ok. I'm calm now. I know our water systems and heating systems are very different from over there. This is a basic question that I really need an answer to. I am clueless. To make a rather lengthy story short....the main cold water pipe. which was copper and put together by what I think now might have been a three year old....it was never soldered together and the part which was above the hot water cylinder came apart....gushing water everywhere...including on top of the hot water cylinder. It has some wires on top of there...which has those little plastic twisty things on them....the water was gushing for approximately 10 mins (seemed like a lot longer) We connect to the mains here...and had to wait for them to come out and shut it off. Question is this---as I am now wet vacking the water up...and i started near the source, I hear a slight popping inside the cylinder...I have no clue if it always did that or if this is since the water rained down on it. Does anyone have an idea or basic knowledge of this sort of thing...do I have another problem now...besides the obvious?....plumber cant come out til this evening. Please.....anyone out there thats got a clue about USA hot water cylinders? I didnt put much technical info in...ask and I'll try and get it.