Hey guys
Good morning, Roger Wakefield here coming to you live from Texas green Plumbing so today's question is how to repair water heater
water heater repairs can be very
detail-oriented
Water heater repairs can also be very easy
So let's start off with tankless water heaters the good thing about tankless water heaters is tankless water
Heaters will normally give you a code tankless water heaters will normally let you know what's wrong with them
If you know how to read the codes on your water heater, you know how to look them up on Google find out
What the code is
Find out what that code means a lot of times you can find the information now
we can't go through them here, but sometimes it can be as small as
The vent is clogged on it sometimes it can be as small as the intake air. It's not getting enough oxygen
sometimes and one of the biggest problems that we find with tankless water heaters there has to be a minimum flow rate if
You don't have an anti scaler on your water heater, and it's building up scale inside in your heat exchanger
What will happen is you'll get too slow of a water flow through it to actually make the burner assembly kick on and get hot
Water it thinks somebody just barely got something cracked so they're not really needing hot water so what you can
Do is say you're not getting hot water at just your kitchen sink take your aerator off
Turn it back on on the hot water see if you get hot water then
if so that lets you know that either your aerator is clogged or
You may need to do a flush on your tankless water heater, tankless water heaters are supposed to be flushed at least once a year
Guys this will help you maintain the high efficiency of your water heater. It'll also
Help make everything flows smoother and easier and make your water heater last longer
You get a buildup of scale on the inside of it in that heat exchanger
And you may end up having to replace replace those plates now. It's something that can be done
You can replace the heat exchanger, but it's a lot of work. Normally. That's something most people call a plumber for
Now let's go to an electric water heater an electric water heater
really
If it's not leaking it can be rebuilt now remember one thing that I always tell people
Make sure that you flush your water heater, whether it's tank or tankless either one
Tank flush is a little bit different. You just want to hook a hose up to the drain valve at the bottom
Turn the valve on let it run remember
That's gonna be hot water coming out of the end of it
So you want to make sure that you've got it either going out to your driveway
Bathtub alley anywhere at all, but don't run it into your yard that hot water will kill your grass
also, be very careful because you want to make sure that no children are around that could get over in the water and think they're
Playing in it and it is scalding hot water
So flush it at least once a year so back to the electric water heater number one if you don't have hot water
Check your breaker if your breakers own
Then go to the top of your water heater remove the panel and check and see if you've got
240 volts there
once you know about that if you know you've got power to it, then I tell people look turn the power off or
Leave the power on at that point check your element see if you have juice down to them
Your thermostats and your elements are about all that can be wrong on a water heater
You can check the current or check the ohms on your elements to see if they're any good
You can also check your thermostat and see if it's doing what it's supposed to do
Again guys if your electric water heater is not leaking
Chances are it can be fixed now then again you go to a cost analysis on it
If that water heater is eight to ten years old do you want to invest a few hundred dollars
Fixing it when at that point
It's really time to replace it so it might be a wiser idea to go through and change over and go to
a new water heater
The new water heaters built after 2015 are gonna be more efficient you're gonna get
They have better
Efficiency ratings a higher efficiency rating so it's going to last or it's going to be more cost effective
Every month every month you pay that bill if you go with the newer water heater
Now gas water heater you gas water heaters are a little bit different
You can have a lot of different problems, but a lot of the newer water heaters
also
have a blinking light on them they can you troubleshoot it they can give you a code to tell you what's wrong if
You can get that pilot light to light
So different things on a gas water heater is your fresh air intake if you're not getting enough
Fresh air just like a tankless water heater
It's got to have that oxygen to burn
A lot of the problem could be just the intake air grill on the bottom the new FVIR water heaters
have a screen on the bottom to allow fresh air up and
Not let the fuel vapors in there or not let the flame come out
so
That screen it may
Just need to have that whole burner assembly pulled out look inside there if it's real rusty and corroded number one
That's coming off your tank and that tells you there
It's time to start looking for a new water heater, but if you've been maintaining that water heater every year
Again go back to looking inside look in that burner assembly
Look in your little sight glass and see what it looks like in there if it looks bad
if it looks rusty, if it looks like
It's not a good clean optimal situation it probably isn't
the on the
Gas water heater, you've got a burner assembly you've got a thermocouple
If again, a gas water heater is like an electric water heater, if it's not leaking
It can be fixed
But again gas water heaters a burner assembly is not cheap having a plumber come out and change one isn't cheap
This is something you can do yourself, but it's also something that you may say look
This is gas so for the safety of my family
I want to have a licensed professional do it and when I say licensed professional. I don't mean a handyman
I'm actually talking a licensed plumber
guys any part on any water heater just water heaters in general
Thermostats and elements they can all be changed with the right tool
You can get an element wrench you can get all the leverage you want with a big pipe wrench on it
Thermostats come off fairly easy the burner assembly is normally four to six screws. I guess you can pull that out. You can clean it
Your control valve on a water heater it can be changed to because there's nothing there
The tank and then the shell that can't be changed so if your water heater stops working
And you want to repair it if it's not leaking chances are that you can do this so
Think about it if you have any questions guys
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We'll do everything we can to teach you and tell you the things that you can do plumbing my name is Roger Wakefield with
Texas Green Plumbing saving you money one drop at a time