Water Heaters - noise from nat. gas hot water heater

WOW - I love those night calls from my daughter 300 miles away that start "Daddy, what is..." Anyway she said her water heater had been off for a while what she described as "a large piece behind the door on the bottom of the tank" was replaced. She said it had wires on it and went into the tank. Wow - why arn't daughters mechanical? When it was fired up it made an intermittant noise like water dropped on a hot plate - in her terms for a short time. This did not last very long, she has hot water and no evidence of leaks underneath.

Now he part that worries me. When the noise was happening she goes next door and asked the neighbor what it could be. He said the liner was cracked!

So my question is Wouldn't there be water on the floor or the noise continuing if it were?

Please save me a 600 rt if anybody has any ideas.

Probably just noise from the sediment being disturbed by what sounds like an element replacement. They may have drained and refilled the tank so it was dead cold. Could have been expansion noises from it heating back up.

Hot water, and no leakage on the floor or in the drain pan...keep an eye on if for a day..then forget it.

EDIT...oops..missed the NG part in the title, so not an element. Prob replaced the thermostat, thermocouple or igniter. The popping sound is very common with NG heaters esp if they did a flush.

most likely it was just condensation from the vent pipe and nothing to worry about

I agree with Dan, most likely condensation caused by running the hot water until it is gone and then having to heat the entire tank. Burning natural gas creates a lot of water vapor and if the flue is cold (from the water in the tank) that water vapor will condense and run down the flue to the burner where it flashes to steam when it drops onto the hot burner.

Daughter checked the bottom of the tank for 3 days and no water so it is a non-issue.

Thanks to all

This site is great - glad I found it

Parkranger