Latest Discussions : Home Design

09:40AM | 06/24/05

Member Since: 06/23/05
1 lifetime posts

Electric Water Heater in Master Bedroom Closet

Tags: Home Design

Hi,

I just bought a 16 year old 4 story townhouse.

The quirky thing about this house is that the water heater is located on one side of a walk-in master bedroom closet, rendering half of the space in the closet useless, along with having to place your clothes right next to it.

The other townhouses in this community have their waterheater in the first floor under the staircase but for some reason, our stairs are lower and there is no room for the water heater there.

Should I be worried about this?

homebild

05:34PM | 06/26/05

Member Since: 01/28/03
693 lifetime posts

The only thing you should be worried about with an electric heater in this location is if the heater fails and leaks to lower floors or if the heater's pressure relief valve opens to let water escape.

If the heater is located in a catch basin/drip pan with a drain to your sewer lines, you shouldn't have any worries.

But another quirk of your townhome is that because it exceeds 3 stories, it is not regulated by residential building codes, but rather commercial building codes.

You'd have to call your local code comemrcial code enforcement office to determine if an electric heater in a closet is a commercial code violation.