Leaking water heater fitting.

 I discovered a leak coming from the plastic drain valve at the bottom
of the gas water heater. I tightened the valve up but it keeps
dripping. Can that fitting be replaced? I think this happened from an
earthquake last week. It was a sudden jolt and may have broken
something internally.

 
I've never seen a plastic drain valve on a water heater. However, all
drain valves should be replaceable; it should just unscrew from a threaded
hole. You'll need to shut off the gas to it, attach a hose, and drain it
first. Use care when unscrewing the valve; it's probably cracked.

Take it to a plumbing supply store or home center and get a replacement.
Use teflon tape on the replacement to help it seal.


Gary

--
Gary Heston  gheston@hiwaay.net   http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/

"Behind every successful woman there is an astonished man"
    General of the Army (four stars) Ann Dunwoody

 On May 6, 8:17 pm, ghes...@hiwaay.net (Gary Heston) wrote:

I call it a drain valve, for lack of a better term, but it's the male
plastic threaded fitting at the bottom of the tank.

 

Most water heaters have plastic drain valves as brass costs money.

Picture of typical water heater plastic drain valve at
http://www.inspect-ny.com/plumbing/Water_Heater_Drain054-DFs.jpg

The OP should buy a brass drain valve as a replacement.

 On May 6, 10:35 pm, "shareyourknowle...@hotmail.com"

Mine was dripping. I replaced it with a brass one quarter turn ball
valve from lowes depot. they're standardized, but there are two
styles, one with male threads where the heater has female, and vice
versa, of course. the only complication was trying to unscrew the
plastic POS without breaking it; it was pretty tight, obviously. but
it finally gave, at what felt like just before it would have broken
off.

I discovered after the fact that it had a regular faucet washer inside
it which had deteriorated and could have been replaced in normal
fashion. however, that would have involved emptying the tank the same
as replacing the whole valve, so i didn't feel too bad.

since you have to empty it anyway, if you wouldn't mind having the
tank empty for a while, you could empty it and then try to disassemble
the thing and see if there's a washer that you can replace. you might
even invest in a box of random washers ahead of time to make sure you
got one that fits. or, given the liberal return policy the big box
stores have, get  a selection of valves and a box of washers and go to
town, then return what you don't use. the only real bad thing that can
happen is if you break the valve off, but then being as it's plastic
you should be able to get the stub out in chunks if worst comes to
worst. but maybe just a washer will do it.