How Often Should I Have My Water Heater Checked Out

Ideally, you don’t need to have your water heater checked out if it is new. As the water heater gets old, you will come across signs that will indicate a need for some preventive maintenance or repairs. There can be problems with new water heaters and those problems will become obvious if you pay heed to the system and observe the kind of water the heater delivers. Unless there are visible or noticeable problems with new heaters, they don’t usually need preventive maintenance. Regardless of whether your water heater is new or old, here are the signs that you should be looking for.

• The most obvious sign that your water heater is not working properly or optimally is if you don’t get hot water out of it. In some cases, you may get hot water but it may not be hot enough as per the capacity of the heater and the settings that you have programmed the heater to. In such cases, you should call in a technician.
• There is another extremely obvious sign that you cannot possibly miss. If you notice water dripping out of the water heater, from any of its part, then you should obviously have the device checked out. There can be leaks due to malfunctioning valves, due to mechanical or structural problems in the system. There could also be a problem with the pipes that are connected to and from the heater. Regardless of the cause of the leaks, you should call in a plumber to have it checked out.
• There can be two types of problems with a water heater, one is electrical and the other is mechanical. It is necessary to hire a plumber who would be able to determine the type of problem whether it is mechanical or electrical. For instance, not having hot water from the heater could be due to a tripped circuit breaker or due to a malfunctioning pilot light, blocked connections or heavy mineral deposits or something else.
• If your water heater makes any noise or sound that is not ordinary, then you should have it checked out. Look out for loud cracks or not so loud popping sounds.
• If you have rusted water flowing out of the taps or if you find a metallic smell or taste in the water running out of the taps, then there is a possible problem of corrosion inside the water heater.
• If you hear banging sounds in the pipes then you should reduce the pressure in the water heater. You need not hire a technician for this purpose but if you want to be sure, then expert intervention is more recommendable.