Quick takeaways
- Under 7 days away: turn the tank down to vacation/pilot mode.
- Over 7 days: turn it off and shut the main water supply.
- Tankless heaters can simply be turned off at the breaker.
The risk equation
Every storage tank water heater is one failed tank weld away from dumping 40-80 gallons of hot water onto your basement floor. The longer the tank is unsupervised under pressure, the larger the risk. If you're going away for more than a week, shutting the cold water supply to the tank — and the main if possible — eliminates the flood scenario entirely.
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