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Leak caused by improper bonding?

Merry Christmas
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zbang

Senior Member
Location
Roughly 5346 miles from Earls Court
Probably a load of BS, and wouldn't the warranty cover the water heater anyway? And in a new home (new-built or new to you?), I'd expect the builder to deal with it.

In my limited experience, pinholes are more often a problem with both water chemistry and external currents causing electrolysis in the house.

(BTW, imgur is not a great place to put photos, it calls in too much crap to display them.)
 
J

jim dungar

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Wisconsin
Occupation
PE (Retired) - Power Systems
The plumber is wrong. He is trying to push the blame onto someone else.

Electrolysis is not typically associated with the AC voltage and current in our houses. It is most often caused by poor water chemistry.
 
L

lmnopz

Member
Location
Richmond, CA
Occupation
Public Safety Dispatcher
The home is new to me. Originally built in 2004. The water heater was replaced recently, Nov. 2022.

The plumber specifically said that to be up to code the bonding had to run from the cold inlet, to the hot water outlet on top, then to the nat gas pipe at the bottom.
 
roger

roger

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Fl
Occupation
Retired Electrician
lmnopz said:
The home is new to me. Originally built in 2004. The water heater was replaced recently, Nov. 2022.

The plumber specifically said that to be up to code the bonding had to run from the cold inlet, to the hot water outlet on top, then to the nat gas pipe at the bottom.
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A word of advice. Generally speaking it's not a good idea to listen to electrical advice from a plumber and this is one of those occasions.
 
roger

roger

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Fl
Occupation
Retired Electrician
But in all fairness, the plumber might be saying something that some uninformed inspector has be requiring where he works.
 
Fred B

Fred B

Senior Member
Location
Upstate, NY
Occupation
Electrician
lmnopz said:
Purchased a new home with a small leak on copper pipe. Home warranty plumber refused to fix it stating that my hot water heater is improperly bonded/grounded causing electrolysis in my copper pipes. Is that a load of BS or what?

Leak, pipes, and water heater pics
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Your pics only shows apparent bad sweat joint. Common additional oxidation from the leaking sweat dripping onto adjacent pipes or condensation onto cold pipes. Grounding will never fix, or lack of cause, a sweat joint to leak. If it did, it would represent a tremendous current to de-sweat the joint. I see no evidence from your pics to suggest electrolysis. Most damage I've ever seen presumably from electrolysis was internal to the water heater. If electrolysis is causing leakage it would be at the thinnest points first. Have seen high mineral content water in combination with turbulence at an semi open joint wear a hole into pipe but that take a long time.

If there is a concern Have an electrician come out to test for voltage presence on the copper pipes. Seems Plumber just didn't want to warrant his work. Most of these home warranty mechanics are in the business not to fix, but to find an excuse not to fix a problem.
 
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