On Nov 18, 12:34*pm, wrote:
On Nov 18, 11:21*am, Geek Dad wrote:

It's an A.O. Smith 40 gallon gas water heater.

Water heaters rarely, if ever, fail catastrophically. You will notice
a small drip-type leak long before it becomes a spurt or flood, unless
you are not home for weeks at a time.


I would have to disagree with that. When my last one went, the first
indication anything was wrong was when I was awakened in the middle of
the night by a very low buzzing or humming sound. It was being
caused by the water flow from a failed tank as it moved through the
cold water pipes. The stream was about half the size of a pencil,
but clearly enough that with a finished basement, it could easily
cause major damage before being noticed. Prior to that, the tank
looked perfectly fine and was about 12 years old.

Also, a friend had his go while away on a business trip. When he came
back, the basement floor was flooded. Again, there was no warning
from a drip or small leak. Clearly you can have serious damage from a
water heater without having a warning from a drip first, and that
damage can certainly occur within a day. Just the typical unfinished
basement, with boxes of crap around, etc would present quite a
headache with not all that much water.





Mine was 30 years old when I replaced it this last summer. It didn't
leak, it simply didn't keep the water hot, and I finally got sick of
cold showers.