Your hot water heater might be ready to fail and it could cost you $1,000’s in home repairs. Look for these warning signs and do maintenance to avoid a disaster.
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Most homes have a ticking time
bomb waiting to go off. And it's not if but when Okay, so your water heater is probably not
going to shoot through your roof. But the Mythbusters have confirmed
that it can. A more likely situation
is your tank ruptures and it shoots water All over the place, potentially costing
you thousands of dollars in repair. And unfortunately, I was not planning on
making this video, but our time Bomb just went off As I was getting out of my truck
from having lunch at Chipotle. My belly full of burrito. The protocol looked okay,
so I saw something no homeowner ever Wants to see, and that's water
coming out from under your garage door. And as I opened the garage door, I saw
a little stream, which I can only describe As walking to the back of the garage
like the salmon of Capistrano. When I got to the water
here, there was just a nice waterfall Dripping out and making that puddle
and going all the way To the front of the garage. Now, if you have your water heater inside
or even up in your attic, This could cause thousands, if not tens of
thousands of dollars of damage. So today
I'm going to show you the warning signs That I should not have ignored
and the maintenance That I should have been doing
to make this last a little bit longer. And also, what I'm really excited about
is I'm going to rip Into this thing, Take water. Heaters are actually pretty simple. And if you don't know it
and this is actually not the take, This part here is a metal jacket
that is protecting the tank And there is a layer of insulation. And behind that is the actual tank,
which could be 30, 40, 50 or even 60 Gallons. The way that things work is
the cold water comes in from the top And then there's a tube that puts it in
at the bottom so it can be heated up. Then we have a heating element down here.
Ours is gas, but you may have electric
and then whatever The temperature is, set it for that
perfect Taylor Swift solo in the shower. Then you heat it Up until it gets to that point
and it rises up and then it will come out Over here on the hot side into your pipes
as you call for hot water. So as we think about maintenance
and longevity, The first thing you need to know
is how long should a water heater last? And the general consensus Is that they will last 8 to 12 years
depending upon the model And some of the different things That they might have in them to ward off
corrosion. If you've bought a house
and you've not replaced the water heater And you don't really know
how old it is, here's how to find out. Every water heater
should have a little spec sticker on here. Basically says the manufacturer
or serial number, Model capacity
and a bunch of things there. Now, some of them might actually have the
manufacturing date right on the sticker, But most water heater manufacturers
actually put it into the serial number. It's kind of like a code. We have to break it
like a national treasure or something. It's a cipher. Yes.
See how the letters are coupled? This is a Bradford White model
that was here when we bought the house. And so I went in
and looked it up on the Internet. This is the first letter in the serial
number is the year that it was made. So it says be is 1985 or 2005. So this house was built in 2006. I think we're going to go with 2005. The second letter in the serial number Here is the month of manufacture
in alphabetical order. So a, B, c, D, e, f, g, h, eight, August. So this was manufactured
in August of 2005. Oh, so this thing is about 18 years old. So probably 17 years of use. This guy was definitely on his last legs.
So I'm not surprised at all
that it failed. But if you have one in your attic
or inside in a finished area, Then you're really going to want to start
thinking about replacing it. Once you get past that 12 year
mark, depending upon how well you're Maintaining it. Better to spend the money
a little bit earlier than to have to Spend a lot more money
once it Boston ruins a bunch of stuff. And here's the crazy part. Obviously I turn the water off
when this thing was leaking everywhere, But I want to turn it back on
just to see where it was leaking. And guess what? It's not leaking anywhere now. I have no idea what happened. My guess is just that the sediment
and rust just closed the hole up. So maybe for water here, but just
turn it off for two days and it'll work. But we're still going.
It definitely replaces. So when I take this thing off,
I'm going to cut into this thing And we're going to find out
where the leak. You see what we can see inside
and what ten years of neglect looks like. Another warning sign That your water heater is getting on its
last legs is signs of leakage. And you can see that
here on the water heater. Obviously, something was happening up top. And also, if you look under where
the igniter is, you can definitely see Some leakage there. That's kind of all rusty. Let's look up top
and see where this leaking is coming from. So there. Oh, wow. Let me get my camera and show you
what's going on up here. All right. So up here,
I don't know why that looks black. And this valve right here
is obviously leaking. That is water. And this is my water pressure regulator.
