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Baby boy blue
Baby boy blue asked in Home & GardenMaintenance & Repairs · 1 decade ago

Plumbers out there electric water heater problems, please help?

I have a 50 gallon elect. water heater that has a leak. looks like a rust spot might be the cause. water heater is very old. I know i need to replace it. what i did was I shut off the power and shut off the cold water outlet. I drained the water out using a water hose. Thinking problem solved until i replace the water heater. But then after a while i noticed water leaking again from the same rust spot. Now i had to shut off the main water line to the whole house in order for the water heater to stop filling with water. what is up. could it be that the cold water shut off valve be bad or not working. How can i shut off the water coming into the water heater without having to shut water off to whole house. Husband at work and not due to come home for a couple of days.

Update:

Mr. Williams,

The only shut off valve I see is the blue one which i assume is the cold. I checked to see if there was another but dont see any. Is there anything else.

4 Answers

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  • William B
    Lv 7
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    shut off both incoming valves and out going valves

    cold water and hot water you could be getting a feed back thru the hot side line

    by the way you did good

    Source(s): miant man
  • poppajoe49
    Lv 4
    1 decade ago

    Since the cold water feed to the heater isn't closing completely, you need to get it fixed also. This isn't hard, but you will probably need help.

    Your best bet is to open the drain for the heater and let it keep draining until you can get the heater replaced. This way you can keep the water on for the rest of the house.

    Another possibility is that when you turn on the cold water on a faucet, you are turning on the hot also by habit. This will allow water to backfeed into the heater. Either way, leaving the drain open will keep the leak from dripping inside.

  • the lock man
    Lv 5
    1 decade ago

    youll have to shut off the main- and oh boy does that need repalced- if youve ever seen a hot water heater explode...wow what a mess

  • tom the plumber
    1 decade ago

    turn your main back on,more than likely someone opened a h/w valve,you did what you could,is elec.off?

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