How To Handle The Water Heater Leaking?

Water heaters are a must have in every home. People use them every day. Water heaters are used for showering and similar bath purposes, washing hands, washing the dishes and the clothes, so in a way, a water heater is a very important appliance in each home.

Having a broken water heater is a serious situation. It means that you won’t be able to have a shower before you go to work. You can’t go smelly, right? If your heater breaks you need to solve this problem as fast as possible.

Water heaters usually don’t just stop working. In order for the water heater to become fully not operational, something visible must happen previously. Leaking is one major sign that soon something serious will go wrong. If you notice a water heater leaking, here’s what you must do immediately.

Turn off the water supply

It’s very important to turn off the water supply the first moment you realize the water is leaking from somewhere. If there’s huge pressure on the place where drops are coming out, is soon might become a place where a big jet stream of water starts coming out.

Sometimes the parts connecting the pipes and the heater are broken which is fairly simple to fix, and sometimes the pipes are damaged, and this might even create a small explosion. Turning the water off will prevent this.

Turn off the electricity

Even though leaking is a serious problem of its own, it might become even more serious if you don’t take this precaution. You probably know that water and electricity combined are deadly. That’s why you must turn off the main power supply in order to prevent a real catastrophe. Learn more about this here.

The main electricity supply is the best choice so you can be sure about your safety. If you think this is not the best option, at least turn off the power supply that’s closest to the leaking. Keep sockets and cords without electrical power.

See how serious the damage is

If the damage is small and just a little dripping is happening from some part of the heater, then just turn off the water and call for the pros explaining the situation.

Sometimes, however, the situation is much more serious than this. The leaking might become flooding and the whole place to become a small lake. The water finds its way and it will soon go over to the other rooms and into the neighbors’ apartments. In this situation, turn off the water and call 911 for further instructions.

Call the pros

When you realize you have a water heater leak, you need to call the pros. What you need is a specialized and skilled plumber who will detect and fix the problem.

Sometimes the problem can be fixed in just minutes, and sometimes it will take a more serious approach and action. Whatever the solution is, you need to trust these guys as they will surely do a better job than you.

Ask for advice

When this happens and the plumbers come, they’ll surely fix your problem. There’s nothing they can’t fix that is connected to water and pipes in your home. However, sometimes, this is not the best solution.

It’s wise to ask for free advice. Ask them what they think, is it smarter to fix the problem or get a new heater. If your heater is almost 10 years old, it might be time to throw away the old one and get a new heater. If the heater is working just fine, and some of the connecting parts are broken, then the plumber will probably advise you not to buy a new heater.

Conclusion

Water heater leak is a serious problem. Many people think the problem is not very serious and decide to fix it on their own. This is not a smart move. One reason is that they probably have no proper tools for it, and the other is that amateurs can only do a bigger problem than fixing the old one.

Always call for plumbers. It’s better to pay someone a small fee for their services than create an even greater problem that will draw more money from your pocket later.