The gas can be turned off from the outside gas meter, which shuts off all gas to the house or at the water heater itself, which just turns off the gas supply to the water heater. Knowing how to shut off the gas from both places can really come in handy.
First, locate the temperature dial on your gas water heater and twist it into the off position. Look around the top of the water heater to find the supply line and switch off the valve to stop any more water from flowing into the heater. Next, you need to switch off the gas supply to the heater.
No it wont hurt the water heater. Turning the gas on and allowing the burner to operate with an empty water heater would damage it, but no gas, with or without water in the tank will not hurt anything. Be aware, water left in the tank may smell like rotten eggs until flushed for 10 mins or so prior to use.
Re: Can shut off gas damage a water heater? There is absolutely no way that shutting off the gas could cause any problem with the water heater.
Generally speaking, a gas water heater should not be turned off unless you are leaving the house for an extended period of time. Even then the better choice for gas water heaters is to just turn the temperature down. In fact, many water heaters have a “vacation” setting on the temperature control.
In most cases, it may not be necessary to turn off the water heater, but it also won't hurt, either. However, there are two reasons when you should turn off the unit to prevent too much pressure or heat from building up inside the tank: The tank is empty (or close to it) and won't be refilled for a long period of time.
WAPT spoke to four plumbing companies that all said that homeowners should turn off the water heater if the water is not running for more than 24 hours.
How to tell if your water heater is gas or electric. To tell if your water heater is gas or electric, start by removing your water heater's access panel. If you see a pilot light, or blue flame, behind the access panel, you have a gas water heater.
If the pilot light goes out on a storage or instantaneous hot water heater, space heater or a ducted heater, you will not have a gas leak. This is because all modern gas appliances with pilot lights have a fail-safe device that closes off the gas to the appliance in the case when the pilot may go out.
Although this is an area of concern for many people, the reality is that boilers are built so that the gas supply to the pilot light is shut off if the flame goes out. Whilst the cause of pilot light failure needs to be investigated, extinguished pilot lights aren't going to cause a gas leak.
Turning off the source of the heat (gas, electric) while you're away will not damage your water heater.
Is it normal for a hot water heater to smell like gas? The short answer is, “No.” Here's the long answer: Natural gas is odorless. The chemical mercaptan is added to natural gas to better detect when a leak is occurring.
If you are going to do maintenance on your water heater such as flushing your water heater, you should turn off your pilot heater to prevent heating an empty tank or if you are leaving for vacation or leaving the house vacant for a long time, it may be beneficial to turn of the pilot light to save energy cost and to ...
There are multiple signs by which you can understand whether there is a gas leak from the water heater or not. The main sign is that, before distributing the natural gas to the homes, the water starts to mix up with a powerful smell and odor, known as a sulfur compound.
Gas water heaters are typically more expensive to install than electric ones, use more energy, and tend to last shorter periods. Electric water heaters are cheaper to install but use less energy and last longer.
Electric water heaters are essentially the same as gas water heaters, with the only difference being that they use electricity as their fuel source to heat the water through upper and lower heating elements. Gas water heaters only use a lower heating element.
While frequently turning on and off the water can cause too much pressure to be put on the water pipes, turning it off doesn't harm the system. Locate the mains water supply valve in your house, which may be in the basement or in a crawl space.
You can keep showering (and using hot water for anything else) if the leak from the water heater is minor. However, your rituals should be kept to a minimum while you seek assistance from a professional plumber. You shouldn't keep using a water heater that is leaking from the bottom or anywhere else for the long term.
No, unless you're going on vacation for a month or longer, you shouldn't turn off your water heater. Here's why: You won't see significant energy savings. You'll create more problems by turning your water heater off/on repeatedly.
This means there is no need to turn it off at night, as it will not be using energy unless you require it to. In fact, turning it off at night might even be the less energy efficient option as you will need to fire it back on every morning, which consumes more energy than just leaving it on.
In the average home, the water heater will run for about three hours each day. Total run time can range from one to two hours for new tankless water heaters to five or more hours for older tank style water heaters.
Ultimately, no, a carbon monoxide detector cannot detect a natural gas leak. Carbon monoxide (CO) is a toxic gas created when fuel is burned in the presence of low levels of oxygen. Carbon monoxide is very different from methane and cannot be detected with the same sensor.
That dreaded “rotten egg” odor that is isolated to your hot water supply is the result of a chemical reaction in your water heater. Naturally occurring ions in all water supplies called sulfates have a taste for stainless steel, as snacking on it allows them to transform into a gas known as hydrogen sulfide.