My cheap apartment's water heater flooded the whole unit last Tuesday

I was at my place in Riverside when I heard a weird gurgle from the closet. The old water heater I'd been ignoring finally gave out, and it sent about 50 gallons of water across the kitchen floor before I could shut the main valve off. The cleanup cost me over $300 for a wet vac and fans, which blew my budget for the next two months. I learned the hard way that a $15 annual drain valve check could have prevented the whole mess. Has anyone else had a surprise appliance failure that wrecked their savings plan?

3 comments

3 Comments

tarar271mo ago

Wait, you really think a $15 check would have stopped it? My last place had a heater from the 90s that failed even with yearly maintenance. Sometimes old stuff just goes, and no amount of draining will fix worn-out metal. That $300 hit sucks, but replacing the unit itself would have been way worse.

dianas501mo agoMost Upvoted

Hold up though, a $15 check would have caught a small drip before it turned into a flood. That yearly maintenance is good but it's not the same as someone actually checking the pan and drain line. You're right that old heaters fail, but a lot of those $300 fixes are from water damage that could have been spotted early with a simple visual check.

the_charlie16d ago

Man, honestly, how often did you actually check that heater yourself between those yearly visits? I feel like a lot of people just set it and forget it until something breaks. A quick peek at the drip pan every few months can catch a lot before the water bill climbs.