40 gal hot water heater 36.0000btu leaking water over top of pilot light help!!?

Question

last night i walked by it and i could hear a drip inside of it.. and the water was cooling off.. so i looked in the botom where the pilot light is and there was a puddle of water on to of the burner inside.. there was a drip over top inside .it looked like the water was coming from the middle.. the valve on the side was changed this year.. so its not that.. and the inlet and outlet on the top are fine.. where could the water come from? and also i shut of the gas "its only gas" but i still have cold water in it. its about 40 psi.. could it explode with no heat? and it seemd like after the heat was off the leak stoped. whats going on?

Answer 1

time to replace it, when it heats up the crack in it expands, when it cools off the crack closes.
no it wont explode, should be pressure resist to 200 to 300 lbs,

Answer 2

If all looks well on the outside I would venture to guess that the inside tank is going and the water is flowing down the tank and into the burner, How old is the heater?time you see water in the burner area and can't see any visible leak on the outside then the only other thing is it's leaking on the inside, and the only thing inside is the tank. I would also shut off the water feed in case it doe's decide to let go and you aren't there.The reason it probably stopped was because when it's hot the tank expands and opens the crack or break.

Answer 3

I'm sorry to tell you that you have to replace your water heater. It has probaly rusted out, and now the tank is so thin at the bottoom that water has begun leaking. Please take care of this as soon as you can, before the hole gets bigger and the entire contents of the tank ends up on your floor.

Answer 4

Your waterheater sprong a leak.
Time to go get a new one.

Answer 5

was it raining? possibly water may have went though the vent