Found out most water heaters are shipped with the drain valve finger-tight

I was on a call in Clifton last week changing out a 10 year old water heater. When I went to hook up the new one, I noticed the plastic drain valve was barely snug. I checked the factory paperwork and it actually says they expect the installer to torque it down. So basically every new water heater has been waiting to spray water everywhere from day one. Has anyone else had one of these pop loose on startup?

2 comments

2 Comments

piper9121mo ago

Oh man, same here. Found one barely hand tight last month.

the_pat1mo ago

No way, that could've been bad.