The water heater in your home is one of the most important of all your appliances. No matter the temperature outside, no matter the time of year, your household relies on a steady supply of hot water for many tasks. Showering, bathing, cooking, cleaning. This is why it’s crucial to see that the water heater continues to work correctly all the time. To make sure that you schedule repairs in time, watch out for these indications—some not always obvious—that your water heater is running into problems.
Modern Plumbing Industries, Inc. Blog: Posts Tagged ‘Water Heater Repair’
Ways to Tell It’s Time to Call for Water Heater Repairs
Monday, October 31st, 2016What Might Cause a Drop in the Amount of Hot Water in Your Home
Monday, July 25th, 2016If you’ve had your current tank water heater for a few years already—or maybe over a decade—you know how much hot water you can expect to receive from it, and how long the water supply in the tank will last before the water starts to turn lukewarm from too much demand. If the water heater was correctly sized and installed by professionals, you’ll rarely experience times when you run out of hot water.
Some Reasons Why Your Water Heater Has Stopped Working
Monday, November 16th, 2015Some of the more common emergency calls that we deal with are when hot water heaters stop supplying hot water to the taps in a home. It’s understandable that people want to have a problem like this repaired as soon as possible: there are just too many basic day-to-day tasks that require hot water.
Help! I’m Not Getting Any Hot Water in My House!
Monday, August 24th, 2015Among the emergency service calls that we receive the most frequently are for when a house suddenly has no hot water at all. Losing the hot water in your home is obviously a serious problem, since it makes numerous ordinary tasks very difficult—especially keeping clean. (Nobody wants to wake up in the morning and start off the day with an ice-cold shower.)
Signs That You Should Call for Repairs for Your Tankless Water Heater
Monday, August 17th, 2015Tankless water heaters are one of the best ways to provide hot water to a household. The benefits of these systems are numerous: They consume far less energy than conventional storage tank systems. They won’t run out of hot water because they always heat up more water “on demand.” They have lengthy service lives. They take up a small amount of space. And so on.
4 Reasons Why Water Heater Repair Is Everything
Monday, July 6th, 2015A water heater from a quality manufacturer that received a professional installation should work for many years without requiring major repairs. To help prevent crippling issues, it should also have annual maintenance sessions from experts to see that it stays free from corrosion, loss of power, the development of sediment in its tank, and other potential setbacks.
Why Am I Receiving Less Hot Water in My Home Than I Once Did?
Monday, June 1st, 2015If you have lived with the same water heater in your home for long enough, you will have a good idea of the volume of heated water you can expect to receive from it. The usual test of this is during the morning, when multiple people take showers. If you start to notice that the hot water supply from your storage water heater is running out sooner than it used to, there are a number of possible problems that could be causing it. Repairs can fix some of these malfunctions; in other cases, it may be better to have the whole water heater replaced, especially if it is a few years over its manufacturer’s estimated lifespan.
How the Anode Rod Protects Your Water Heater
Monday, May 18th, 2015One of the major dangers for any metal appliance that comes into contact with water is corrosion. This chemical reaction when water meets metal in the presence of oxygen will rapidly weaken the metal to the point that it flakes away. Yet water heaters—large metal appliances that are in constant contact with water—very rarely develop rust until the end of their services lives.
Hidden Problems that Could Affect Your Water Heater
Wednesday, March 4th, 2015The way your water heater operates is actually rather simplistic. Hot water naturally rises over cold water, which has a higher density, and the design of a storage tank water heater takes advantage of this. Water heats up at the bottom of the tank as it enters and then rises to the top where it returns to your pipes after it exits through a small tube located at the top. Despite the relatively simple operation of this unit, it can still run into some common problems without the proper maintenance.
A tankless water is a little bit more complex, as a computer alerts the unit when to turn on and off. But tankless units can run into some of the same issues that storage tanks do. When you notice any of the following problems with your system, call Modern Plumbing Industries, Inc. (MPI) for water heater repair. And be sure to call regularly for maintenance to prevent such trouble from occurring.
- Rust – Unfortunately, rust often means that you need to replace your water heater. Rust leads to corrosion, and a leak in your water heater would be disastrous. However, sometimes, only one or two parts need replacement. Rust can afflict both a tankless or storage tank water heater, but yearly maintenance can help to prevent it.
- Mineral Buildup – A large percentage of homes have a problem with “hard water.” Hard water means that there is an excess of minerals in the water, which can affect your plumbing system and your water heater. When too many minerals are in the tank, they can block the pipes and increase the pressure, leading to dangerous conditions in the tank. Technicians will flush the tank and may recommend a water softener for your water supply.
- Improper Sizing – Another problem common to water heaters that sometimes leads to an early demise is improper sizing. Do you assume that running out of hot water quickly is a normal part of owning a water heater? It shouldn’t be. This often means that your water heater is too small. You may need a larger tank to get the heating you need, or you may need an additional tankless unit.
Call on the friendly folks at Modern Plumbing Industries, Inc. (MPI) for water heater repair in Casselberry or for an annual maintenance visit.
Is Rust a Sign I Need Water Heater Repair?
Tuesday, January 6th, 2015Rust on anything is evidence of corrosion that has developed from excess moisture, which typically isn’t a good thing. When it comes to water heaters, the big question is: where is the rust located? The reason this question is important is that there is a big difference between rust being only on the outside of your water heater or on the inside. This does not mean that rust on the outside of a water heater is a good thing, but it is better than rust coming from the inside.
Sacrificial Anode
Water and metal are usually a bad combination, but there are a lot of instances where the two have to come together. When it comes to water heaters, there are two ways in which the process of corrosion via rust is inhibited: first, by insulated lining in the water tank and second, by a component known as the sacrificial anode. As its name suggests, the sacrificial anode’s job is to attract the electrolytes that help create corrosion. Sacrificial anodes are made of highly active metals, so the anode is the part that will corrode first out of all of the water heater’s components. This is done purposefully so that the less active metals that comprise the water heater won’t rust and corrode.
So What If You See Rust?
This is where you need to see where the rust is. Sacrificial anodes have an average lifespan of about 6 years. Once the anode is fully rusted, the electrolytes inside the tank will likely move on to other parts of your water heater.
Rust Prevention
So what can you do to help prevent rust and know the state of your sacrificial anode? One of the best ways is to schedule annual water heater maintenance. During a water heater maintenance appointment, all the components of your water heater are checked, including the anode; if the anode is rusty, it can be replaced during the appointment. Flushing your water heater twice a year also helps, as it removes any built-up sediment and bacteria in the tank.
If you are seeing rust on your water heater, and aren’t sure if it’s coming from a problem inside the tank or outside, it’s best to play it safe and make an appointment for water heater repair in Winter Park, FL. The experts at Modern Plumbing Industries, Inc., can help with any water heater issue you may have, so call us today!