I have a water heater inside a closet in my house and there is a pipe that goes from the waterheater to the outside. Usually nothing comes out of this pipe, but now there is a stream of hot water dripping from the pipe, which goes from top of the hot water heater to the outside. Do I need to worry about this? What might be the problem?

Kspilger

Yup! You need to worry about that. Here, It could simply be that your temperature and pressure (T&P) relief valve is defective and needs to be replaced. It could also be that the pressure or temperature of your hot water system has exceeded safe standards and has tripped the T&P valve. Only other cause could be if you have an expansion tank and in this case it is possible that the expansion tank diaphragm has ruptured and the expansion tank needs replacement. If the expansion tank neds replacement be sure to replace the T&P valve at the same time, OK?

Questions? Let me know.

Mark

PS: I am having this question moved over to the plumbing page.