Water Heater Pressure Relief Valve – Prevent Water Heater Explosion – Replace a Relief Valve

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A routine every homeowner should have is checking the temperature and pressure relief valve on the hot water heater at least once a year. Once every 5 years the relief valve should be replaced.

If the relief valve is not working properly, heat and temperature can build and cause the water heater to explode. A hot water tank can cause extensive damage and the explosion can be potentially fatal for people in the house.

Before purchasing a new valve, check the temperature and pressure settings on the old valve to get an exact replacement. You can purchase a new valve at most hardware stores.

If your relief valve is dripping, you need to replace it immediately.
If you bleed the valve and it keeps dripping, you need to replace it immediately.
If the relief valve will not flush any water, you need to replace it immediately.
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19 thoughts on “Water Heater Pressure Relief Valve – Prevent Water Heater Explosion – Replace a Relief Valve”

  1. We had this happen It caused the water from the leaking faulty Water heater valve to flow down into my closet down stairs in my bedroom and now my carpet is runined to the point where my parents had to ripped it out of the closet where it was soaked through the carpet pad how do I repair the water damage in the walls?

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  2. I want to thank you Sir I'm a first time home owner I didn't know anything about this, and my water heater had gone out and started leaking you were right it needed changing and I am now with hot water.

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  3. I've replaced my pressure relief valve twice and each time is has a slow leak. I've used several different grades of Teflon tape and different sealants.I'm thinking of putting a three-inch nipple with a coupler on because the relief valve will actually thread all the way into the tank past the threads. That way the valve actually will seat on the coupler and the nipple is a graded thread.

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  4. are landlord have't bother to replace the water heaters. 14 and 24 years old. we are moving out soon. owner refuse to fix anything. house for sale as is.

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  5. I replaced my pressure relief valve for free all I did is called GE and they were more than happy to send me a new one. I think there's liability issues that causes them to want to make sure you get a new one just by calling give it a try. After a couple of years the scale buildup causes these two leaks when you test them so replacing them every couple years is a good idea

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  6. You drained 5 gals then you attached a wrench and removed the valve. Would it not have made sense to pull on the valve again at that point and make sure there is no pressure behind it. That would've made for a big surprise for you if there was pressure I'm guessing. How can you be sure you've drained enough?

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  7. Excellent video! Ultimately discovered that I had a slow leaking valve. Thought my 5 yo tank was actually leaking until i happened to catch the drip coming from the TP valve discharge tube. What I also learned was that the TP valve lever fully opens at 90 degrees to the valve (or parallel to the floor on a side mount valve like mine). For whatever reason I thought that a fully opened valve meant swinging the lever from one side of the valve 180 degrees to the other side. I discovered this while draining my tank and noticing how slow the water was draining despite having a faucet open down line and what I thought was a fully opened valve. Once I started to play with that TP valve and discovered its true open position the air pressure vacuum was released and it drained like a charm. FWIW, i decided to drain my tank all the way down. As it neared fully drained I opened and closed my CW supply line to the tank a few times just to stir up any loose sediment and aid in passing that through,

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