Why Do You Need to Inspect My Water Heater When Installing a PRV?
Serving Frisco, Lubbock, San Angelo, & Abilene
There are two reasons why we will need to inspect your water heater. In addition to any plumbing leak and making sure that an expansion tank is present and properly installed per plumbing code, we must also ensure that your water heater is in good condition and not at the end of its normal expected life.
A thermal expansion tank has a limited life expectancy of 5 to 7 years. Therefore, it must be replaced periodically, and typically will not last as long as the water heater does. In fact, water damage resulting from expansion tank leaks—or worse, full-blown ruptures—is probably more common than water damage caused by a leaking water heater.
We also need to inspect the age and condition of your water heater. Typically, if the water heater is more than 12 years old, Earl’s Plumbing will not be able to add the expansion tank without replacing the water heater. We simply do not want to take the risk of massive property damage. The normal life of a typical 6-year warranty 50-gallon storage tank water heater is around 9-12 years. So, anything over 12 years is our cutoff, and we would prefer to walk away than chance catastrophe.
We do this because of an incident we witnessed personally. A homeowner in Frisco had just 25 PSI of water pressure. We replaced his PRV and upon completion he had new water pressure of 80 PSI coming into his home. He was so happy to finally have good water pressure and was looking forward to taking a shower without having to run around in a circle to get wet. That was until we all heard a loud grumbling coming from the upstairs attic. The 12-year-old water heater could not take the new increased pressure coming into the home.
Within just a few minutes of completion, while our team was still cleaning up, the water heater developed a full-blown rupture. Fortunately, we were still at his home, so we were able to shut the hot and cold water off immediately before too much damage was done. That incident created the guidance from which we operate today.