Gastonia, NCWaterHeaters

What decades of replacements leave behind in an older house

More than a third of Gastonia's housing went up between 1950 and 1979, and the frame mill houses around Loray and most homes in York-Chester are older still. In houses like these the heater is often in a crawlspace or a narrow closet, which slows every job and hides small leaks. Supply lines from those years may be galvanized steel, and rust from that pipe ends up in the tank.

Each past replacement was done to the rules of its time. An older installation may have a relief valve with no discharge line, a tank with no pan under it, or a shutoff valve that no longer closes. None of that stops the heater from making hot water, and all of it matters on the day something leaks. A seized valve or a corroded connection is a small plumbing repair we can do on the same visit. These are the things to look for.

• A shutoff valve that will not turn
• A relief valve with no pipe attached
• No pan under a heater in a closet
• Rust at the connections on top of the tank

Fixing the heater you have, and knowing when it is finished

A heater that has stopped heating usually has one failed part. We test the elements and thermostats on an electric unit, and the burner, gas valve and igniter on a gas unit. Any of those can be replaced, and so can a relief valve that drips. A tank that pops or rumbles is carrying sediment, and a flush clears it. Tankless units are descaled with a pump and a descaling solution.

Age decides the rest. The manufacture date is on the label, and a tank well past 12 years that needs a costly part is rarely worth it. A tank that leaks from its body is finished, whatever its age. For those we price a water heater installation, take the old tank with us, and correct the valve, pan and relief line while the space is open.

Closed systems, Two Rivers Utilities and the code on a new tank

Two Rivers Utilities requires a backflow assembly for homes with an irrigation system or a pool, and its testing schedule includes assemblies on residential domestic service. If one of those sits on the line feeding your house, your plumbing is a closed system. Water expands as it heats, it cannot push back toward the main, and the pressure climbs until the relief valve drips. The cure is thermal expansion control, normally an expansion tank on the cold line.

That matters most at replacement. A new heater in Gastonia is held to today's North Carolina plumbing code: expansion control on a closed system, a relief valve piped to a safe discharge point, and a pan with a drain where a leak would do damage. We pull the permit when the replacement requires one and build those items into the price up front.

Scheduling, pricing and warranty for homeowners and landlords

Tell us the symptoms, the fuel type and the age from the label when you call. We schedule most Gastonia jobs within 24 to 48 hours, and same-day service is available when you have no hot water at all. The cost of a repair is the part plus the time to fit it. You get the price before we start, and a replacement figure beside it when the tank's age makes that a fair question.

Landlords with older rental houses can give us the address and a tenant contact, and we report back with what failed and what the fix costs before doing it. Labor on repairs and installations is covered by a 1-year warranty. If the tank has let go and water is spreading, call for an emergency plumber at any hour. A wet floor with no obvious source is a job for leak detection.