The cold intake pipe for my water heater has a drain valve with plastic tubing leading to my basement drain. This tubing always has a constant flow of dripping water; basically, my water heater's cold intake drain valve is ALWAYS dripping. I've NEVER seen it not drip.
Is this normal? I ask because my sump pump goes off like clockwork every 3 hours and I'm beginning to think its due to this dripping. I thought we had a water table underneath our house because unplugging the sump pump for days at a time doesn't cause it to overflow.
Best Answer
Ben Welborn is correct. Sediment or mineral is keeping the drain valve from seating properly if everything is closed inside especially the hot and your cold inlet valve works you could change out the valve without draining the heater. But I'm assuming since there is a sump that this is down inside a basement. Drain and replace use a 3/4 di electric nipple with a. 3/4" ball valve or pvc and remedy this problem for good