Gas Water Heater Leaking From Top Vent

Fortunately and to your relief sometimes when your water heater is leaking from the top it may not be because of a malfunctioning or defective part.

Gas water heater leaking from top vent.

From its base where it screws into the water heater from the piping attached to the t p relief valve and also coming out of the open end of the pipe. 6 open the pressure relief on the top vent and cycle several times. 1 turn off the water heater. Check the plumbing pipes above the water heater using a stepladder if necessary.

Electric switch or turn the gas control valve to off 2 attach garden hose to the drain valve. A drip from above can easily leak down on top of the water heater and even work its way down the insulation and make it look like the leak is coming from the tank itself. Two places it may be leaking from include. Turn off the water supply to your water heater using a pipe cutting tool like this one for tight spaces cut the water pipe a couple inches below the lowest soldered.

Leaks from the top of the water heater are usually caused by one of the three connections at the top as shown in the diagram below. Most homes have a dedicated circuit breaker for an electric water heater and some were built with an easily accessible secondary shut off in the vicinity of the heater itself. The first place to check is the plumbing pipes above the water heater. Rain water when rain water travels down the flue vent pipe of a gas water heater it can collect on the top of your tank.

4 shut off water inlet to hot water heater. If you suspect that you have a leak from the top turn off the power to your water heater. Here are a few other possible causes. If your valve is located on the top of your water heater like in the picture below check to see where it s leaking from.

For a gas water heater turn the thermostat control to the off position. Drain your tank just slightly so you don t get any overflow as you remove the parts your replacing along with pulling. 3 run garden hose to a safe place to dump hot water.