I was trying to take a shower and found that there was only luke warm water. Went down to the basement to see what was going on and what did I find? Water leak by the tank!
The Bradford-White Hydrojet was less than 10 years old (see this article when I replaced it back in 2005) so I was surprised it broke. I mean the casing outside still looked brand new!
Anyway, the good news was that my leak tray (about 3″ tall) caught most of the leak. Of course, it is too late to go buy a replacement (it’s 10:30pm) so I will have to take a sponge bath for now.
Draining
In the meantime, I am going to drain 40 gallons of water from the tank, one 5 gallon bucket at a time because the space is really tight. For this job I need:
- 3-4ft long hose with a threaded female coupling (to hook up to the drain valve on the tank)
- Bunch of towels
- Long, flat head screw driver (to open and close the drain valve)
Exact steps are identical to what I did back in 20006 (found here), except in this case, the water was not hot (leaking water put out the pilot flame).
If the tank is not draining fast, you may need to open the pressure relief valve (sort of like punching a hole in a 2 liter soda bottle when pouring to equalize air pressure inside the bottle).
I will post a follow up (TBD).