So that's reducing the water pressure
coming in. But the back of my expansion tank That is just rusting straight through. This looks like
this is about to bust at any minute. So, yeah, this is definitely a mess,
but nothing else on top That would really show me
what's happening down below. So I still think the tank is also leaking. So I need to take down
the old water heater. But to do that,
I've got to drain the water And undo some of those connections. And that is a perfect time to show you
the three major things that you should be Doing to maintain your water heater
in what I should have done. And we'll start off at the top
back of that expansion tank, Because there's some things that
you can do to see if it's still working. So if you've ever wondered
what this little tank Is on the top of your water heater,
that is the expansion tank. And basically there is a rubber bladder
right in the middle. So there's water on one side
and air on the other side. And the purpose of
this is as the water expands, Like I talked about, when it heats up
and as the water pressure rises, Then it can flex up and compress the air
because water is not compressible, But air is. So there's a little schrader
valve on here, which is the same valve That is on your car tires
and your bicycle. And I've got a little tire gauge
and I'm going to put that on there and see How much pressure we have Up. So that is kind of what I expected. We have zero pressure
because water just came out. Oh, that's probably why it is rusted
on the top side where the air should be. So what that means Is that bladder has ruptured
and the entire thing is full of water. So for maintenance, You do want to check the pressure
on the tank and if water comes out, You know, it's time to replace it,
But is not surprising at all. Now,
if this wasn't full of air and it read, Say, £30 and I had £50 of water pressure
in my system, then I would use a hand pump To pump up that air spot
until it gets to £50 of pressure. So you really just want to equalize that. And I'll show you a little gauge
of how you can check your water pressure At your faucet
to check your house, water pressure. You can just get One of these little pressure gauges
and it has a little hose adapter Right here
that you can put on a hose bib outside. So I can just screw this on now.
I can just turn the water on. So I've got about £50 of pressure
and the recommendation is 40 to £60. So we're right in there. So I would want my expansion
tank to also be £50 And the next thing we need to do
is empty the water heater. And that is a great thing for maintenance
is flushing your water heater yearly. But I need to start off
by turning off the cold water to the tank. But now we have a little hose bib here
and you can run a hose to that And run it outside. I'm just going to go into this bucket For the time being
just to see how funky it is. All right. Let's see how this looks. Oh, yeah. Be careful why you're doing
this. This is very hot water. I was expecting a bunch of sediment And things that come out,
but it's just a little bit brown water. Your hot water here is it cleans this. You know, it's almost like
I've been doing this every year. Oh, Oh, this is draining. Okay, But if you open the hot water faucet
side on one of your seats, Then it'll go a lot faster. Honey, curl hot water. Miss Boston,
You don't have to drain the whole tank
just until it goes Clear and actually attached
a little hose right into my sink Because I've got it here
towards the bottom of the tank. We did get a little more brown. There's definitely
gonna be some sediment in there. I can't wait to see what it looks like
when I cut it open. And the third major item on maintenance
is checking your anode rod. And the anode rod
is typically up at the top of the tank And is basically
a sacrificial piece of metal. So that will corrode that versus
corroding the outside of your tank. Now, the interesting thing is
I do not have an anode rod On this hot water heater,
so I don't know how that works. I've always seen them have them,
but this one doesn't. And I'll show you some pictures
here of what that does look like. But basically those last 1 to 3 years,
depending upon the hardness of your water And the minerals and all that. So that's something that as it gets
eaten away, you want to put a fresh one in And hopefully that keeps all the rust And corrosion away
from the interior walls of the water tank. Now for this last one,
there are some differing opinions, And that is your temperature
pressure relief valve. And this valve right
here, what this does is basically, If it gets a bit too much pressure
inside of the tank, It will open up and let the water out
and the pressure out with it. And if you don't have one of these,
if you seal it up, That's
how the Mythbusters got it to explode. So these are very, very important. But I know a lot of people
don't like to test this yearly, Because once you test it,
it has a tendency to leak. And that is another maintenance item that
if you are leaking out of this down tube, Then you just change out your TPR valve. But I'm actually going to open this up
because I can still hear Water in the tank.
I can kind of hear it bubbling. So I think there's some kind of
like pressure lock in there.
And I know the water should be below this. So hopefully when I open this up,
that allows the water To flow the rest of the way
out so I can get it removed. We'll see what happens. But you just pull it up
to to test it here. I can hear the air going in
and here comes the water. There we go. Hey, that worked.
Look at that. I guess science is good and well,
that's pretty cool. So unfortunately, I'm
going to have to replace almost all this. And I did find a leak on the water
pressure regulator here. So I'm going to take all of this apart,
starting with some of the fittings here And empty out the tank and obviously
shut off your gas valves before you mess With any of this gas
going into the water heater. Now, a lot of these things are corroded. So to help them loose,
I'm going to be using some WD 40 specialist
penetrant from today sponsor WD 40 brand. We're start by taking off this expansion
tank. Specialist Penetrant is perfect
for busting loose those rusted And corroded fittings and you can use it
on metal and plastic and rubber. It's safe and it won't damage any of it. I also love this two
in one can with the attached drawer That you can just flip up
for a nice tie stream Because I cannot tell you how many times I have lost that straw in the past,
but I think it's like 100%. If you want wider coverage,
you can use the spray option as well. That's perfect for nuts or bolts or locks
or threads and it works on contact. It also leaves behind a lubricating layer,
so it'll be easier to remove The nut the next time. Deputy 40 Brand has a whole line of
specialist products, including dry lube, White lithium grease and rust remover
soak, which are some of my favorites. You can check the links below
in the description To see where you can pick
some up for yourself. And a big thank you to WD 40
brand for sponsoring today's video. Ooh, sweet Mama.
