Water Heater Repair Depends on What It Burns
No hot water, not enough, leaking or rumbling. Work out what is wrong with your water heater before you call, starting with what it burns.
Free to homeowners — the contractor pays us for the introduction, you never do.
Answer first
No hot water, not enough hot water, leaking and rumbling are four different faults with different parts behind them. The first thing to establish is whether the heater is gas or electric, because the two share almost no failure modes at all.
Go straight to the one that sounds like yours:
- Where HeaterRelay Routes CallsThe states and towns we route water heater calls in, with what each state mostly burns.
- Gas or Electric: How to Tell, and Why It Changes EverythingThe two kinds of water heater share almost no failure modes.
- No Hot Water At All: What to Check, in OrderNone at all is a different fault from not enough.
- Not Enough Hot Water: Why It Runs Out EarlyHot water that starts fine and quits early points at specific parts.
- Why a Water Heater Rumbles, Pops or BangsThe noise is steam escaping from under a layer of sediment.
- A Leaking Water Heater: Which Leaks Wait and Which Do NotWater under the tank is not one problem.
- What Temperature to Set a Water Heater ToCPSC recommends 120°F, and the reason is specific: 150°F water causes a third-degree burn in two seconds.
- The Anode Rod: The Part That Decides How Long a Tank LastsA consumable rod corrodes so the steel tank does not.
- You are never chargedContractors pay us when we route them a call. There is no cost to the homeowner, ever.
- Every figure names its sourceThe numbers on this site come from public data and the page says which, so you can check them.
- We say where we coverCalls are routed by ZIP code to independent contractors.See the coverage
- We say when not to callIf the fix is a few minutes of your own time, this site tells you that instead of selling you a visit.
Four symptoms cover almost every water heater fault, and each one points somewhere specific. Start with what your heater burns.
What this site is
HeaterRelay is a referral service, not a contractor. We connect homeowners with independent contractors. Contractors are required to hold whatever credential their state or municipality demands. Every state page sets out who licenses plumbers there and where to check, so you can confirm before work begins. We carry out no work, we sell no equipment, we do not set prices, and we never charge homeowners anything — the contractors in our network pay us when we route them a call.Start with the fuel
A gas water heater and an electric one are not variations of the same appliance. Gas has a pilot, a thermocouple and a gas valve, and a flue that has to draft. Electric has two elements and two thermostats and nothing that can blow out. Almost no fault is common to both.
We hold the fuel mix for 4,387 towns across 38 states — 2,462 lead on gas, 1,562 on electricity and 363 on fuel oil. Find yours on the coverage page, or read how to tell in ten seconds.
Then the symptom
None at all usually means the burner is not lighting or a cut-out has tripped. Not enough is the more informative complaint — it often names the failed part. Rumbling is steam escaping from under sediment. Water on the floor is the one that will not wait.
One setting worth checking today
The CPSC recommends setting a water heater to 120°F, and the reason is not comfort: 150°F water causes a third-degree burn in two seconds.
| Water temperature | Time to a third-degree burn |
|---|---|
| 150°F | 2 seconds |
| 140°F | 6 seconds |
| 130°F | 30 seconds |
| 120°F | 5 minutes |
Source: US Consumer Product Safety Commission, Tap Water Scalds, publication 5098.
More on the setting, including why it also slows scale and cuts standing loss.
And when not to repair
DOE puts a storage tank's life at 10 to 15 years. Past that, money spent on a repair is often money spent twice, and the part that decides which end of that range you land on is one almost nobody replaces.
Source: US Department of Energy, Which Water Heater Is Right for You?.
Where we route calls
Tap your state for the towns and ZIP codes we route in, and the figures behind them.
- Arkansas
- Arizona
- California
- Colorado
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Iowa
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Massachusetts
- Maryland
- Maine
- Minnesota
- Missouri
- Mississippi
- North Carolina
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- Nevada
- New York
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this site is public and attributed. You can go and check any of them.
- HousingUS Census BureauAmerican Community Survey 5-year estimates — the housing figures on every town page, and the table each one comes from is named on the page.
What happens when you call
No form, no quote tool, no waiting for an email.
- You tell us what the water is doingOne short conversation. If it turns out to be something you can fix in five minutes, we will say so.
- We route the callWe match your ZIP code to an independent contractor who already covers your area — not a call center three states away.
- They quote, you decideWe do not set prices and we never charge you. The contractor pays us for the introduction.
- 4,456towns with a page of their own
- 39states we route calls in
- $0what a homeowner ever pays us
What to do first
Four things worth doing first. They cost nothing and they can keep a small problem small.
- Shut off the water closest to the problemUnder a sink or behind a toilet there is usually a small valve on the supply line. Turning it clockwise stops that fixture without shutting off the rest of the house.
- If you cannot find it, use the mainUsually where the supply enters the building — a basement wall, a crawl space, or a covered box near the street. Then open the lowest tap in the house, which drains the standing water out of the pipes instead of out of the leak.
- Water and electricity: stay out of the roomIf water has reached an outlet, a panel or an appliance, switch that circuit off at the breaker before going near it. If you cannot do that safely, do not go in, and say so when you call.
- Photograph it before anything is movedInsurers ask for it, and a contractor can tell more from a photograph of the leak than from a description of it.
And one case where the answer is not to call us. If the water is surfacing on the street side of your meter, that is the utility's line and not yours. Report it to your water utility — they do not charge a homeowner to repair their own main.
Know the fuel and the symptom? That is most of the call.Gas and electric heaters fail in almost entirely different ways, so saying which you have gets you to the right person faster. We route the call and never charge you for it. Water heaters are what we write about; the number goes further.
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