We live in a condo that was built in 2003 as apartments and converted to condos and sold "new" in 2005. I'm not sure the actual age of the water heater, but the serial number says something like "E.1.1998" or something to that effect, I don't have the exact number in front of me (I'm at work). I don't know if the 1998 in the serial number is a coincidence, or if it represents the year it was built. If it does, I have no idea where the water heater was for the 5 years before the apartments were built.
Anyway, over the weekend, our hot water went cold. I didn't know anything about water heaters yet, but I'm very handy and I always try to fix things before I call a pro, so I took a look. The first thing I noticed was that the drip pan was about full of water (probably 2 gallons or so at least). I vacuumed it all out and try to relight the pilot. The pilot lit, stayed on, and when I turned the temp back up, it fired up no problem. I wasn't sure what to think, but I let it go for a few to see if the hot water would come back. I came back half an hour later to find that the flame had gone back out. I lit it again, and again it lit perfectly fine, but went out 10 or so minutes later.
I then began to further research and inspect the situation and at this point I noticed that the cold water inlet fitting was leaking where it connects to the water heater. The threaded part coming out of the water heater is a little rusty, and there was some blue stuff coming out of the connection. It was not spraying, but was dribbling pretty good. There is a cut out in the top of the outer shell of the tank where the threaded pipe sticks out. This gasket seemingly seals the threaded pipe to the cutout in the outer shell. Part of this gasket was pushed into the cut out leaving a hole leading into the top of the tank. The leaking water from the cold inlet fittings was filling up the gasket (it's about 3.5" or so deep) with water, which was then draining into this gap/hole in the gasket/cut out (into the top of the water heater). I have no idea where the water goes after this, which is part of the reason I'm posting here. I assume that it does not go into the main water tank, as I think that is a pressure tested tank that is separate from the outer shell. I did also notice what appeared to be some water dripping at the bottom of the tank, but I couldn't tell where it had come from. It was at the bottom front corner of the tank, directly below the inspection cover where the pilot flame peep hole is. It was wet there at the corner and dripping, but like I said, I couldn't tell where it was coming from. It did not appear to be coming out the inspection cover or anything. There is a 90 degree lip from the outer wall to the base of the tank (base is like 2" tall, and about 2" smaller radius) and the water was collecting on this 90 corner, and kind of felt like it was coming from the bottom of the shell, from the flat part created by the 2" radius difference, if that makes sense. Sorry for the confusing description.
So, to make this long story a little shorter, I tested the relief valve, it seems like it's working (some water came out), and I tightened the fitting at the cold water inlet, and now the leak seems to have subsided (will check again tonight). I didn't notice any more water collecting in the drip basin. I lit the pilot again, turned up the temp, and it has stayed lit all night, the water is hot again, and was lit this morning still, and had hot water this morning as well.
My guess was that perhaps the water that dripped into the top of the tank eventually found it's way down the inside of the tank shell (outside the actual water tank), to the pilot flame, and was extinguishing it as it dripped/splashed. Does this sound plausible? I probably should have opened up the inspection cover and checked if it was wet/damp inside, but I didn't.
So my questions are, does it seem possible that the water coming into the top was putting out the flame and that's why the hot water had turned off? And, more importantly, could that explain some dripping from the bottom corner of the outer shell, and could it have caused any worse problems that mean I should be replace the tank? If the flame stays on, the water stays hot, and the drip basin doesn't fill up with water for the next couple weeks, is it safe to say that I'm in the clear until the tank (or something else) goes "for real" ?