At about 12:40 AM I heard an unusual, continuous sound. I got up to see where it was coming from. It was not in the bathroom, nor the kitchen. When I walked to the corridor doorway, I head the sound of water from our long, front closet. In our building, each apartment unit has a separate hot water heater. Hot water was gushing from what turned out to be the pressure relief valve. I ran to get the garbage container to catch some of what was coming out. Luckily, I must have got there seconds after the valve's failure. We do have a drip pan and drain hole. A surprisingly large amount ended up where it should have gone. A few bath towels mopped up what was on the floor. There was no real pipe or hose leading directly to the drain but as the water tank only holds 25 imperial gallons, the valve sits only a couple of feet above the pan.
Jay jumped up on the shoe shelf and shut off all the water to the apartment. We switched off the electrical breaker. Once assured nothing more was leaking, we returned to bed.
In the morning, of course, the water was cool but it could still pour from the relief valve. It hadn't activated due to having too much pressure or too high a temperature. Apparently, it had simply failed. That was good news and I figured I was up to unscrewing the old one and putting in a new one. At around 10:00 we drove to the hardware store that's only a few blocks away. They didn't have an XL one and all they had would be too short to work on our tank. I figured Lowe's would have a bigger selection but I was wrong. I got their largest one, but we stopped at the Edmonds Rona on the way home. They had one that matched the original perfectly. Now, all is peachy plumbing-wise. I can return the unopened valve whenever we get back over to Queensborough.
I did go through my papers though. I remember putting in the smaller tank as the old, 66-imperial-gallon one seemed a bit much for an apartment with one bath. That involved having a real plumber come in order to put in copper piping to fit the smaller unit. How could that have possibly been done back in 2000? It surely doesn't seem that long ago. The heater has just a six year warranty and is already ten years past that.
Do people really replace hot water heaters before they die? Should I?