Water Heater Safety Tip!

RandyWayne · #1 11-11-2007, 06:51 PM

For all those who see that dangling pipe on their hot water heater and think to themselves "What the...? Why, I'll just screw a cap on that to keep it from leaking!" Here is a VERY important video!

[YT="Water Heater Rocket"]JmJoyuUJj2Q[/YT]

Timmy · #2 11-11-2007, 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RandyWayne

For all those who see that dangling pipe on their hot water heater and think to themselves "What the...? Why, I'll just screw a cap on that to keep it from leaking!" Here is a VERY important video!

[YT="Water Heater Rocket"]JmJoyuUJj2Q[/YT]

Awesome! Man, I love Myth Busters!

Unless I missed it, they didn't explain how they got the pressure to build up, but I suppose it was by disabling the thermostat so the heater would run continuously. And plugging the pressure relief thing, of course.

RandyWayne · #3 11-11-2007, 07:19 PM

Thats all they did, was disable the thermostat and cap the safety vent.
This was actually the 3rd of three segments. The first was done with a 6 gallon RV-style water heater in their garage, and the 2nd was a 30 gallon model at the same site that this was filmed. Then they did it with THIS one, which was 50 gallons AND built the house around it.

meBNme · #4 11-11-2007, 07:54 PM

Now just imagine if this were a GAS water heater in your home!!!

NightOwl · #5 11-11-2007, 08:11 PM

http://www.wcnc.com/news/topstories/...1c9f9c082.html

That happened 4 blocks from my house

Check the video

RandyWayne · #6 11-11-2007, 08:13 PM

When you watch the Mythbusters video, it describes the damage in this story to a T.

NightOwl · #7 11-11-2007, 08:17 PM

Quote:

“The hot water heater ended up like 200 feet from the house where it went through the roof,” said Reynolds.

That part was interesting

RandyWayne · #8 11-11-2007, 10:21 PM

What is scary is all the old coots in our area who do this very thing! (Capping the safety vents and removing any safety thermostats)

BoredOutOfMyMind · #9 11-11-2007, 10:28 PM

If you rent and do not own, you need insurance for YOUR belongings. The landlord will have payment for his house but NOT your possessions!!

pelathais · #10 11-12-2007, 07:34 AM

I was standing in a grocery store parking lot talking to a friend once when suddenly a large explosion went off in the nearby neighborhood right in my line of vision. I couldn't tell what it was due to trees, etc blocking my view. We jumped into his truck (closest vehicle) and raced over there. Amazingly a fire truck was already on the scene and our presence wasn't needed.

Long story short, natural gas explosion. The walls of the one floor home had been blown out and the roof was sitting, mostly intact, on the rubble beneath. The single occupant was killed.

I tell my kids stories like this over and over again. I don't want to be responsible for some one "winning" the "Darwin Award."