Water heater explosion!

[Stoltz13]

This a picture of an apartment owned by a friend of mine:



Although one person was home at the time... nobody was hurt.

That is what a little bit of steam pressure can do !

[RagPicker]

This a picture of an apartment owned by a friend of mine:



Although one person was home at the time... nobody was hurt.

That is what a little bit of steam pressure can do !

Wow. I want more details.

Can you get me actual pics of the water heater itself?

Gas or electric?

Any news articles on this?

Folks, this is why you NEVER, EVER restrict or plug off the temperature and pressure relief valve on a water heater.

And you must open the relief valve twice a year to flush it out. If it leaks then replace it. But if you allow the mineral deposits to build up inside it can lead to this. And it might be YOUR CHILD there inside that window.


PM or email me if you want some professional guidance with your water heater safety.

[Stoltz13]

RP, some how I knew this story would interest you. (actually... that most of the reason I posted it ! )

Any news articles on this?

Yep, here's one: http://www.dailyitem.com/homepage/local ... 00131.html

Can you get me actual pics of the water heater itself?

Not likely: "They quickly realized the water heater was the culprit, but could not find much evidence of the appliance's existence, he said." !!

Gas or electric?

Electric: "Firefighters searched the house to determine the cause of the explosion, ruling out natural gas because there are no natural gas lines in Mifflinburg, according to the chief."

As far as I know, nothing was done to alter the function of the water heater... it is likely that the cause is something like you would probably suspect: a plugged relief valve.

Which reminds me... back when I was a youngster and my parents just getting started. My dad picked up a used water heater to replace the old unit that died.

One fateful morning... while flushing the toilet... my dad was rudely startled awake when the toilet started to hop ! Apparently, the safety valve was jammed shut, steam had backed into the cool lines... and the worse was yet to come as one after another the plastic cool lines started to explode... the house filled with steam and water ran down the walls ! That something I will never ever forget !

This time around... I believe the replacement water heater was brand new...

[Stoltz13]

Here's another news article and the source of the picture above: http://www.wnep.com/Global/story.asp?S= ... v=5ka4Pfv9

[Ex-Menno]

I know a friend that he saw a water heater blew up and it was laying out on the street. The house was totaled with a big hole up the roof.

[RickH]

Stoltz. All I can say is thank God for no injuries and then Wow!
I'll surely use this picture and story (excluding any identities) as training
when I get back to work.
Blessings!
Rick

[baptistbrother]

This a picture of an apartment owned by a friend of mine:



Although one person was home at the time... nobody was hurt.

That is what a little bit of steam pressure can do !

where was this?

[Country Boy]

This a picture of an apartment owned by a friend of mine:



Although one person was home at the time... nobody was hurt.

That is what a little bit of steam pressure can do !

where was this?

Market street in Mifflinburg, PA

[Sunbeam]

Shoulda gone with ICF.

[surdelmundo]

Shoulda gone with ICF.

But I wonder how many people know what you're advertising.

[RagPicker]

Shoulda gone with ICF.

But I wonder how many people know what you're advertising.

I do but I wonder what she knows about it and why she is plugging it.

[barnhart]

That is rather amazing. It seems to me to be the result of two failures, a thermostat and a pressure release valve. Several years ago I rebuilt an attached garage with similar damage. Two walls were knocked 16 inches off the foundation and the third was on the neighbors property. That was from bringing a gas grill inside for the winter without turning the gas off at the tank. So everyone TURN OFF YOUR GAS GRILL while you are checking your water heater pressure relief valves.

[Sunbeam]

Shoulda gone with ICF.

But I wonder how many people know what you're advertising.

I do but I wonder what she knows about it and why she is plugging it.

It was simply an observation.

[RagPicker]

Shoulda gone with ICF.

But I wonder how many people know what you're advertising.

I do but I wonder what she knows about it and why she is plugging it.

It was simply an observation.

You ain't getting off that easy.

Come on, spill it!

[RagPicker]

That is rather amazing. It seems to me to be the result of two failures, a thermostat and a pressure release valve.

On an electric water heater you have 3 lines of defense.

The first is your thermostat. It if fails there is a manual reset thermal switch on the upper thermostat. If that fails then you still have the T&P relief valve to prevent a catastrophe like this.

The thermostats fail frequently.

The manual reset thermal switches fail infrequently.

It's when these two lines of defense fail that your T&P is called on to protect you. Have a problem there and you got major problems.

Water heaters usually, but not always, go straight up when they explode. I believe someone mentioned a hole in the roof. The reason for that is that the weakest joint on an older water heater is on the bottom.

Inside that metal jacket is a steel tank. They take a flat piece of metal, roll it into a cylinder, and weld that seam. Then they take a slightly convex metal disk the same diameter as this cylinder and butt weld it to the top of the tank. Then they take a concave disk that fits inside the cylinder, fit it inside the bottom until both the disk edge and the bottom edge of the cylinder are lined up. Then those two edges are welded together.

So now the top of the tank curves out and the bottom of the tank curves in.

After welding on the various threaded ports a glass coating is sprayed on the inside of the tank to help prevent rusting. It is all a smooth curved surface except for one place. You guessed it, the joint where the bottom disk and the bottom of the cylinder are joined together. It is hard to get a perfect coating at that joint. And once rust gets started under the glass coating it just keeps going. I want to point out that this joint is the weakest in the water heater even before any rust starts.

So now let's say you have a run away water heater (when all the controls fail the element keeps heating, it runs away.) The water heater makes a bunch of weird noises, then it does this funny little dance, and then SOMETHING has to give. Usually what gives is this rust weakened joint on the bottom.

KerBOOM!

Hey, after I wrote this all out I remembered that one of my friends did a controlled water heater explosion. Let me see if I can find the link.

OK, here it is.

http://www.waterheaterblast.com/

Download the video and watch the water heater explode. (way cool huh?)

Then click on the Q&A links for some valuable information on how you can prevent this from happening to your water heater in your home.

If you click on the Links button you can see some cool pictures of exploded water heaters.

Be sure to catch this link: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/33094_boom28.shtml A water heater went out through the roof and traveled a whole block through the air before coming down to earth. That's a regular missile!