Video: Inspecting Your Water Heater

CONCORD — Host, Sarah Rutan: Water heaters are easy to ignore, but the truth is they should be inspected on a regular basis. Today we’re in Concord with Diamond Certified Expert Contributor Matthew Hechim of Water Heaters Masters to learn why.

Diamond Certified Expert Contributor, Matthew Hechim: As a homeowner, here’s some things you can look for when inspecting your water heater. First, earthquake bracing. In the Bay Area, we have earthquakes. Very important– Probably the most important thing to look at. Make sure you have straps. A standard 30, 40, or 50 gallon water heater should have two straps. One on the lower third, and one on the upper third. These straps should be anchored to the wall into studs or a post; something strong. Or even a concrete wall. These tanks weigh over 500 pounds; if they shake loose in an earthquake and they’re not strapped in, those water lines could rip loose, the gas line could rip loose, water damage, fire, all that.

Another thing you could look at– We’ll come up here. Another inspection you can do is your connections on top: your cold and your hot lines. You want to make sure there’s no moisture, no water, no corrosion. This is dry up here. You can see that there’s no signs of any leaks. The washers must be good. This is fairly new, it’s only a couple years old. You’ve got your shut-off up here, you could look at that, see if there’s any drips, any corrosion. Everything looks good.

So, we’re good up here, but you could still have another leak. So what we want to do is come down here, and if it’s in a pan you want to look at the pan. You may need an inspection mirror, you can look behind the tank with an inspection mirror or a flashlight. Or you can just look inside the pan, see if there’s any moisture in the pan. If there’s no pan you can look at the floor where it’s sitting on. If everything looks dry and you’re not getting a drip from your drain valve, everything looks good, you’re good to go. If you see a small leak — could be the drain valve or one of the flex lines on top– good to repair that as soon as possible. That could damage the tank, it could damage the substructure, those are easy repairs if you catch them quick. If you don’t, you may have to replace your water heater.

So it’s best to inspect your water heater, like I said, every six months. A year would be pushing it, but I would say every six months. Keep an eye on it, if you see anything call your local plumber.

Host, Sarah Rutan: To learn more from local, top-rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified Expert Reports at experts.diamondcertified.org.