Brand New Rheem 50 gallon electric water heater leaking at drain valve pipe on bottom

[Brisbane]

Hi.

My brand new Rheem 50 gallon electric WH developed a slow drip on day 1, after I filled it up, from the drain pipe. It's a plastic pipe that threads into the tank at the bottom on the side. This pipe is easy to turn, and I think it might be stripped. The drip is not coming out the end of the pipe. It is coming from inside the tank, dripping out the hole the pipe goes into, so I'm assuming the threads are not sealing. Going to see if I can take out the pipe, reinsert, retighten, see what happens. Maybe some teflon tape.

Is this common problem with Rheem water heaters?

Would rather fix it than return it to Home Depot.

Any help is welcomed !


Thanks

 

[johnjh2o]

Remove it and replace it with a 3/4" ball valve. That will also make it easier to flush the tank when needed.

 

[Brisbane]

Remove it and replace it with a 3/4" ball valve. That will also make it easier to flush the tank when needed.

Thanks for the reply! Do you think the threads inside the tank are metal? I hope so, since they would not be stripped. Even though the plastic valve seems to be stripped.

Thanks again

 

[KULTULZ]

I just remembered...

I also recently installed this same model WH in my daughter's house and it too had a cross-threaded plastic drain valve.

Being the moron that I am ... ... I did not install the customary brass ball drain valve as it had to be pulled later (temp install) for an HVAC replacement.

Learned my lesson on that one...

 

[Brisbane]

Thanks for the replies.

I drained the water out, removed the plastic drain pipe, saw that the threads had a narrow band of blue gunk going around the middle. Peeled off the blue gunk, applied two revolutions of teflon tape, reinserted drain tube, turned it about 3 or 4 revolutions into tank. It was still not tight at that point, but I didn't want to strip off the teflon by turning it more. Turned on water to tank. Slow drip. Turned pipe an additional half revolution. Drip has now stopped, except for one or 2 drips when I have a hot shower. Keeping an eye on it for now. Not tightening it up any more yet. Maybe it will eventually snug up if I turn it enough, but it doesn't feel like it. Leaving well enough alone for now.

 

[SHEPLMBR]

Yeah the plastic valves suck anyway.