I Called It

I blogged the other day about flushing the hot water heater.  This was the last sentence:  My only fear is some of the sediment might have been holding the thing together and now it will fall apart.  Time will tell I guess.

Guess what…?  Ever since I flushed the hot water heater, I heard water trickling near it but I thought it was probably always there and I just never noticed.  Yesterday I noticed that the sump pump had pumped – it RARELY does.  So I grabbed a flashlight and went down and looked over the water heater really good.  The top pressure valve is hooked to a copper pipe that runs across the top and down the back side of the heater to the French drain.  Sure enough, it was trickling right out in a pretty steady stream.  Fortunately it says online that the valve is pretty cheap and easy to replace.  It also said if it hasn’t been opened in a while (I had to open it to vent the tank to drain it), sometimes dirt or corrosion gets in there and prevents it from completely closing.  So I rapped it a few times with a hammer, opened and closed it and finally opened the bottom drain for a few seconds.  That seemed to “bleed” it – air wooshed out before the water.  I closed the bottom drain and the drip immediately stopped.  Just checked it now after the morning showers (and all night) – no drips, drain dry, and the sump pump had not pumped all nights.  Whew!