when heater heats water there is a small leak thru the releif valve. need answrers to possible reasons for malfuntion. leak is not continous.
OKAY...the 30 psi is bogus....I've never heard of that! The pressure coming into your house and the water heater is typically 70psi to 100psi....the relief valve is set to pop off at 175 psi....if the pressure in your water heater reaches 175 then the valve will pop....when this happens you need a new relief valve....you may want to figure out why this happened also......your heater may be set too high... try turning it down a little......but first check the incoming water pressure to your home....do this by buying a water pressure gage and screwing it on to an outside hose bibb and turning the hose bibb on......if the pressure is over 80 psi (which is what most plumbing code calls for) then you probably want to install a pressure regulator in the yard to lower the pressure......Example.....if you have 120psi coming into the water heater, and when water heats it expands and builds pressure then you could reach 175 psi and your relief valve will pop off.......good luck!!
SHUT OFF WATER AND REPLACE RELIEF VALVE, IF YOU HAVE HARD WATER IT CAN ACCUMULATE LIME AND FORCE VALVE TO OPEN. ALSO HEATING ELEMENT MIGHT BE BAD AND WATER HEATER IS OVER HEATING. VALVE SHOULD RANGE FROM 150 TO 210 PSI NOT 30 PSI.
Have you tried opening the valve for a couple seconds? Sometimes that will clean out the crud causing the valve to leak.
Do not open the relief valve, you can scald yourself. It is leaking for 1 of 3 reasons. 1. It was opened once already the spring is weaker now, or the seat is damaged. 2. It did it's job and relieved high preasure at some point with the same affect as #1. 3. It is old and weak, either way it needs to be replaced. You do not need to drain the tank for this since it is on top, shut off the water turn it off and let it cool before you open any lines. Good luck.
they start to blow off at 30-35 psi your talking about temperature relief that is indicated on the tag. open it up a tad and let it slowly splash out (not fully open) see if it drips a few minutes afterward if it does replace it.
