Concord, NCWaterHeaters

Builder tanks from the 1990s and 2000s are reaching the end together

Afton Village, Moss Creek and Christenbury are typical of the housing built here from 1990 on, which accounts for close to two thirds of the city's homes. Each of those houses got a standard tank when it was built, and tanks installed in the same few years tend to wear out in the same few years. Sediment collects on the bottom, the popping and rumbling start, and the hot water takes longer to come back.

The older neighborhoods need a different eye. Houses along North and South Union Street date from the late 1800s and early 1900s, Gibson Village grew up around a mill that opened in 1901, and Logan is about as old. A heater in one of those homes has been replaced many times, and it is often tied into supply pipe far older than the tank. Rust in the hot water there can come from the pipe as easily as from the heater, so we test before we quote.

What can be repaired, and when replacement is the better spend

Most failures come down to one part. On an electric tank that is often a heating element or a thermostat. On a gas tank it is more often the gas valve or the igniter. A relief valve that weeps can be changed too. If the complaint is noise or slow recovery, we flush the sediment out of the tank. Tankless heaters get descaled: the unit is isolated and a descaling solution is pumped through the heat exchanger.

Some heaters are not worth a part. A tank that leaks from its body cannot be saved, and a tank past its expected life that needs a costly component is poor value. When that is where things stand, we quote a water heater replacement, pull the permit when the job requires one and haul the old tank away. The repairs we take on are listed below.

• Heating elements and thermostats
• Gas valves and igniters
• Temperature and pressure relief valves
• Sediment flushing on tank heaters
• Descaling on tankless units

Permits, relief valves and expansion tanks in Cabarrus County

A repair leaves the installation as it was. A replacement has to meet the current North Carolina plumbing code, and that code has moved on since most old tanks went in. The relief valve needs a discharge line that ends at a safe point. A heater placed where a leak could damage the house needs a pan with a drain. A closed plumbing system, meaning one with a check valve or pressure reducing valve on the incoming line, needs thermal expansion control, which usually means an expansion tank.

The city's irrigation guidance names a Cabarrus County plumbing inspector for permitted plumbing work at Concord homes, so expect the county, not the city, to inspect a replacement that needs a permit. We pull that permit and build the inspector's items into the job from the start. If your current heater is missing any of them, we point it out during a repair visit and price the correction separately as a plumbing repair.

Booking a visit, how we price it and the labor warranty

When you call, we ask three things: what the heater is doing, whether it is gas or electric, and how old it is. The manufacture date is on the label. On site we test before we price. A repair price is the part plus the labor to install it, and you hear the figure before work starts. Where a replacement is also reasonable, you get both numbers and the decision stays with you.

Our labor is under warranty for 1 year, on repairs and on installations. Alpha Drain is a licensed and insured North Carolina plumbing company with a 5.0 Google rating from 6 reviews. One of those reviews describes a water heater repair with no upselling and no pressure, just an honest fix. If a tank is leaking onto the floor in Concord tonight, shut the cold supply valve above the heater and call our emergency plumber line.