Water heater may be leaking.
 

So, I woke up, and headed to the kitchen. From the kitchen is a doorway to the laundry room, where the washing machine, dryer, and water heater are located.

I go to the kitchen, and see what appear to be wet paw prints from my cats all over the laundry room. Long story short, half the floor is sopping wet.

It seems to be coming from the water heater, but we can't see where or how. It's 11pm at night on a Saturday, and there could be 50 gallons of water that'll be leaking out of the tank.


Any ideas on what to do here? The problem here is that is'a 11pm on a Saturday, on Labor Day Weekend, so we might not be able to get anyone out here to look until Tuesday. Since we can't determine where the water's coming from, we don't know what we can do as a temporary fix.

:(

When ours was leaking....
 

Ours was leaking earlier and it had come from underneath the heater. I don't know what yours is but we wound up stuffing like 20 towels around the base of the heater and occasionally switching them out for new ones, and we kept mopping around. I know this sounds like a bitch, but it was the best way for us. Like I said though, I don't know how yours is set up. Hope I helped.

The only thing is we don't know how hot the underneath of the heater is. Will it be safe to put towels around it?

Yeah...I woke up earlier and saw my mom putting a bucket on the floor here in the basement. Some pipe burst or something and it was leaking like crazy, right through the ceiling tiles.

oh shit, evacuate!

heat
 

Ours is insulated somehow, I don't remember exactly how, but ours was safe to put stuff around. I guess you could call your water company and ask them for some advice or if they could cut a specific water line.

if it looks bad, every waterheater is at least supposed to have a cutoff valve specifically for it. on the coldwater pipe that attaches to the top. ive seen a few without it though :( laziness, jerkiness. i dunno :o most of them spring a leak on the top or the bottom of the tank. i dun think anyone cares why this happens :o if youre worried, cut the water to it and turn the waterheater down. youll have no hot water :( and whatevers in there will leak out. if youre feeling bold and its possible, once you cut the water you can drain the tank yourself witha hose. should have a standard hosetype connector on the bottom. often these are plastic and brittle though sos there is some element of danger. :O turn the waterheater down to vacationmode if you plan to do anythin to it at all.

its ok to put towels around it. not stacked up against it or stuffed under it :o but around it. hopefully its not so bad that you cant survive a couple days :( should at least locate the cutoff if the bottom falls out. 50 gallons is bad, but not as bad as the infinite :o

Well, theoretically yes, it would be safe, because the water that the towels would absorb would keep them from becoming hotter than a hundred degrees celsius.

I'm scientific. :)