The water heater is one of the most important parts of a home, considering how much we rely on hot water for washing hands, doing dishes, showering, etc. Having it suddenly fail often means you’ll be without hot water for at least a day or two until you can get a new unit installed. Luckily, there are some signs that can help you know it’s time to schedule a replacement before your water heater gives out completely.
1. Water Heater Tank Is Leaking
The one thing you should make sure to do if you have a tank water heater is regularly check it for leaks. There are times when a leak may not be that big of an issue, such as if only a bit of water is dripping from around the pressure relief valve near the top of the tank or the drain valve near the bottom. Either of these valves can sometimes develop a leak as a result of a worn-out seal. If the only issue is the seal, a plumber can usually fix the leak just by draining the tank and then replacing the valve. If water is only leaking from where the cold water inlet or hot water outlet pipe connects to the tank, it’s also something a plumber can easily fix.
The time when you need to worry is if water is leaking out of the tank itself. The most common places for a hot water tank to leak are at the seams around the top or bottom. In either case, the leak almost always indicates that rust and corrosion have essentially eaten through the tank so that it’s no longer watertight. If a water heater tank has rusted to the point where it’s leaking, you need to schedule an immediate replacement since the tank cannot be repaired. The reason that this is considered an emergency situation is that once a water heater tank starts leaking, there’s a high risk that the pressure inside the tank will cause it to rupture and create a flood. The biggest concern is if the tank were to rupture when no one is home to realize it since more and more water will continue flowing into the tank and then flooding out into the surrounding area unless you close the valve on the cold water pipe. This risk is why it’s a good idea to shut off the water heater, close the valve on the cold water inlet pipe and then drain the tank. If you do decide to drain the tank yourself, you want to make sure to wait at least a few hours after you’ve shut the water heater off to reduce the risk of getting scalded.
The risk of a water heater tank leaking due to corrosion is one of the many reasons why annual maintenance is so important. Inside all water heater tanks is a component known as an anode rod that specifically works to decrease the rate of rust or corrosion. How it works is that the rod has a coating of aluminum, magnesium or zinc, all of which are much more reactive than the steel the tank is made of. The result is that minerals in the water end up eating away at the coating on the anode rod instead of corroding and eating away at the tank itself. The issue is that it often only takes three to five years for the majority of the coating on the anode rod to get completely dissolved, resulting in the tank starting to suffer much more corrosion. That’s why one of the most important maintenance tasks a plumber will perform is to check the anode rod to determine if it still has enough coating to work properly or if it needs to be replaced.
2. Water Heater Is Already 10 Years Old
This one only applies if you have a tank water heater since tankless units typically last for a minimum of 20 years, if not much longer. If you have a tank water heater in your home, you never want to wait too long before you replace it due to the risk of it starting to leak and potentially causing a major flood. In terms of life expectancy, you can usually expect that a gas unit will last for a maximum of 12 years before there’s a high risk of it leaking and for an electric unit to potentially last for maybe 15 years.
3. Water No Longer Gets Hot Enough
Another sign that your water heater has potentially reached the end of its life is if it can no longer heat the water to the correct temperature. This is especially the thing to watch for if you have a tankless water heater since it indicates that the unit is no longer heating effectively for some reason.
The first thing to do if your water won’t get as hot as it should is to have a plumber inspect your water heater. That’s because they could just be able to repair it and get it working again by doing something like replacing the electric heating elements or even just cleaning the gas burner. With a tankless water heater, the solution could also be to just descale the unit to get rid of all of the mineral deposits that build up on its heat exchanger over time.
One worry if the water in your water heater tank never stays above 120 degrees is that it can quickly result in bacteria growing in the tank. As such, you want to make sure to have a plumber check the issue out as soon as possible so you don’t risk anyone in your household potentially getting sick.
4. Water Heater Takes Forever to Reheat
Even if your water heater has a fairly large tank, there will often still be times when you can end up depleting your hot water supply and then need to wait for the water to reheat. How long it takes from when you’ve used all of the hot water up until your water is again fully hot is referred to as the recovery time. The typical recovery time for a gas water heater is somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour depending on how many gallons of water the tank holds. For an electric unit, you can usually expect the recovery time to be anywhere from one to two hours. Longer than normal recovery times are always a sign that your water heater isn’t heating as effectively as it should and potentially starting to fail. This issue is again something that a plumber may be able to fix depending on what’s causing it. Nonetheless, you’re generally better off just installing a new water heater if your existing unit is approaching the end of its life.
5. Hot Water Looks Rusty
One final thing to watch out for is if your hot water starts looking rusty or is otherwise discolored. In some cases, draining or flushing your water heater may fix the issue. However, rusty-colored hot water is usually a sign that the water heater tank is corroded. As such, it’s a good idea to replace it as soon as possible due to the risk of it potentially starting to leak in the near future.
At Bamboo Plumbing, we’ve been helping residents of Hollywood, FL with all of their plumbing needs since 2016, including water heater replacement. Our team of experts has years of experience in water heater servicing and replacement, and we also handle kitchen and bathroom remodeling. Give us a call today and find out what we can do for you!
