I have an A.O.Smith 50gal water heater with max psi of 150. This morning I found it leaking from the bottom somewhere inside. It was not very much, but enough that it needed to be vacuumed up. All the water in the house is cold. I assume this unit is about 14 years old. How can I check to see if it needs to be replaced or just repaired?

Kevlar - your hot water tank has out lived its life:: When a hot water tank starts to leaking < and is 14 years old then the tank is rusting from the inside the tank, and a hot water tank can not be repaired <that would be putting a bandaid on it just tempory:: And really be kind of dangerious because of the pressure that is in them while operating :: The only kind of repair that could be done is if one of the heating elements is leaking where they go into the tank or if the plumbing on top of the tank is leaking :: The only way is to {replace the tank with a new one:: Sorry to say sio :: If I have answered your question <please rate my answer in the orange box below :thanks ::have a great day and god bless ::f.b.e.

Once the tank starts leaking you should be prepared to replace it immediately as there is no repair for a leaking broken tank.

At 14 years your tank has outlived a lot of tanks and you should be grateful that it lasted you this long.

You need to mitigate any floor damage immediately due to this leaking. One of the best ways to do this is to turn off the intake water valve if the tank has it's own separate shut off valve and drain out the water through the bottom outlet spigot. Then have the unit replaced as soon as possible.

Be sure to properly dry the area that got wet from the leaking unit with a dehumidifier unit as you could very easily had the water leak into your subflooring and cause warping damage to the floor.

Some hot water tanks go bad within a 3-5 year span due to whatever water softener (salt) is used. You must have great water for a tank to have lasted you as long as it did.