One of the worst hazards I have ever seen..........

[Eck]

We took dinner over to our son's girlfriends house because she lost her dad last night, and her whole family is coming in from out of state. As I carried dinner in to the house (through the garage), I couldn't help but notice a lot of rust on the side of the hot water tank and water on the garage floor in the corner where the hot water tank sets.

 

Check out what I found...........She is renting this house and on top of everything she is dealing with now, I had to tell her to call her landlord ASAP to have a new hot water tank installed.

 

I shut the power off to the tank, then took the electrical cover off and had to take the attached pictures... Then I pulled the wires up out of the cavity and dried up all the water inside it.. I left the wires pulled up out of the water for now (after drying them all off).

The tank is still "slowly" leaking so no use put the wires back inside the electrical box cavity to only become emerged in water again..

 

In all my life I have never seen this before and I have changed out many hot water tanks......

 

[slowrollwv]

Eck it is a wonder that it didn't short out and cause a fire. That is terrible.

[uncledj]

Interdasting......was the tank still heating? Seems like it shoulda' popped the breaker. Some humidifiers have canisters that put line voltage directly to the water within, ...boiling the water, so I guess it wouldn't be a direct short. Also, with the ground wire right there, I don't know if it would have been an active hazard or not....I'd like to see if it was drawing any amperage through the water........either way it's a bad situation that needs resolved quickly.

[Eck]

Hot water tank was still heating. In fact, one person was taking a shower.. I shut the power off and told them not to use ANY water until I can get the wires up out of the water..

[videoarizona]

Yikes!!!

[Flyinfool]

That is the way it is supposed to work, the water improves the electrical contact where the wires are joined......

 

But on a more serious side, pure clean water is nearly an insulator, on the brighter side it probably means that she has a pretty clean water source. In that pic it looks like there is a lot of rust in the water which would make it a pretty good conductor, I would think it should have popped the breaker, I wonder if the breaker is good? It is certainly not a GFI type breaker.

[Sailor]

A friend bought a condo in Victoria. The woman he bought it from had been there for 20 years and had never turned on the stove. He asked if I wanted it. I went to get it. When I pulled it out from the wall I found just bare wires twisted together. No box, no murettes. Just bare wires stuffed into the wood framing. If she had turned it on she would have started a fire.

[cowpuc]

Prayers Up for your Son's Girlfriend and her family on the loss of her Father Eckster!! Please share our condolences with her/them. THANK YOU for being there for her and taking the bull by the horns to get the water heater corrected before someone got hurt my friend. You very well may have saved someone's life and THAT is no joke!!! YOU DA MAN BROTHER!!!:clap2: