Are curtains near a hot water heater dangerous?
If it is in a closet, I am assuming that it is a electric water heater...? Nowhere on the outside of an electric water heater does the temperature get anywhere close to setting curtains on fire. If it is a gas water heater, if you keep combustibles away from the exhaust(metal pipe that goes out the top of the heater) you will be ok. The 6 1/2" should be a plenty. There should be information in the owners manual if available that explains proper clearance distances. If the manual is not available, search the make and model on the internet to find the required info.
The valve will sometimes leak if deposits have it stuck open. it is also designed to open to prevent the tank from exploding due to overtemp or pressure. Turn off the fuel or power if you can. Turning off the cold water might slow down the flow.One morning the shower seemed unusually hot, on checking the water heater, hot water was coming out of the relief valve. The thermostat in the water heater was stuck on. This was the original water heater which was preserved by changing anode rods, but may have failed due to deposit build up over the thermostat.
I took a shower not realizing the water was orange, is this dangerous for my skin, etc?
Sometimes the City flushes the water lines, and we would get a surge of rusty water for a day or so. Keep running the water frequently until it clears up. If it doesn't, you might have a broken line somewhere. If you use well water, it could be the native, unfiltered water. We had to get a new water softener/filter/purifier system for our water well because when the old one failed, the water ran rusty through every pipe in the house. You might try bleach to get that rust stain out of your towel (if it's a white towel). You should wash the rust off yourself or it might start itching as the minerals dry up an irritate your skin. Shouldn't be toxic, but you never know what minerals were concentrated in that pipe and what affect they will have on your skin. Your body will absorb things that come in contact with your skin.
Can I put insulation around the vent pipe on a hot water heater?
It should be fine. The vent pipe for a water heater doesn't get that hot, and sheetrock and fiberglass insulation aren't flammable anyway. * Judging by all my thumbs-down, perhaps your answer depends on the type and size of water heater you have. But I know for certain that the 50 gallon gas-operated water heater I installed in my own basement has an aluminum vent pipe that barely even gets warm to the touch, and could not possibly pose any fire hazard even if something flammable were to come into contact with it. So if anybody around here disagrees with that, I'd really like to see a good reason why. Fiberglass is definitely fire-retardant. Sheetrock isn't flammable, but if you want extra insurance then use fireboard around the vent pipe instead - it's covered with a fire-resistant paper and doesn't cost any more than regular sheetrock.
How do I stop the dripping from my water heater vent pipe? .?
If this wall thats getting the water is on a wall that is against the outside of the wall... then i may have an explanation, if not disregard. If gutters are clogged, the water will have no place to run except against the house, and slowly leaking down into the walls... or the insulation and wood beams... then that will eventually rot, and the water will have no where to go except against the wall...push hard on the wall, does it have any give? if so, the water damage is rotting out the wood inside the wall..and it all needs to be fixed. Now if it is just a wall not touching the outside of the house, then it may be a slight mess to figure out where the water is coming from... you will need to cut out a section of drywall in that area and see for yourself.
Part of the “growth” in the picture is corrosion (the lower parts) and part of it is deposits from minerals left behind from evaporation from a slow leak (the upper part).Painting is only useful if you can remove flaking and loose rust down to solid base material, and is only effective at reducing corrosion that is of external origin. Painting over a slow leak will only result in the leak lifting the paint from the surface and will have little preservative effect in that area.While it would be best to just replace the whole assembly (the flanges look to be welded or brazed to the main pipe) and then properly maintain it thereafter, there are considerations to be made. Such as…What is in the budget? What are the consequences of failure in the joint? How high are the pressures? What temperature range are we dealing with, both ambient and inside the pipe? Could it explode and scald / injure someone nearby? Would a fast or slow leak drain away harmlessly, or cause expensive damage? Would a major leak or failure cause damage to other elements of the system elsewhere?Depending on the answers to the above questions, another course of action is to leave well enough alone (as in “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”!) I have seen cast iron pump bodies become porous with age, you can penetrate them with the point of a screwdriver, so a visual inspection is not enough. But by probing it on inspection you could also cause an immediate leak that might not have otherwise happened for years.A simple application of oil, repeated at intervals (every 6 months for example) will prolong the life of metal surfaces, penetrating crevices by capillary action, and sealing them from the air to reduce the rate of oxidation. That is likely the fastest, most economical and least invasive course of action, and though it will do nothing to reduce the leak, it might prevent its growth. Provided that is the goal, and failure of the assembly would not be catastrophic.There are rust-preventive oil-based products on the market, intended for use on automobiles that should work well for this purpose, if the temperatures are not too elevated.Something else to explore is the possibility of using products (such as molybdate) that are added to the liquid/ water /transfer fluid in the pipe that would reduce corrosion internally or others that might eliminate the slow leak.Good luck!
If my central AC unit is leaking, is that dangerous?
well - not dangerous - but troublesome can you change the filter - I bet it's really dirty, and that can add 10-20% to your electric bill EASILY possibly the drain to the drip pan is clogged I had a house where they put the 10 ft drip line to the outside - without a slant - so it was level and really got the algae - my solution was to put a gallon of hot soapy water through every month (may have to get some water out of the pan to put that in) I believe Home Depot has a product to clear the lines, too (ask!) do you know where your drain is on the outside? - check and see if water is flowing out - cause that's what an airconditioner will do - draw the water out of the air - and it HAS to go somewhere (once had a mud dauber build a home there - got that wasp evicted!!) all the best
Turn the water off at the water heater. Take the outlet side Supply Line off The water heater Put a bucket under it. Go to your shower take The shower head off Take the washer out, then put a dime in with washer on top of the dime and screw the shower head back on. Now turn the hot handle on and then the Cold water on And it will blow water into the bucket at the water heater. You have reversed the flow of water and hopefully did the trick!!! Don't forget to remove the Dime And put supply Line back On. Wala.