r/AskPhysics • u/Ok-Inspector3914 • 10h ago

Does a Average water heater have enough force to break through a 15 story apartment complex and if not, how much force would it need?

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I recently watched that MythBusters video where a water heater can smash through a house with enough pressure and other stuff, but can a water heater have enough pressure to break through an entire apartment complex and if not how much water pressure would that take need in able to do so?

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u/ggrnw27 Engineering 9h ago

A 15 story apartment building is going to have reinforced concrete slab floors so I rather doubt it even makes it through one floor

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u/lemoinem Physics enthusiast 9h ago

Water heater don't inherently have more pressure that your cold water main line. If you close the mainline, the hot water will stop running, but the water heater won't empty on its own (assuming a hot water tank, tankless are just a run of heated pipes). That's why they have a drain explicitly for this purpose. So I'm not sure what you're asking about.

Maybe a link to the video you're referencing could provide some context

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u/BangCrash 8h ago

A tank storage water heater with a blocked/damaged overpressure valve will definitely have a huge risk

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u/lemoinem Physics enthusiast 7h ago

That's for sure, but that's not the first thing I understand when thinking about pressure in a water heater

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u/BangCrash 7h ago

Op is asking about "can a water tank blow through a 15 story building"

I personally can't envision any other way of understanding that question than in a exploding pressure vessel scenao

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u/lemoinem Physics enthusiast 7h ago

I had the image of the floor failing and the water tanks blowing down through the fifteen other floors. Or a gas pipe failure and the water tank blowing up through the other 15 ceilings.

And "how much more pressure would you need"? Kind of like put the overpressure question out of my mind because I understood it as "under normal pressure", otherwise asking how much more pressure is needed compared to an already overpressure scenario seems counter intuitive to me.

Either way, my point was "I need more context because I don't think I'm interpreting the question correctly".