Bad Temperature/Pressure Relief Valve?

Hello,
Even at very low temperature settings (even just a notch above the ‘vacation’ setting) our water heater spews massive amounts of water out of the relief valve pipe. The water temperature itself is luke warm at best.
I tried going notch by notch turning up the temperature a bit everytime the burner would stop. I couldn’t even make it to the ‘warm’ setting before it began releasing the water. It’s a propane run heater, if that makes a difference. Thanks for any advice.
Scott

It could be a bad T&P valve. Not very common, but it does happen. Or it could be thermal expansion causing excessive pressure buildup. Without more info, I would lean toward the latter.

buy a $15 water pressure gauge that you can screw onto a hose bib and check the water pressure could be a bad pressure reducing valve.

I just had my water heater serviced because one of the baseboards was making a noise. The plumber fixed it by letting the excess air out of the heater and everything was fine.

He then said I needed some kind of valve to stop the water from the water heater from going back into the line of the drinking water should there ever be a case where the water pressure from the city is low at which point my water heater water would go into the drinking line and possibly poison me and the other tenants in the building.

If it's a building you own, a backflip preventer would be a wise investment

Backflip? I believe he is referring to a backflow device.

Matt30 said:

If it's a building you own, a backflip preventer would be a wise investment

Click to expand...

it would be a good investment,
i'll give you 5 bucks to watch you flip

What can I say....I hate acrobats. Keep them backflips outta here!

Yes...backflow preventer. Stupid Apple products and their auto correct function

I test the relief valve every six months, when I test smoke alarms et al. I also flush the tank a bit by letting some what out from the bottom valve, if there is one. I have done this ever since a tank blew out on me. Removing the sediment seems to elongate the life. In my last house my hwh lasted over 15 years, up until I sold the house.