DIYbanter - View Single Post - Turning off the water to a gas hot water heater for a week or so at a time

Pop`

Steve Barker wrote:
Since the inlet and outlet are at the top of the tank, and there
would be no inlet for air, how would a leak "anywhere" drain the tank?

"Pop`" wrote in message
news:uy%zh.800$hp4.470@trnddc02...
wrote:
On Feb 12, 10:02 am, "Alex" wrote:
Hi everyone,

We have an older house we're fixing up and trying to sell, but
being we only visit the house on the weekends we're thinking of
shutting off the water at the street during the week. This house
has a gas hot water heater, so I wasn't sure if shutting off the
water would cause any problems with the water heater, which is
about 3-4 years old.

The reason we want to turn the water off is because for one, the
house is old and I don't want a leak to pop-up when we're not
there, and secondly we're afraid some folks in the neighborhood
might take water from the outside faucet because I've seen them
doing this to other houses.

Thanks for any advice.

Alex

You can turn the water off and it shouldn't cause any problems. It
is possible though that a cup or two of water could emerge from the
TPR valve, because when water is heated, it expands. With many
systems, the small amount of expansion is taken up by the municipal
water system, giving it a place to go. By closing off the valve,
that cup of water may emerge from the TPR valve, unless you have an
expansion tank in the system.

One obvious solution is to turn the water heater to the pilot
setting, which will also save you energy cost during the week it's
off.

But ... if a leak develops anywhere and enough water drains from the
tank, it'll ruin it pretty quickly. Best to turn it to pilot of OFF
if electric when it's not needed. Saves fuel, too.

Any slowly dripping faucet, water softener during clean cycle, kids turn on
an outdoor faucet, pipe freezes & breaks, etc etc etc etc etc etc.. It's
not common, but there are a lot of possibilities.