Last summer, when I used the kitchen faucet, I was surprised that the water was scalding hot.
I didn’t need to wait for it to warm up like usual.
The temperature was immediately dangerously hot. I am very thankful one of the kids didn’t get burned. I opened the door to the basement to check on the water pump and water heater and heard the spray of water. Once I descended the stairs, I found the basement flooded due to a ruptured hot water heater. I found the shut-off and was able to stop the flow of water. It’s very lucky that I caught the problem when I did. The water heater could have easily caused a fire. I called a local plumbing company and asked them to send a professional serviceman to the house as soon as possible. We went for several hours with no water. We couldn’t run any of the sinks, flush toilets, take a shower or start up the washing machine. The plumber checked out the situation and informed me that a new water heater was necessary. He was able to get a new tank-style heater installed quite quickly. The problem was fixed for several months, until I used my kitchen faucet and found that the water was black. I called the same plumbing company and explained the problem. I learned that due to the hardness of our water, the anode rod was overwhelmed with minerals and actually worked as a detriment to water quality. Removing the anode rod solved the concern but also voided the warranty of the new water heater.