A water heater plays an essential role in every home. It provides hot water for your appliances and taps, which is especially useful during the winter season or whenever you need hot water instantly.
Unfortunately, no matter how you take care of your heating system, you can always encounter problems.
The following is a list of some of the most common ones that your water heater may face:
1. Dirty Water
If the water starts turning rusty, then there’s corrosion inside your tank. The best solution for this is to replace it.
However, there are instances where it may be due to a failing water heater anode rod, so before you decide to replace your tank, consider replacing its anode rod first to see if it fixes the problem.
2. No Hot Water
It’s upsetting to find that there’s no hot water available. It’s possible that the water heater isn’t getting any power.
This could also be due to the heating elements malfunctioning because of old age.
If you encounter this problem, contact a professional to evaluate your water heater’s condition.
3. Water Leaks
Water leaks are one of the common problems that you’ll experience with your water heater.
Although water heaters will often leak eventually – because the water will corrode your tank and create fractures or cracks – it’s a bigger problem if the leak appears in the top part of your tank.
This is a sign that your water connection is loose.
So, check if your cold-water pipes and hot water pipes are connected and not loose.
If the leaks appear to be coming from the bottom, you may have a problem with condensation, and this can be fixed by turning up your thermostat.
4. No Pilot Light
If you’re using a gas water heater, you already know that you need a pilot light to ignite the gas that warms your water.
If the pilot light is out, try to reignite it by switching the ignitor repeatedly. If the pilot light continues to go out, then it’s a sign of a bigger problem.
You could try cleaning it to get rid of the grime or dirt buildup. But if the problem still causes broken gas valves or malfunctioning thermostats, you should contact professionals to help you.
5. Takes A Long Time To Reheat
When your water heater takes a lot of time to reheat, there are several things that could be the cause.
Your thermostat could be set too low because your burner isn’t outputting enough energy to heat the water quickly enough.
You may also have problems with your gas connections, including dirty vent flue or poor pressure that prevents proper gas flow. Cleaning these parts could fix the problem.
However, your water heater taking a long time to reheat may be because you don’t have enough capacity to supply your home with hot water.
Because of this, your water heater empties itself and doesn’t get a chance to reheat or refill fully before being used again. This results in lukewarm water and forces the heater to take more time in providing hot water.
6. Smelly Hot Water
If you’ve noticed a strange smell when you turn on the water heater, the odds are that your tank has a buildup of bacteria.
To fix this, set the temperature to at least 140 degrees Fahrenheit to eliminate the bacteria. But make sure that nobody uses hot water while doing this, or they could suffer serious burn injuries.
When employing this solution, wait for at least an hour and run the hot water again until the temperature drops.
If the hot water is still smelly, use a chlorine bleach solution to clean your tank; research how to do this properly before tackling it yourself.
7. Noises
If the water tank of your heating system makes noises, your tank may have sediments in the bottom of it.
If that’s the case, then you should drain the water from your tank, which you must do at least once a year.
Your water tank could also make noises if the heating element starts to burn out. To solve this, hire a professional to help you replace the heating element.
Conclusion
Oftentimes, water heater problems can be fixed easily through a DIY approach.
However, you have to do everything properly to avoid more serious problems in the long run and be sure to research and take every safety precaution.
Whenever your water heater is acting up and you can’t pinpoint the problem, it’s time to call for professionals to help you with repairs.
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