My bathtub hot water faucet has a leak, and I cannot find any valve to turn off the flow to the faucet. If I turn off the water to the hot water tank, would that damage the tank or cause other problems?

Ken 297

This will not cause damage.
you can shut off the water supply to the hot tank.
If you have to drain the hot tank and leave in turned on this may cause a problem but just to shut it off to make a repair is not a problem

SD86

So if I turn off the supply, the tank will not drain?

labman

Water expands and contracts with temperature change. Never follow the above advice without opening a hot water faucet at once. Water must always be free to flow in and out of a hot water tank. In most cases, if you promptly take the hot water faucet apart, you would get away with it by giving the water a place to go.

When you do take the faucet apart, all the hot water in the lines above it will flow out. If you took the faucet apart in a laundry tub next to the hot water tank, water would flow out until the level dropped to that of the faucet. If the faucet is above the tank, it shouldn't drain.

SD86

I appreciate the answer so far, but let me re-ask the question:

If I turn off the inlet to the hot water tank (but not the outlet, I can't find that...), will the tank drain out via the bathtub leak?

The hot water heater is a Kenmore Power Miser 9 (40 gal). The hot water pipe comes out of the top of the tank, but I don't know if it is internally running from the bottom of the tank to the top, or how the pressure would work if I turned off the inlet. I'm thinking that with the inlet off the water should not flow out of the tank, and therefore the tank won't go dry. Also, I have an expansion tank on it.

Also, for kicks and giggles, assume that it would take some time (days) for a repair to be done

Am I right or wrong? and is it safe to turn off the water inlet?

caibuadday

first turn off the gas/ electric? then close the inlet water valve, open the leaky faucet ( dont open any hot and cold at the same time) , then open the faucet(hot) before the leaky one, all these may not drain out the pipe then uoy have to open more hot faucets. I f your pipe is rusty, remove the screen/aerator on the faucets, because when you turn on the water debris would come out for about 10 min

labman

The water won't drain out of the tank if the bath tub is above the hot water heater. If everything is on one floor, the water may drain down to the level of the faucet.

You don't have to worry about opening the hot water faucet if the expansion tank is between the shut off and the hot water tank.

You do want to make sure the gas or electricity is off unless the tank is completely full.

Fr_Chuck

And while working on it, consider putting shut offs on each item, bath tub, toliets, sinks should all have individual shut off.

But as labman noted, it is best to shut off the power to the hot water heater, you would not know the number of damaged heating elements from running dry.

SD86

Thanks to all for the answers. I've shut the temperature knob down to the "pilot light" setting, turned the top switch from "on" to "pilot", and am turning the inlet water valve off. From what I've read, that should be sufficient and shouldn't burn out any heating elements.

If I'm wrong, please warn me now....

Nutter butter

NO it wont. If the inlet and outlet is at the top.