Water heater emergencies

Split water heater emergencies into two kinds, because the correct response is opposite. Water emergencies are urgent but manageable: you shut things off, contain the damage, and call in the morning if you want a better price. Combustion emergencies — gas odor, soot, a CO alarm, sick or drowsy occupants — are life-safety events where the only correct action is to get out and call from outside.

For a burst tank, the shutoff you want is the cold-water valve on the pipe entering the top of the heater. If it will not turn, use the main water shutoff for the house. Then kill the energy source: the dedicated breaker for an electric unit, or the gas control knob turned to "off" for a gas unit. Do not attempt to relight anything afterward yourself on a gas unit that has been submerged or soaked — a flooded gas control valve must be replaced, not dried out.

A tank holds 40 to 80 gallons. In a finished basement that is a real insurance claim. If you have a floor drain, get water toward it; if not, wet-vac and get air moving. Photograph everything before you clean up.

Not every no-hot-water night is an emergency. If nothing is leaking, no one is at risk, and you can shower elsewhere, waiting until normal business hours will usually save you a meaningful amount on the call-out.

How to choose

Find your shutoffs before you need them

Locate the cold-water valve above the heater, the main house shutoff, and the water heater's breaker or gas control now, while it is dry and light. Tag them.

Gas smell means leave, not investigate

Do not flip switches, do not use your phone indoors, do not relight a pilot. Get out, then call 911 or the gas utility emergency line from outside.

Working CO alarms are the cheapest safety spend in the house

If you have any gas-burning appliance, you should have working carbon monoxide alarms. Test them. CO has no smell and you will not wake up on your own.

Do not relight a soaked gas unit

Any gas control valve or burner assembly that has been under water needs to be replaced by a qualified pro. Drying it out and firing it up is how people get hurt.

Document before you dry out

Photos and video of the water at its worst, plus the model and serial plate, make an insurance claim far easier.