Water Heater Drain Pans

Should every water heater have a drain pan? If the water heater valve near the bottom of the tank was knocked and accidently opened, could a drain pan be helpful with damage control? Should a valve down below have a safety measure so this doesn't happen or would a drain pain be sufficient?

Drain Pans help contain and divert the water in the event the hot water tank developes a leak. Believe me, I just experienced this! If my hot water tank would have had a Drain Pan it would have diverted the water when the tank developed a leak at 2:00am causing $2000.00 water damage to our living room. The new Hot Water Tank has a Drain Pan under it. Now if and when it leaks again it will dain into the garage.

Drain pans use gravity to drain the water. Therefore, they WILL handle small volumes of water, such as a water heater "LEAK", but they will NOT work with a larger volume such as a broken valve or tank rupture.

Is there any kind of safety measure to take for to prevent valve ruptures?

A lot of us remove that plastic valve and replace it with a full flow ball valve. We do this to make draining the tank easier, but they would be stronger than the original valve. Other than that, just be careful around the tank. I can't imagine what wild activities you or yours would be doing that would break the valve off the tank anyway.

I've never seen a drain fail at the low end of the tank. I've seen them drain slow when I attach a hose.