Hello,
We just had a new Rheem electric hot water heater installed by a professional plumber. Original vacuum relief is still on. NEVER had any problems. We just seviced our water softer. As we turned the water off and bled the water line, we heard water gurgling in the hot water heater, which has never happened before. After servicing the softener, we turned the water on only to find water coming out of the vacuum relief valve on the newly installed hot water heater. Can you tell me why this happened. I don't want to be charged a service call from the plumber when there was not any problems until they replaced the water heater, so if I can educate myself before they come back out, I hope I'll be a step ahead of them and fix this properly. Thanks, Matt

Hi Matt...

It sounds like a backflow condition occurred when you worked on the water softener and the vacuum relief valve did its job, but now the seal is disturbed and won't reseal. I usually change out the vacuum relief valve on a new water heater install, but if the old valve wasn't too old, I guess I might leave the old ones in on occasion so not sure if this can be placed on the plumber or not... *shrugs*.

The vacuum relief valve just spins in and spins out so why not change it out yourself? Here, you would just need to shut off the water to the water heater and drain a couple gallons of water off and then spin out the old one, go purchase a new one AND some teflon tape and then wrap say 6-7 wraps of teflon tape on the valve threads and install the new one.

Use two pair of pliers (or wrenches) and hold against yourself while spinning it out and when installing the new one. DO NOT overtighten the valve... hand tight plus a couple turns or so, OK? It really should be that simple... most of the time!

While working on the water heater be sure to shut off the electrical at the breaker in the electrical panel so you are sure you can make no mistakes... ;)

Questions? Let me know...

Mark

Will give that a try. When we turned the water back on, no other water came out. However, we do have to replace the valve on the softener, which means turning the water off again. Is it possible, this was a one time incident? Many thanks! Matt

Ahhh... then the vacuum relief valve (VRV) resealed... good!

Here, the VRV did its job and if you shut the softener system down again the VRV will probably leak again... hard to say if it will reseal this time. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't!

It is probably not a bad idea to have one handy or even just swap it out and be done with it... ;)

Good luck!

Mark

I'll pick one up and replace it. It can't hurt. Again, thank you very much. Matt