Your water heater is a vital yet often ignored major appliance in your home. Without it, you don’t have hot water for baths or showers, for doing laundry, or even for simply washing your hands. Many of the daily chores we have for keeping our homes and ourselves clean rely on that old heater. Like most things in your home, the water heater will need maintenance and care over the life of the appliance. Over the years, there are still several common hot water heater problems that you might encounter, but generally they are typically all fixable with a little know-how or by calling on your professional plumber.
Not Heating Water
If the heater is not heating at all, it could be due to a lose of power (or disruption of the gas line) or due to a fault in the heating element or burner. Have a professional assess the water heater for you.
Leaking
You wouldn’t ignore a leak from the piping in your home, so you also should never ignore a leak from your water heat. There could be several reasons that your heater is leaking, including failure of the pressure valve, sediment buildup, loose connections or valves, and an old anode nod. These repairs could be complicated depending on the cause of the leak, and it is best to let a professional plumber handle it.
Has A Bad Smell
If the heater has a foul small, it likely has had water sitting still in it for too long. This can be solved by flushing your water heater. To flush your heater, you have to turn it off and let it sit to cool, then fully empty it (the cold water inlet should be off or closed) by attaching a garden hose. Turn the water back on and allow it to flush out the heater. Once the water runs clear, you can remove the discharge hose and refill the heater and turn it back on.
Limescale Is Building Up
Limescale is the buildup of minerals from hard water. If you’re noticing limescale build up on your fixtures, the likelihood that it is also building up within the heater is high (heating the water increases the concentration of minerals due to the evaporation effect). Buildup within the heater can cause severe damage to the heating element.
Water Temperature Is Wrong
If the temperature of the water coming out of your heater is wrong, this is an indication that something is wrong with the unit. The factory standard temperature for most heaters is 120 degrees. You can typically turn this both up and down on the unit so that you get to a comfortable temperature for your needs. If the hot water that comes out of the faucet is considerably different than the set temperature, that might be an indication that it needs to be repaired or serviced.
For Water Heaters, Call Master Plumbing
Give Master Plumbing a call at (301) 650-9100, or contact us online to get more information on how our expert plumbers can help you with just about anything plumbing-related! We have received Angie’s List Super Service Award recognition for plumbing and drain cleaning every year since 2007, in addition to the Best Plumber award from Best of Bethesda. We are fully licensed, bonded, and insured, and our service is unparalleled. Give us a call today—you won’t regret it! To see examples of our projects, follow us on Facebook and Twitter!