Drain Valve dripping
The drain valve on my water heater is dripping slightly. Is this something that I can repair myself by going to a place like Home Depot for a washer or the drain valve itself? The water heater is made by A.O. Smith and the whole drain valve is plastic. Thank you Mike mlmarmer, Welcome to the DIY Forums. Being a plastic valve, I would buy a metal one to replace it with. Turn off (cold water inlet and power source) and drain the heater (open a hot faucet to facilitate draining) and remove the existing valve. Take it with you to get the replacement. Put a couple wraps of teflon tape on the threads (in a clockwise direction as you are looking at the end of the threads) and screw it in until it gets firm and then finish by setting the end looking in the position it was before. Good luck and reply back with any further questions. If that plastic valve should break as you try to remove it , don't panic! It happens, and it is NOT a disaster. If it should happen, take a hacksaw blade, holding just the blade in your hand with a rag to protect youself; carefully make a saw cut most of the way through the plastic, being careful not to cut into the metal threads in the WH body. Do this 3 times. Using an icepick or small screwdriver, work at prying out the broken pieces. Install the new metal valve with pipe joint compound and/or teflon tape. Thanks for the two answers. But here is where I am at. I put a faucet cap on the drain, with a washer, and the dripping has basically stopped. In 24 hrs., the total amount of water is about 10% of a oz. Will I be okay to leave this cap on as a fix. I don't think the valve will start gushing. Is there something that I can put inside this cap to really stop the drip. My big fear about trying to taking off the drain valve from the heater, as I don't understand how is is on this heater in the first place. Where the drain is in the heater there is color cordinated ring around it, with the drain going in the middle of it. The drain itself is square going into the heater. How do turn this drain out of the heater? Is the metal cap going to turn also? If the cap I put on it will work, I can live with that. Thanks for any advice. Mike I guess the question to ask yourself is if there is anything around that you don't mind getting wet. Please don't take me as a smart aleck here. I did the same thing a couple of years ago when I had the same problem. Then I wake up a couple of months ago and see a small puddle on my new wood floor above the water heater closet, its in the hallway. I had used a plastic cap like you find in the lawn and garden section of the big stores. It had split and there was a pinhole leak shooting up on to the door. This is fortunate for me as it was detected rather quickly. In my case the valve started leaking around the stem as well so my only choices were to replace the valve or the water heater. You can find the valves in the water heater parts section in the big bos store. If you opt for the cap then go get one in the plumbing section, that's where I found a brass cap. I have one on mine as an added measure of protection. That was the first water heater drain I had replaced and doing so had never even crossed my mind before so I am not much of a resource for you. However, you have a good description on extracting a broken plastic valve should that happen in your case. Or you could also try using a broken riser/nipple extractor that commonly used for sprinler system repairs. Hope this helps, Jester Hi Jester, Thanks for the respond, as it made great sense, that the cap could split and the valve can get worse. I think I can change this valve, but I can't figure how this thing will turn and be remove from the heater, as I see nothing that a wrench will fit on it. I will go to home depot and get a metal valve and they do have a guy there who is very knowledgable about plumbing. If worse comes to worse, I can buy the valve, as I would think that this would take a plumber less than a hour to do. And of course, I can have the heater already drained for him, with the power and gas to it off, of course. Mike I spent more time draining the tank than I did changing the valve. I should just be a 3/4 NPT thread. Something else that might help you. When I tried to unscrew mine it wouldn't budge and I backed off for fear of breaking it. I turned clockwise just a bit and then it unscrewed without any further problems. Jester Jester, Thanks for the additional information on removing the drain valve. I will head up to Home Depot and get a metal replacement Thanks for the tip if it seems to be stuck. Mike Hi, I have a 8 year old kenmore gas water heater with a plastic drain valve. It was starting to leak, and yup, I tightened the handle and broke it off. Since the valve is plastic, I used a garden pvc cap to try to stop the leak, but it is still leaking even after using teflon tape on the threads. A new valve is only $2, but any ideas replace it without dumping 50 gallons of water on the garage floor? For example, can I attempt to drill through the plastic drain valve to start a small flow that I can attach a garden hose to and dump out the water to the driveway? Thanks for any pointers- Brien E-mails are not allowed in threads as it causes spamming and other undesirable effects. I know this is an old thread but same thing happened to me just now. I'm glad that valve cam be changed. I got my valve to stop leaking by closing the water inlet valve. Then opened the drain valve to take the pressure out of the tank. Closed the valve with no pressure in the tank. Opened the water inlet valve, and the leak was gone.
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