I am trying to fix my moms hot water heater.It is leaking out the pop off valve I replaced the valve and it?

Question

still is leaking out the valve.It seems to do it when she is doing wash.What would cause this .

Answer 1

Are you sure it is the valve and not the threads? Did you use Teflon tape, or plumbers dope ? I can not think of why there would be enough pressure to make the valve leak. Especially if it happens when she has an open valve.

Answer 2

First I would be sure that it is the valve leaking and not leaking around the threads. If it is definately the valve leaking, I would connect a hose to it go get the water to a drain or outside and then activate the valve manually for maybe 5 seconds and then turn it loose. See if it resets. If not you will have to replace the valve. To replace the valve be sure that you have relieved all the pressure before you start to remove the valve. Also, be certain to use some plumbers dope or teflon tape when installing the new valve.

Answer 3

The "pop off valve"is a temperature and pressure relief valve. It will open when pressure reaches the mechanical limit factory preset or the same with temperature. This is the safety mechanism designed to keep the water heater from exploding. If yours is leaking there could be one of two things happening. 1. your pressure or tmperature of the water in the tank is too high. 2. your valve has gone bad. Go to a home improvement store and purchase a new t & p valve, a roll of 1/2" teflon tape, and a small thing of pipe dope (thread sealent). Turn off the water to your house and relieve the pressure on the system by opening a few faucets until they stop. Use a cresent wrench, pair of channel locks, or a pipe wrench and undo the t & p valve. (You will probably have to cut the line going to the valve to do this. If it old it might be a real bear to back it out of its threads. And if it will not back out you wil be looking at changing out the heater.) Wrap the new valve with teflon tape a few times and apply a small amount of pipe dope on top of the tape. screw it into the heater until it is good and snug. DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN OR CROSS THREAD THE VALVE! Reconnect the relief line to the valve.Turn the faucets back off that you turned on earlier. Turn the water to your house. Run as normal and see if this solves your problem. You can also undo the panel(s) on the front of your heater and make sure the temp on the thermostats arent turned up to high. they should be set around 125 - 130 degrees. 125 deg. is a standard factory setting.(turning the thermostats up doesnt increase the amount of hot water, only the temp, and how hard your heater willwork to keep this temp.) You can also put a pressure guage on one of the hose bibbs on your house to see if your pressure is too high. Typical house pressure should be around 50lbs. to 80lbs. per sq. in. 60-70 lbs. is optimal. If yours is much higher it could be causing your problem and you may need to install a regulator to the house system. More than likely your t & p valve is just bad. that is the most common thing to create this problem. But if a new one doesnt solve the problem look to the other things I have described. If your heater is over 10 yrs. old it could be full of sediment and not letting the water be heated properly. If so you might want to consider changing out the whole heater.

Answer 4

The valve is working properly, I suppose you noticed that the water isn't hotter than normal and I'm sure the pressure hasn't changed recently (although it could have, check it you may need a pressure reducer) if there is a check valve installed in the line which we install on any new water services, then you will need an expansion tank. When the water is heated it needs to expand if there is a check valve it has no were to go except out the relief valve.

Answer 5

Had this problem yesterday,I just manually open the the pop off valve for a few minutes and it quit.Needless to say I now pricing hot water heaters.Probably the dip tube they had a recall on certain ones.

Answer 6

Sound the air pressure in top of the tanks is low,


Need to find a way to drain the tank and replace the valve