Oh my gosh. I don't know what was going on
with the expansion thing. And look at the water that came out
when I drained it out. That is disgusting. That was all held up in the tank or what? Oh, my gosh. I've got everything disconnected. Now it's time to get the water heater
off of that stand. It's up there like 18 inches. So I basically built
like a set of cornhole boards, But it's just MDF with some little
two by fours to prop it up. And I'm just going to try to like,
shimmy it down the ramp because My 14 year old son is at camp
and so the muscle is not here. So here we go, see how it works. We're going to add a centerpiece. All right. I see how it is now. Yeah, that'll do it right. We don't have any water, so I can't, sir. Seems like a bad idea. Well, Lottie frickin That worked. Amazingly, here's this nastiness
I was talking about on top. Oh, look at that. I don't know what's going on,
but I cannot wait To cut into this bad boy
and see what's actually in there. So let me get this other one
up here first. All right. I got the new hot water heater. Let's see if it goes up as easy
as the old one came down. Oh, okay. Come on, baby. You can do it. Oh, the burn. All right.
This is the part
where I potentially get killed. Oh, there we go. So now I need to plumb this thing
for water, And I'm actually
going to be doing it with copper. I was going to using one of these
little shark bite things, the connectors. But this water heater
is actually taller than the old one, So it just wouldn't work. But honestly, I'm really happy
with what it came up with, Even though it took me a long time. So we sweat it all together
now and hope it doesn't leak. All right. I should do it now. I'll put the cherry on top
and I already loaded it up to 50 psi. All right. We are all hooked up, but there are 27
different joints that I sweated, And I am 97% sure that at least
one of them is going to leak. But, you know, stranger
things have happened. Let's go here. First. We'll just turn on the cold water. That's my water going down here. I thought I had that closed. Amazingly,
I'm not seeing anything leaking yet, but This is going to have to go all the way
up, I think, before we can, like, Pressurize it. It's looking good. Miraculously,
none of this ordering joints are leaking, But each of the four joints is leaking
just a little bit. I used pipe dope
and I guess I should use thread and pipe Dope or screw them down tighter. Yeah, we we're going to fix that
for a later day. I need a hot shower, but now I think it's
time to rip into that old water heater. All right,
We're going to tear into the water here. I'm going to do the expansion tank, too. And I tried to throw a screwdriver into it
because it's all rusted out In this one spot,
but apparently it's not that bad.
So I'm going to draw a little line on here
and we're going to cut A little section out
so we can see what it looks like inside. All right. We're going for safety patrol. Also, be safe out there, folks. Yes, Gloves to. All right. I think I've got it open now. Oh, oh, oh, That is so cool. Take a look at this. All right. It's kind of hard to see this,
but inside here, it's got all this water. I'm to pour that out. Oh, yeah. So this is supposed to be the upper side
because there's our little nozzle Right here. But obviously that was completely filled
with water. And this bladder is supposed to be here
in the center, and this is where The water should be up in here. So I think the water just got around
the side Will start by ripping the top off And seeing what the insulation is inside. And it looks like it's foam. Looks like there's
some spray foam right in here. And then this is fiberglass
and this is like in a bag. So I'm assuming they put the bag in there
and then just fill the spray foam around. All right. I put these back on
just so it'll help me move it around. But I'm just going to cut down here
and see if we can rip off the jacket. All right. That went pretty smooth. This jacket should just come right off. Oh, yeah. All right, let me turn this thing around. And you see what's going on.
Check that out. Check it out. You can already see some of the rust
and moisture that's in here. There's all kinds of moisture down here. So signs of that leak. All right,
let's see if this'll just start. Oh, man, that is really on there. Oh, here we go. Hi. Yeah, there's the tank right there. All right. You can see a bunch of rust
on the outside of the tank. It's wet right here. Water was definitely collecting there,
so the leak was probably Somewhere over here.
And that's where it was. Probably coming out.
Oh, this is nice and juicy. I think that leak was A combination of this guy
and this guy here. The whole jacket is off. Now I'm just going to cut the hole
in there where we can see All the sediment down in there
and what it looks like. We're almost there. All right, Let's pop the forbidden cookie jar. Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh, my God. Oh, that's pretty disgusting. All right, check this out. I didn't know there's a middle pipe here
that. Oh, that's the flow. So that does the combustion. Guess that makes sense. And then right here, This is the bottom
so we can see all the sediment. But honestly, that is not a whole lot.
I'm kind of surprised. What is that? That looks weird. It looks like some kind of crazy barnacle
or something. But there's the leak, right there. You can see right down there
at the bottom, all that is just corroded. And that's where the pinhole leaks
were coming from. That was sending all the water down. So there you go. It was definitely time
to replace this on one if you want. See some other videos
where I'm fixing things around the house. I'm going to play this cued up for you
right there. A big thank you ftb d builders Club. I'm Brad.
Get out there and build something awesome.