Your water heater is leaking, but it’s still providing hot water.
It’s time to replace the water heater but money is tight, and you need to know how long you can wait until is fails all together. Don’t worry, we’ve heard that hundreds of time before.
That’s almost normal because no body plans on their water heater breaking down, and expenses like these seem to always come at the wrong time. You may be lucky and your water heater will provide for a couple pay checks, but how much longer after that is anyone’s guess. As some water heaters approach their final days they will develop pin holes leaks in the inner tank wall, and you see water on the floor. Some water heaters will start to leak and still continue to provide hot water for months, and some water heaters can have a massive blow out a few days after the first leak developed.
So what should you do?
You should buy a new water heater.
If money is really tight and you need to hold out until your next pay check or two keep your fingers crossed and prey.
If the water heater is in the basement with a sum pump near by. Get use some towels and create a channel from the water heater to the sump pump in order to direct the water towards the sum pump.
If your water heater is in a basement or garage with concrete floors, and not to much “stuff” around that can be ruined, get some old towels on the floor around the tank and just let it leak. The concrete will stuck up a few gallons of water a day on it’s own.
If your water heater is located within living space, or in a apartment, (any other place than garage or basement) their isn’t much you can do with out creating a mess of water. You should turn off the water going to the water heater, then drain and get all the remaining water out asap. Also this is important, you can not use any water after you remove the old tank. After the old leaking water heater is removed you can not use any water from the house or building until the lines are properly capped.
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I drained my water heater, why is it filled with water again?
When you continue to use the water on any fixture that mixes (is a single handle) water will go back down backwards threw the “hot” water line back down to the water heater, and it will refill the water heater. The only way to prevent this from happening, is to have a shut off valve on both the cold and hot side of the water heater. However shut off valves on the hot side of the water heater is illegal, so technically you shouldn’t have one (but you might).
If you can’t get the new water heater installed quickly, you will want to remove the water heater and cap the water lines. That way you can use cold water in the rest of the house without making a big mess.
You could drain the water heater, and cut it out of it’s location, then cap the lines. If your not a plumber, you can get some Shark bite caps, which require no soldering skills. They just snap right over the pipe, as long as the copper, or pex has long as there is a nice clean cut. Shark bite caps are about 4-8 dollars a piece.
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Where is the cheapest place to buy a new hot water heater?
I would normally NEVER say this but if money is extremely tight and you need a water heater today, you should go to home depot or lowes, and open a new credit card (if you don’t currently have one). I know they used to do a -No Payment deal for the first 12 months for purchases between 200 – 999 dollars on new accounts. If that’s still in effect your in luck. Open up a new credit card, and if approved you are good to go. This is only for new accounts though, so if you already have one, get a close family member to help by opening a new account and getting the heater. Home depot and Lowes prices are very close they both charge 300-600 dollars for new water heaters, and another 289-325 for installation. Home depot and Lowes both have extra charges though. 40 fee for stairs – 125 dollars for a new shut off valve if you need one. Basically if their are any issue, (which there often are with new water heater installations) they will to charge you for something in addition to your basic labor changes. The installer for either Lowes or Home Depot must allow you to put the extra charges on the store credit card. However most installers will encourage you to pay he or she directly in order to avoid sharing that “extra” money with the store.
It’s always better to go with a licensed plumber, but only a publicly traded companies like home depot & Lowes can give sell you everything up front, the heater & installation, and not take a payment for 12 months.
Need more information about dealing with a bad water heater? Well then you are in the right place.
Here are just a few of the 55+ stories about water heaters we have.
How to properly drain a hot water heater.
How to drain a water heater in a basement.
How do I figure out what kind of water heater I have or need?
How to know if your water heater is under warranty.
The best water heater for your money.
If you need a new water heater don’t forget to look into some highly efficient alternatives for your next water heater replacement! Tankless Water Heaters — Heat Pump Water Heaters — Solar Water Heaters
We provide top quality plumbing information about services, free estimates, installations and repairs on all Rheem, Ruud, Bradford white, State, and A.O. Smith electric, gas, propane, Bock, Thermaflow/Everhot oil fired hot water heaters, Navien, Rheem, Noritz, and Takagi tankless water heaters, Ruud, Bock, and lochinvar oil fired water heaters, SuperStor storage tanks, Peerless, Laars, and Crown tankless coils, and repairs on all hot water heater throughout the state of Connecticut including Bridgeport, CT- Bristol, CT- Cheshire, CT- Danbury,CT- Derby,CT- East Hartford,CT- East Haven,CT- Enfield,CT- Fairfield,CT- Hamden,CT- Hartford,CT- Meriden,CT- Orange,CT- Middletown,CT- Milford,CT- New Britain,CT- New Haven,CT- New London,CT- Norwalk,CT- East Norwalk,CT- Norwich,CT- Putnam,CT- Shelton,CT- Southington,CT- Stamford,CT- Stratford,CT- Southport,CT- Torrington,CT- Wallingford,CT- Watertown,CT- West Hartford,CT- West Haven,CT- Westport,CT- Wethersfield,CT- Willimantic,CT- all shore areas, and surrounding Connecticut areas.
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