Our water heater thermostat was sticking hot.
Daughter was showering and the water stopped, she told my wife
who went t o the basement to see what happened. When she opened the
basement door she was met with steam. She ran down, found the valve by the heater and turned it off, getting mildly burned in the process.
Clean up wasn't too bad, just a bunch of crap sitting on the floor that
made it harder. Lucky it was caught immediately.
Not water, hitting a cement floor and turning to steam has a
distinct and surprisingly bad smell.
A month later I had to work on the clothes washer.
When I went to unhook the lines from the wall, the hot water line
was swollen to a bigger circumference than the brass coupler!
I guess from the water being too hot, or age.
That was 2 potential catastrophes avoided.
PS. Our insurance company sends a quarterly magazine out. One consistent tip us to replace washer hoses every few years(5 I think).
Ours were 20 years old, their projected life is 10.
Ponied up the $$ and got braided with leak detecting fittings.
