Nate Nagel wrote:
Hi all,

yesterday I did the annual flush of my gas fired water heater - and at
the same time I "burped" the T&P valve, as is my habit. It's on the side
of the tank near the top, and there's just a straight length of copper
pointing toward the floor coming out of it. I usually leave a small
plastic container under it to catch any drips so I can see if there's a
situation developing. It was replaced two years ago after it got weak,
popped off in normal operation (pressure surge?) and then didn't seal
properly and kept dripping over a long weekend while I was out of town.
D'oh!

Anyway, I just looked in the container and there were a couple drops of
water in there, so I "burped" it again. I put my pressure gauge on the
drain and it is reading 70 PSI same as it did last time I checked.

I assume that these things have a finite life, but two years (literally,
less than 25 months) seems a bit short...

Is there anything that commonly kills these, or did I just get a bum
one? It's a Watts brand one, FWIW, whatever is sold at the
Orange-Colored Store and the same model number as the one that was on
there before.

I'll keep an eye on it to see if there was just a rogue piece of debris
in there and all is well now, but I've been keeping the tank well
flushed, so I can't imagine there's that much...

Now I'm thinking I really should plumb the T&P to dump into the deep
sink since I've already had issues with it once before (no floor drain
in laundry room, of course...)

nate

Hmmm,
It could be a case of wrong T&P valve or running water way too hot.
70psi is little higher than normal incoming water pressure. Think
hot water tank pressure in normal working state is lot higher than 70psi.