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Posted by Kurt Ullman on December 10, 2008, 7:44 am
Can you turn off the water to a water heater and not turn off the
pilot. I have a water heater where you have to physically light the
pilot and it is a pain to restart when we get back from vacations
(especially when we get back in during the night). So, I was wondering,
any reason I can't turn off the water supply to the filled heater (so if
it goes bad the damage is limited) while keeping the pilot on?
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Posted by Jim Elbrecht on December 10, 2008, 8:21 am
wrote:
show/hide quoted text
> Can you turn off the water to a water heater and not turn off the
>pilot. I have a water heater where you have to physically light the
>pilot and it is a pain to restart when we get back from vacations
>(especially when we get back in during the night). So, I was wondering,
>any reason I can't turn off the water supply to the filled heater (so if
>it goes bad the damage is limited) while keeping the pilot on?
I'd say that the danger of damaging the water heater is slim.
But I wonder about your priorities. Shutting off the water to the
heater will limit water damage to 20-50 gallons or so if a leak should
develop while you're gone.
The pilot, however, is an open flame. It would definitely be an
unusual circumstance, but potentially devastating, if there was a gas
leak.
I'd be shutting off gas in my house before water if I was going to be
gone for a great length of time.
Jim
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Posted by hallerb@aol.com on December 10, 2008, 8:27 am
show/hide quoted text
> wrote:
> > =EF=BF=BD =EF=BF=BDCan you turn off the water to a water heater and not=
turn off the
show/hide quoted text
> >pilot. I have a water heater where you have to physically light the
> >pilot and it is a pain to restart when we get back from vacations
> >(especially when we get back in during the night). So, I was wondering,
> >any reason I can't turn off the water supply to the filled heater (so if
> >it goes bad the damage is limited) while keeping the pilot on?
> I'd say that the danger of damaging the water heater is slim. =EF=BF=BD =
=EF=BF=BD
show/hide quoted text
> But I wonder about your priorities. =EF=BF=BD Shutting off the water to t=
> heater will limit water damage to 20-50 gallons or so if a leak should
> develop while you're gone. =EF=BF=BD
> The pilot, however, is an open flame. =EF=BF=BD =EF=BF=BDIt would definit=
ely be an
show/hide quoted text
> unusual circumstance, but potentially devastating, if there was a gas
> leak.
> I'd be shutting off gas in my house before water if I was going to be
> gone for a great length of time. =EF=BF=BD
> Jim
in the winter shutting off gas could mean no heat, and repeatedly
turning off main gas valve might lead to a valve leak.
trying to prevent everything leads to a endless spiral of worrisome
what iffs....
while the biggest danger is likely a traffic accident while your away:
personally getting hurt is way worse than any home disaster.......
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Posted by Kurt Ullman on December 10, 2008, 8:52 am
show/hide quoted text
>
> The pilot, however, is an open flame. It would definitely be an
> unusual circumstance, but potentially devastating, if there was a gas
> leak.
>
From 9+ years in the fire service (albeit 20+ years ago), my personal
preference for a gas leak occurring would be while I was on vacation.
Unless turning off the water will increase the likelihood of a gas leak,
I view the gas leak as a random event with much lower odds that it would
occur. For every gas leak explosion, there is probably 10 water heaters
that break. The odds are even higher if you focus only on water heaters
(and ignore the meters which tend to be high level offender, furnaces,
etc.).
show/hide quoted text
> I'd be shutting off gas in my house before water if I was going to be
> gone for a great length of time.
>
This is just a couple weeks.
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Posted by James Sweet on December 10, 2008, 1:05 pm
Jim Elbrecht wrote:
show/hide quoted text
> wrote:
>
>> Can you turn off the water to a water heater and not turn off the
>> pilot. I have a water heater where you have to physically light the
>> pilot and it is a pain to restart when we get back from vacations
>> (especially when we get back in during the night). So, I was wondering,
>> any reason I can't turn off the water supply to the filled heater (so if
>> it goes bad the damage is limited) while keeping the pilot on?
>
> I'd say that the danger of damaging the water heater is slim.
>
> But I wonder about your priorities. Shutting off the water to the
> heater will limit water damage to 20-50 gallons or so if a leak should
> develop while you're gone.
>
> The pilot, however, is an open flame. It would definitely be an
> unusual circumstance, but potentially devastating, if there was a gas
> leak.
>
> I'd be shutting off gas in my house before water if I was going to be
> gone for a great length of time.
>
> Jim
I'd be more concerned with the gas wasted running the pilot. It adds up
to a significant amount over time.
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>pilot. I have a water heater where you have to physically light the
>pilot and it is a pain to restart when we get back from vacations
>(especially when we get back in during the night). So, I was wondering,
>any reason I can't turn off the water supply to the filled heater (so if
>it goes bad the damage is limited) while keeping the pilot on?