By Barry Stone
Dear Barry,
As a Realtor, I strongly endorse home inspections but sometimes find that they stir up confusion. In a recent case, the home was vacant and the inspector had to relight the water heater. After doing this, he reported that it was leaking and even showed me where the water was dripping at the base. The buyers requested that the unit be replaced, but the sellers' plumber found no leakage. Now the sellers refuse to buy a new water heater, and the buyers insist upon replacement. How do you account for this discrepancy?
--Diane
Dear Diane,
There are two possible answers to this question, both related to reigniting the burner in a cold-water heater. Either of these may involve error on the part of the home inspector.
When a water heater burner is relit, dripping at the base of the unit may be due to vapor condensation, rather than leakage. Gas combustion produces two essential byproducts: carbon dioxide and steam. When steam encounters a cold surface, such as a water heater tank, the result is condensation, just as shower vapor will fog a bathroom mirror. Condensation on a cold-water heater causes dripping from the bottom of the tank, easily misinterpreted as leakage. When this occurs, replacement of the fixture is clearly unwarranted.
The other possibility calls to mind the inadvisability of turning a water heater burner completely off. It is common knowledge that objects expand when heated and contract when cooled. When a water heater is turned off and allowed to become cold, all of the components and fittings contract. Later, when the fixture is reheated and the components re-expand, leaking may result. Such leakage, however, can be temporary. As the temperature of the newly lighted water heater gradually rises, leaky fittings can reseal as the metal components continue to expand.
If the dripping you observed was due to temporary leakage, then the inspector's findings were correct but incomplete. If condensation was the cause, then the inspector made a faulty judgment. Occasional errors of this kind illustrate the human aspect of inspecting property. Home inspection is essentially a learn-as-you-go business, and some of the learning occurs when findings are found to be inaccurate. Hopefully, such errors are not frequent events.
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