Water Heater Leak

[celife]

I recently had a PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric) rep come out to look for a gas leak. In the process of looking over my system he apparently broke my water heater as for several days there has been a consistent puddle beneath it (see pic). They can't have someone out to fix it for a week, so I'd like to fix it myself. How should I approach this?

 

[johnjh2o]

Looks like the relief valve is leaking not the heater. He may have opened the relief valve and it failed to close.

 

[celife]

Thanks for your help. The relief valve (is that also called the "temperature and pressure valve"?) seems to be closed (see new pic). It seems to perhaps be slowly leaking when the water is being heated. Any thoughts on how to get it to stay closed?

 

[celife]

The relief valve seems to be the issue. I spoke with a plumber this evening who suggested opening and closing it a couple times to see if that cleared out any sediment.

That didn't seem to work and it's now leaking at a pretty fast rate so I'll probably have to just replace the valve unless anyone else has any ideas.

 

[Matt30]

Have it replaced. If it starts sticking open, it can stick closed.

 

[celife]

I replaced it...problem solved.

 

[phishfood]

In your picture, it appears as though the pipe nipple coming out of the heater is at an odd angle. If so, that is usually caused by the tank deforming from extreme pressure, and needs to be addressed.