Melbourne Water is blaming a faulty valve for a burst water main in Glen Waverley, in Melbourne's eastern suburbs.

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Up to 2 million litres of water were lost in the rupture as water shot up to 50 metres into the air for about an hour in the residential suburb.

A house suffered water damage but the owner was not home at the time.

A metal cage covering the main's pressure release valve was blown off and landed about 15 metres away damaging the roof of a carport.

It is believed a faulty air ball valve, which regulates pressure in the main, caused the rupture.

The main is about 50 years old and has no history of failure.

It supplies water to more than 100,000 homes but workers have isolated the area and local water supplies have not been affected.

Lena Wintermantel, who lives across the road from the water main, says there was significant damage to the home of one of her neighbours.

"We saw the big water fountain coming up in the sky and my house is just opposite so I was a bit of a shock coming home to it," she said.

"All the neighbours started appearing. The water was on for quite a while and we were waiting for it to be turned off because it seemed to be causing more and more damage to this house and houses down the road.

"We were quite lucky that it didn't come in to our property."

She says the woman who owns the house is in shock.

Sorry, this video has expired Glen Waverley mops up after water main bursts ( Jeff Waters )

John Halliday of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) says the house has sustained major damage.

"All the ceilings will have to be replaced, a lot of the carpet and the electrical systems have to be checked throughout the house," he said.

"Most of the houses seem to have coped with it. It was just like a heavy storm I imagine.

"But this house, because of the sheer ferocity of the water, it penetrated the roof tiles."

Mr Halliday says the cage that was blown off probably weighed up to 60 kilograms.

"That's been blown in the air and landed another 15 metres down through the carport. So [there was] a huge amount of pressure on that," he said.

Melbourne Water spokesman John Woodland says it is a rare event and he believes a faulty valve is to blame.

"From time to time things go wrong," he said.

"It's no different than your car, you maintain it, sometimes things just don't work.

"I must reiterate, this is a complex system, we have hundreds of kilometres of water main. It's a large main, it supplies 10 per cent of Melbourne and it's one of these rare events that occur from time to time."