That moment my water heater gave out mid-shower last Tuesday

I was standing in the shower off Memorial Drive when the water went ice cold at 6:15 AM, which is the worst possible timing. Turns out the 15 year old water heater finally rusted through and dumped 40 gallons onto my basement floor, flooding about half of it. Anyone else have a water heater fail on them out of nowhere and have to deal with emergency replacement costs?

2 comments

2 Comments

robert24814d ago

Did you at least get a semi-warm rinse before the floodgates opened? Mine went out on a Saturday during the playoffs, so I feel your pain.

linda62613d ago

My neighbor had the same thing happen two years ago and what nobody talks about is how the copper pipes in older homes can act like a sacrificial anode during a flood. The water sitting in your basement probably had a bunch of minerals in it that reacted with the copper fittings and caused pinhole leaks in the lines underneath your kitchen sink a week later. Took me three days to figure out why my floor was damp after the cleanup crew left. You might want to run a dehumidifier down there for a full month even if it looks dry because the moisture wicks up into the wood framing and can cause mold in the wall cavities if you seal everything up too fast. Also check the pressure relief valve on your new water heater every six months or it'll fail the same way that old one did.