Are there any pictures from the show of when the heater went off? Or could anyone grab any hd high resolution snap shots? I think those shots, espcially of the house, are awesome and would love to use em as a wallpaper or see em in high resolution.

I just like to say I went to Watts web page last week and clicked on order their videos. I just got explosion-Danger Lurks! and Danger - Scalding Lurks! in the mail today. They do not charge a dime to send these dvd's not even shipping. I rewatched this show today and noticed that the Mythbusters had a little clip from the 1948 footage of Explosion - Danger Lurks. Maybe they can do a little more blowing up of water heaters. In the Watts footage they had the heaters hooked up to a plumbing system and when the water reached 300 degrees the introduced a water hammer which set the tank off. Water hammer is a shock wave in the plumbing system when a valve is shut if real fast. You may have heard your water pipes bang when someone turns off a faucet or the washing machine finishes filling up. That is water hammer.

Revisit not of this myth but based on this they should revisit the jetpack or waterrocket myth. Strap buster too the water heater and you've got a jetpack powered by water. It seemed that they were so sure of a explosion not a rocket that they didn't even have a camera filming the sky and we missed the first rocket in the air Great episode

What that is is called a 'BLEVE' (an acronym for 'Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion'), what happens when you have a highly pressurized something full of a liquid and there is a small sudden release of that pressure, as in a small joint failing or sudden expansion in the size of the vessel, and all of that liquid, now suddenly below the vapor pressure for its temperature, turns to vapor. Not much manmade can withstand such increased pressures. I'm thinking that the actual 'triggers' of those water heater explosions were when their concave bases suddenly 'popped' out to become convex - that sudden expansion of the vessels' volume might have been enough to do it - with the weakening of their bottom seams in those sudden 'pops' being the final pieces in their failures.

BLEVEs can occur in anything ranging from popcorn kernels popping up to railroad tank cars after major derailments, where the presence of flammable liquids as their loads adds to their spectacularity, and beyond. There are instances of railroad tank car vessels landing well over 1 km away after such explosions, so the reported heights of water heater tanks and their explosive power is very realistic.

OTOH, when released in a controlled manner, such high-pressure water vapor can do many useful things and until only a few decades ago, it was what powered a major portion of our transportation system (steam locomotives). AND YET, if not properly tended, they also could, and occasionally did, explode in SPECTACULAR ways.

Mike

That had to be one of my favorite explosions ever. It wasn't all that spectacular, but the fact that the heater didn't come down for over ten seconds was halarious! I'd say it's tied for first with the cement truck ^_^

so i am curious what this building would have looked like with foundation. you replicated california building standards with the exception of a foundation. sure it would still be demolished, but how much?

and the jean myth was busted from the "exploding overalls" myth. i highly doubted that friction without the fertilizer would do any better than with it, but tory is a trooper for trying it anyways.

Yeah it was obvious, but it was so worth it to see Tory hit those piles of turd that fast lol.

I definitely second on testing gas water heaters to see if it will go faster than an electric heater, and also what happens just after liftoff with the gas line and escaping gas.

Also, I had heard that older homes had brick enclosures around their water heaters, before safety systems were devised for them, to protect the surrounding area should it rupture. I wonder if a brick enclosure would minimize the damage, or would it just create a wall of heavier projectiles.

also the brick walls may focus the blast

Does anyone know what the episode number for this one? I've inherited teaching a class on pressure safety awareness. The first one is in May and that video will be a great addition. I've seen the YouTube copy but would rather have a legal copy for work. Thanks

I loved the show and only came up with one question ... How or why did the water heater fail at the bottom of the tank? What would of happen if the tank would of failed on a side seam or on top of the tank? hummm...

The water heater show was GREAT! Now for the big one: Fill the tank with 24 gallons of gasoline, move back, and turn on the power!

quote:

Originally posted by dannyrrj:
I loved the show and only came up with one question ... How or why did the water heater fail at the bottom of the tank? What would of happen if the tank would of failed on a side seam or on top of the tank? hummm...

Probably the most logical explanation of why the water tank failed at the bottom is that (1) most likely, the bottom of the tank was welded on and (2) that was the weakest weld, because that's where piping probably ran out of.

I could be wrong though

I missed the show so I appologize if this was explained, but if the water heater is connected to a supply line, how does the pressure build up above the supply line pressure? Wouldn't the increasing pressure simply push water back to the city's supply line until the heating elements were no longer covered with water, or is there some kind of check value? Or was there an assumption that someone had shut the water off to the house?

Hi guys love the show.

going back into historical records in Busselton Western Australia in1888 as steam was being raised in a mill boiler the main boiler exploded. "The force wrenched it from it's foundations and hurled it through the roof of hte mill and one hundred and fifty yards away to the middle of the single men's camp. The engine driver Mr Mort was scalded to death but the greaser, a Mr Wright, who was under the benches lubricating bearings on teh many shafts, was luckily unhurt." the quote is taken from "Southern Enterprise the story of Henry John Yelverton and his sawmills" by J. Kinsella, published 1990.

The book contains a photo of the boiler and it can still be found in the place it landed.

this boiler is huge. I cant imagine how much power it must have taken to throw it so far. If it went 150 yards laterally I wonder how high it went.

Another water heater explosion in the news! Check it out!
News VideoNews video

I was driving to work yesterday and saw a house completely blown apart. It looked like a bomb went off in the garage. There were a bunch of cops and firemen on the scene with the whole block taped off. Then about 3 blocks down there were some more cops with a small area taped off and a water heater in the middle of the road. I knew immediately what happened. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

The Local News Story

Guess What. A house just tested this myth in reality in Phoenix AZ earlier this week.
The house is totaled, at least two of the houses surrounding were damaged and the house across the street lost windows. The water heater was found by the news chopper in either a street or parking lot a few blocks away.
Luckly, no one was seriously in hurt. If you go to WWW.AZCENTRAL.COM and type in house explosions you can find the article and see the house.

This actually happened here in Phoenix last month. It went through the roof and 135 yards away. You can see the story here.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/08/14/20080...pnx-waterheater.html

This thing went through the roof and a couple (at least) blocks.

Lol, never mind, it's been covered.