Water Heater Leaking From the Bottom in Dallas: What to Do Now

Do these four things first

1. Close the cold supply. The shutoff sits on the cold line where it drops into the heater's top. A wheel handle turns clockwise until it stops; a lever turns a quarter turn to cross the pipe. Seized, or water still coming? Close the house main.
2. Turn off the heat. Gas: control knob to Off. Electric: flip its breaker off, or an element still heating as the water level drops will burn out.
3. Save the floor. Soak up water with towels or a shop vac. Under an attic or upstairs heater, check the ceiling below; a sagging, stained patch is holding water, so put a bucket under it and keep people clear. In an older pier-and-beam house, common in parts of Oak Cliff and East Dallas, a closet heater stands on a wood subfloor that soaks up a slow leak.
4. Drain only when it's safe. Wait a few hours so the water isn't scalding. Connect a hose to the drain valve, lay it to a lower spot outdoors or a floor drain, open a hot faucet to break the vacuum, then open the valve. Don't drain if the valve is cracked plastic or stuck.

Find where the water starts

Water escaping anywhere on a heater trickles down and pools at the bottom, so the puddle shows where water lands, not where it began. Wipe everything dry, set paper towels at the top fittings, relief pipe, drain valve and base, and recheck with a flashlight. Hot drips point to the tank, a valve or a hot fitting; cool ones to condensation, a cold fitting or an AC line.

• Relief valve pipe. The temperature and pressure (T&P) relief valve's discharge pipe ends within 6 inches of the floor, in a pan or outdoors. Water there means the valve opened from heat or pressure, or it's worn. A drip mainly while heating suggests thermal expansion (see the FAQ). That pipe must stay open; don't cap it.
• Drain valve. The hose-thread valve low on the tank can drip from its outlet or seep where it threads in. A hose cap holds an outlet drip for now; one leaking at the threads gets replaced, and the tank stays.
• Something above dripping down. Nipples, flex connectors, relief valve threads, the anode port, or a pipe in the ceiling. Check up high before blaming the tank. All are repairable.
• Condensation. After a big hot-water draw on a January morning, a gas tank full of fresh cold water sweats on its flue, and drops hiss on the burner. It fades as the tank warms. In summer, an air conditioner sharing the closet or attic can clog its condensate line and drip nearby.
• The tank itself. Seepage that persists once the tank is hot and the top is dry, from beneath the outer jacket, under the burner access panel or along a rusty bottom seam, means the inner tank has rusted through. A steel tank can't be patched to hold heat and pressure.

Gas water heaters: extra care

• If water put the pilot out, don't relight it; the burner and flame sensor need drying and a check first.
• Soot, scorched paint or melted plastic near the draft hood signals a venting fault that can spill carbon monoxide indoors. Leave the control at Off and call.
• If Atmos Energy shut off the gas for a leak or hazard, or red-tagged it at the meter, it stays off until the repairs are tested under a City of Dallas gas test permit and the city releases the meter. See the Dallas gas test and red tag, and for any odor, what to do when you smell gas.

Repair it or replace it?

Repair it when a part is at fault: the relief valve, drain valve, a connector, a nipple, the anode port, or a missing expansion tank that makes the relief valve drip. That's water heater repair, with a $0 dispatch fee when we repair it.

Replace it when the tank leaks, or when an aging heater keeps needing parts. A new heater is a chance to add the drain pan or expansion tank an older install may lack. See water heater installation and replacement.

Water heater work in Dallas needs a city plumbing permit (see the FAQ), and Dallas 24 PLUMBER holds Texas plumbing license # M-27587. Coupons (terms on that page): $150 off a new water heater, $50 off for new customers, and 10% off for seniors, military and first responders.

When it can't wait

• Water keeps coming with the cold valve closed, or the valve won't turn.
• The leak has reached a ceiling, wall, wood floor or anything electrical.
• The relief valve is blowing hot water or steam.
• You smell gas (leave the building first), or see soot or scorching at the burner.

Any of these is an emergency: phone at any hour and we send our on-call plumber right away. If the drip is minor, shut off and caught in a bucket, we'll schedule a visit for whenever suits you.

Water heater leak FAQ

Call about a leaking water heater

Call (844) 313-1397 and tell us gas or electric, where the heater sits and where the water seems to start. We cover Dallas, from the Cedars and Fair Park near our Botham Jean Blvd address to Lakewood, Oak Lawn and Pleasant Grove, plus nearby cities.