We are currently looking
for success stories and disaster stories, both related to
water heater leaking/flooding.
Thanks Floodmaster,
I purchased a townhouse/condo and the existing water
heater was a rental through the energy company, anything went wrong I
would call them and they would promptly take care of the situation immediately(or
so I thought). They installed the heater long before I bought this property
and not to mention they did shoddy unprofessional workmanship, and this
only made matters worse. When the water tank ruptured it flooded my finished
basement floor. My wife could not shut the control valve on the cold water
inlet because they neglected to install one. Instead they relied on a
stop valve that was installed on a cold waterline in the ceiling about
six feet away from the water heater. I had to rush home from work to shut
down the water and start the cleanup with the wet/dry shopvac.
I lost a day's pay from my regular 40 hr/wk job. The irony of all this
is I am a licensed master plumber in NH and Massachusetts. I intended
on replacing the heater in springtime on a weekend however the heater
decided not to hold out that long. Instead it let go two weeks before
Christmas. The energy company said they would not be able to come out
for 4 days. I decided not to rent anymore. I purchased a new water heater
from my local supplier and decided to install the heater myself. Only
thing I did not have is the floodmaster. I do plan on installing one on
mine and I am starting my own plumbing and heating service company and
I would love to include a product such as this one into my water heater
installs. I would also consider retrofitting flood masters on existing
water heaters.
Antonios Pitarys
owner Pitarys Plumbing & Heating
Thanks
Floodmaster,
We added a bathroom to our home about
eight years ago and had the water heater placed in the
attic with a
pan and drain in case of leakage. In the middle of the night
we heard the sound of water. The leak overshot the pan and
ruined the ceiling to the bathroom. Shortly after my husband
repaired the ceiling, it happened again, with slight variations.
It appears that we need both a floodmaster and a larger pan.
T Frick
Floodmaster,
Nearly 6 years ago, at about 11:00 PM,
I was preparing for an out-of-town business presentation.
Next day, I had a 4-5 hour drive to a client's facility to
make that presentation. My son came into my study, complaining
that the hot water was acting "funny" as he was
drawing his shower. I confirmed the spitting, luke-warm water
coming out of the shower head and headed for the basement.
Sure enough, the "contractor grade" water heater
( 5 year warranty) had failed almost exactly 5 years from
the day I first installed it in our new home. I knew it wasn't
the greatest heater in the line, but didn't dream it would
fail so promptly after the warranty ran out. "Luckily",
it wasn't really a catastrophic failure, just a steady seeping
of water around the bottom of the tank. It had produced a
puddle about 15' in diameter, extending into an area where
I had some nice boards stored (I'm an amateur woodworker),
under some woodworking machines, and into an under-stair
storage area.
I shut off the water, and my son and I spent until 3 AM
moving soaked wood, machines, carpeting, and all manner of
typical basement stuff. I think we filled and emptied a 5
gallon Shop Vac at least 8 or 9 times. Although I was exhausted,
I knew I didn't want to leave my family without hot water
for the 3 days I'd be gone, so I spent an additional hour
or so removing the old water heater, and preparing pipes,
etc. for a new one. Early morning opening time found me at
the local "big-box" retailer, to buy a new water
heater and rent a truck to haul it home in. I got another
5-year warranty water heater, what I believed to be a better
brand than the first. I hurriedly installed it, carefully
putting a large label on the heater's face, reminding me
to replace it in December 2002. I didn't want to go through
that again.
When I finished, I enjoyed the first hot shower out of that
water heater, and left for my trip on time, but didn't enjoy
at all the long drive, dead tired as I was, and felt so bad
that evening I had to decline a nice invitation from a business
associate to go out to dinner. Bad as it was, it could have
been a whole lot worse, with no one discovering the problem
until the next day, me out of town, and so forth. Like I
said, it wasn't truly "catastrophic", but was plenty
of trouble, believe me. It took 4 days with 3 big fans blowing
continuously, to dry the concrete basement floor out. I had
to saw an average of 6" of so from the ends of some
nice hardwood boards, to salvage them from water stains.
The memory was still fresh last December, when time expired
on the "new" 5-year water heater, and with my wife
looking at me like I was crazy, I went to the big-box store
again, and purchased another new water heater, took out the
5-year one, (which was still functioning perfectly, and showed
no signs of any problems) , and installed the new one. It
did occur to me that I was undoubtedly cheating myself out
of possibly many years' worth of service from the old water
heater, but I just didn't want to take the chance. The new
one's got a date label, too. You only want to do the flooded
basement thing once, believe me.
When I saw a segment of Ask This Old House, in which Richard
Trethewy installed a FloodMaster on a water heater, it immediately
struck me that this is a perfect solution to my problem--I
could leave "old" water heaters in service until
they truly failed, thus squeezing maximum service from them.
Any leakage that got away would be minimal, and easy to manage,
because the FloodMaster would stop the water flow once the
catch pan began to fill.
It was interesting to see that the basement water heater
installation shown on the ATOH segment was functionally identical
to mine; apparently codes everywhere fail to address where
water from failed water heaters is going to go, and people
don't consider it until after their first failure. (not to
mention the wasted water and $$ from an undiscovered blow-out)
Of course, at that point, it's too late to consider the "easy" solutions
such as floor drains, alternate water heater location, etc.
It looks like the FloodMaster is the way to go for most of
us. The installation process looks very straightforward for
someone of moderate plumbing skill (I'm sure if you can install
a water heater, you can install a FloodMaster), and I like
being able to test it whenever you want. I'm not a plumbing
expert, but I did build my own house, including plumbing
it, and I would have no hesitation at all about installing
a FloodMaster myself.
Rick Speir
Loganville (Atlanta) Ga
Please send your story to:
info@floodmaster.com
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