Water Heater Pressure Relief Valve discharged..
We have a relatively new 40 gal SuperStor indirect oil fired water heater - it's heated by a Burnham v74 oil fired boiler.
Last week going into the basement and was surprised to find 30 gal of water on the floor which had clear signs it was from the water heaters pressure relief valve - we estimate it happened a few days earlier.
Our questions are to find out from experienced technicians simply this - what do you find that the most common reasons for this happening?
some notes:
~The pressure relief valve is a standard Watts 150 psi 210 f rating
~The Honeywell Aquastat model L4080b is the thermostat on the water heater set at 130 degrees.
~The boiler Zone Valve is by Taco
Being technically minded we were simply curious to find out which item was the most likely to be the cause:
~1st on our list is the water heaters thermostat switch for whatever reason would of failed to switch off the 24 vac to the Zone Valve and so the boiler would have kept heating the water heaters water up till it reached the boilers max water temp which is about 180-210 degrees....?
~2nd is the Taco Zone Valve off the boiler servicing the water heater, maybe it jammed and failure to close its valve...?
~3rd .... water heater pressure relief valve all the sudden goes bad... nah...?
~4th ...way off the mark but is an interesting tidbit, is that we live in the Northeast US and this happened at the very midpoint of last weeks NorthEaster storm when it was right overhead (which had a pretty low pressure) ..although I doubt that the low pressure could in any way even if ever so slightly be a contributor of some sort? ..still it's interesting coincidence?
We being curious to know which of the 1, 2, or 3 event is more likely to have caused it, so over a period of a week we would control cycle numerous times the hot water heater watching everything involved carefully, but the zone valve works fine, the thermostat shuts off right when the water reaches 130 degrees, etc... We can't make it fail again.
Irregardless, we've bought brand new all three same identical replacement parts = thermostat, taco zone valve, watts pressure relief valve.. but again, our question is wondering from you the "everyday hands on repairmen" what do you find which most often is the cause for a water heater pressure relief valve to release with our similar setup?
Thank you,
Last edited on Tue Feb 20th, 2007 11:13 pm by endeavor
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