. I wonder why the stand is sealed like that? I built one with 2x4 legs cross braced so I could use the space underneath or access the wall if needed later.

Also, around here we are required to have a pressure relief valve vented to the outside. Looks like this one doesn't have one - top right side connection. I would also run the drip pan pipe outside also. I had a slow water heater leak that went unnoticed for a month and no drip pan. Ended up being major headache drying out walls and floor, cleaning out mold....

[Guv Bob]

Another good point. I have a fair amt of experience with tubing and small pipe, and when I put mine in, I followed the code to the letter. Even so I still had a plumber come and connect the gas and go over the entire installation to be sure I had some kind of receipt from a licensed plumber for the CYA file. Even so, I had to tell the plumber to install a drip leg and to use the correct length of flex pipe for the gass supply. Then had the gas company dude out for a final blessing.

For 21 -- you might also want to have the gas dude out, and have him check to be sure it is vented properly, right size & type of vent pipe, ceiling connection location, height of vent outlet above the roof, etc.

[Fran Madlang]

This worked for us! - thank you for this post