Signs Your Water Heater Needs Maintenance
If you return home one day and find a strange sound coming from the water heater, a plumber should be called right away. It means the heater might have to be replaced.
Other signs include if the heater was installed more than ten years ago. It needs to be replaced. Depending on local weather conditions, many of these heaters can last between 8 and 15 years. The best way to determine if your heater is still good is to have a plumber come and inspect it.
Sometimes when these heaters malfunction, there is a large amount of water surrounding it. The plumber will likely give instructions to have it turned off. In some cases, homeowners can experience dirty and rusty water along with sediment in the tank.
When the plumbers cart away the old heater, there may be some corrosion on it, especially along the bottom. It sometimes never occurs to the homeowner to have it inspected, since the cold and hot water was running fine and the machine appeared to be working properly.
A homeowner who sees a slow leak should check the water heater. These leaks can affect what comes out of the faucet such as cold or lukewarm water, especially out of the hot water faucet. One should also look for puddles, especially in and around the heater. If you see any of these maladies, call a plumber!
The consequences for ignoring these symptoms will likely result in little or no hot water, having to heat up water for cooking and a flooded basement. Also, you must remember if your water heater is electrically connected, a neglected defective heater could cause a fire. If it is a gas connected water heated, it could produce carbon monoxide poisoning, a fire and/or a possible explosion.
Remember, if your hot water heater has the above symptoms: call a plumber and if necessary, have it replaced as soon as possible. Is the water heater in your Vancouver home acting up? Call Lambert Plumbing & Heating at 604-734-0890 and schedule a service call today!