Friday, November 09, 2007

Homeowner's Blues #173

Great. Now the Mythbusters have made me totally paranoid about my water heater.

13 comments:

  1. I just finished watching. Guess what. Its time to check if mine is in good working order. That took off just like some of the rackets I used to make.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Duh, rockets not rackets. Sorry

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yeah, that was simultaneously the coolest and the scariest thing I've seen in ages.

    And my water heater, while it does have a safety valve, apparently does not have a pipe attached to it. It's not even capped; it's just not there. This worries and confuses me.

    ReplyDelete
  4. When I had the condo inspected before I bought it, I was told that the water heater wasn't vented properly and to put up a carbon monoxide detector -- but my guest room is perfectly safe to stay in, honest!

    My main worry is that, when it ages out, I'm liable to have water all over my floor, my rug, and my furniture, since it's not conveniently in the basement or garage (neither of which I have). I'll replace it with one of those tankless heaters you switch on only when you need it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. A CO detector is a good thing to have, anyway, but that would make me nervous.

    And water on the floor would be a hell of a lot preferable to a water-heater-shaped hole in your roof. :)

    (Speaking of inspections... They would have told me when I had the house inspected if the heater wasn't safe, right? Right? All the guy mentioned was that the vent pipe was loose or something, and I believe they fixed that before I moved in.)

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm watching the ep now but I guess I now know the results ;)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Does one need spoiler warning for Mythbuster? I'm not sure it's possible to spoil that sight, anyway. :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I just watched it...Followed by a trip out to the garage to check on the water heater :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Just dont cap the vent. There should be a pipe from the relief valve down to the floor.

    ReplyDelete
  10. It`s not the end of the world, it`s if it ever builds up to much pressure and has to vent water would be a mess. It is just a steel threaded pipe inserted into the pressure relief valve to about 6" above the floor.

    ReplyDelete
  11. What? Will it blow up?
    Now you have *me* paranoid about mine...only I don't know why...

    ReplyDelete
  12. The one on Mythbusters did not blow up. Blowing up would have done a lot less damage. This one went straight up like a freaking rocket, right through the (built-to-code) roof on the little structure they erected around it, reducing said structure to splinters in the process. I'm not sure exactly how high the thing went, but it took a long, loooong time to come down. It was one of the most beautiful and frightening things I've ever seen.

    Now, they deliberately disabled the safety mechanisms on that one and heated it up to insane pressures.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.