"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in message
...
: "Pop" wrote in message
: ...
: Do all water heaters have a pressure relief valve of the type
: with the handle to test them?
: Ours is an oil-fired unit, works great, I drain out hte
crud
: approxumately monthly, give or take.
: I was looking at the pressure relief valve today: There is
no
: mechanical way of opening or testing it.
:
: Every one I ever saw had a handle. Could it be missing?
:
: Keep in mind though, that often when you test them they do not
re-seat
: properly and will leak.
Understood.

I'm probably going to replace it just on principle since I
started researching and can't find any such looking one and I
dont' want to disassemble it, old as it is g.

No, there's nothing missing, I'm pretty sure. Where the handle's
shaft would normally go into it, it's just a smooth metal with
sort of a ridge on top. Just for GPs, I went down and shot a
couple of pics of it.
You can move from one pic to the other by just changing the
digit "1" to a "2" or "3", and so forth.
http://www.twaynesdomain.com/WaterHeater/image1.jpg Head-on
http://www.twaynesdomain.com/WaterHeater/image2.jpg Side 3/4
http://www.twaynesdomain.com/WaterHeater/image3.jpg Overall,
Tank

There are no links to those pics; you have to use these URLs
above.

I acidentally did a double-jpg save on them, but ... I'm sure
there is still plenty of definition there to see what I'm talking
about.
The stamped metal tag next to it does a great job of
explaining how important the relief valve IS, and says to check
it periodically, but that's all. No other instructions of any
kind. Strangely enough, the instructions on the same plate for
inspecting/changing the anode are very precise and detail the
entire process. Strange!
The box sticking out at about the mid-height of the heater is
the thermostat, and below on the bottom is the oil pump/ignition
parts.

We've been here since 1983, and the heater was there when we
moved in, so it's not new, but it is clean inside. Our
maintenance buy said everything in it looked "spectacular",
including the anode, and mentioned he'd never seen a relief valve
like that, but ... and that was probably about 3 years ago now.
Oh, the drips down the side of the tank are from using a
power-washer last spring to clean the floor/walls. They're not
from leaks.

Comments welcome ... think I should make the replacement a
priority?

TIA

Pop