HELP !

weird rusty things are appearing on top of my hot water heater, anyone know what they are and does this mean something bad is happening to the hot water heater ? What do I do ?

 

That's called rust and corrosion. It looks like you are getting a lot of condensation in the flue.
Is the metal flue pipe rusted too ?

 

hi, Pete
the flue pipe did not appear to be bad looking from outside though, do I simply put a dehumidifier in the room ?

 

I would have your exhaust flue inspected. It does not appear to meet code or the manufacturers requirements. Every one I've seen requires vertical piping of the flue before any bend. Yours has the 90° directly connected to the draft hood. And, there is a limit as to how much horizontal run you can have in relation to vertical. All your photo shows is horizontal so I hope there is a good bit of vertical flue outside.

 

I agree with PD on this. Also I don't see much if any incline in the pipe.

 

Hi Dane,
the horizontal pipe runs into the chimney through the wall, which goes all the way to the roof.

 

You still need to incline that horizontal flue going to the chimney. Is that water heater a tall boy or a short boy. Could be why the flue is so flat if the pervious tank was a short boy.

 

As Pete mentioned it could corrosion from flue if it was only there but I'm seeing corrosion or rust above the AO SMITH sticker at the coner and around the hot or cold pipe. My guess is you may be starting to get a tank leak if you haven't already. The tank may be leaking and soaking the insulation, still too small to really notice but it will not mprove with age.

If you can lift that top cover off a little and feel your insulation if it is wet you may be able to avoid an emergency . Sometime to can hear what sounds like little droplets of water hitting the burner box for lack of a better name.

Just a thought.

 

Pictures show rust on top cover where meets top of trank outer sheet metal housing. Alwo rust aound holes for vent and 3/4”.

Inner water tank may have slight leak that vaporizes and results causes rust where vented to room air.

 

Spott,
right on, I was just doing a close look at it, the water heater came on, and I saw water coming out where the flue and the top cover meets, is this serviceable, or does that mean this water heater is dead and I would need to replace it ?

 

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but replacement is the way to go. The good news is you caught it before it completely let go and flooded the basement.

 

When thru that last summer. Water logged insulation made extremely heavy old 50 gallon oil fired tank (180 pounds shipping weight) . Had to use cum-a-long to pull it up basement stairs.