Water Heater Repair in Erie, PA
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Erie winters are hard on a water heater
Cold groundwater feeding into your water heater from October through May means the burner or the elements run longer to hit the same temperature. That extra work adds up over eight months, and it wears on the thermostat and the heating element in an electric unit, or the burner assembly and thermocouple in a gas one. You notice it as water that takes longer to get hot, or a tank that runs out faster than it used to.
Erie County has seen 29 winter storms and 128 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and storms like these knock out power. If your water heater is electric, it stays off until power comes back. If it runs on gas with a standing pilot, it keeps working through the outage, but a pilot that has gone out needs to be relit by hand.
- 20°F
- the average winter night, and colder incoming water means longer heating
- 8 months
- October through May, the months homes here need heat
- 15%
- of Pennsylvania households lost power for a day or more in 2024, and a heater with an electric element or electric ignition stops without it
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new water heater would cut about $70 a year off hot water for a typical Pennsylvania home.
Estimates for a typical Pennsylvania home, compared with an older unit built to the federal minimum, from EIA household energy data and Pennsylvania fuel prices. Your home will differ.
Repair makes sense when an element, thermostat or gas valve has failed.
Replacement makes sense when the tank itself is leaking.
- Why is my water heater leaking from the bottom?
- The most common reason is the tank itself has rusted through from the inside and is starting to fail. Sediment builds up at the bottom of the tank over years, and once it wears through the lining, water finds its way out and there is no patching it. It can also be a loose drain valve or a fitting that has worked itself loose, which is a much smaller fix. Shut off the water supply to the tank and have someone look at it before you run it again, since a cracked tank will only get worse.
- Why won't the pilot light on my water heater stay lit?
- Most of the time this means the thermocouple has worn out and is no longer telling the gas valve that the pilot is lit, so the valve shuts the gas off. It can also be a pilot tube that's partly clogged or a draft blowing the flame out before it can heat the thermocouple properly. Relighting it yourself may hold for a little while, but if it keeps going out, the part needs to be replaced. A standing pilot doesn't use any electricity, so a power outage isn't the cause.
- Can a tankless water heater be repaired?
- Yes, most problems with a tankless water heater are repairable without replacing the whole unit. Common issues are a clogged inlet filter, a buildup of scale on the heat exchanger, or a failed ignition or flow sensor, and each of these can be cleaned or swapped out on its own. Error codes on the display usually point straight to which part is causing the trouble. A contractor can pull the code and check the unit to confirm what's needed.