Do Water Heaters Need Regular Service?

You can handle some hot water system maintenance yourself.

You never realize how important hot water is until you’re suddenly without it. We need it to keep our clothes, dishes and bodies clean. What’s more, roughly one-fifth of our annual energy use is dedicated to heating water, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

So, taking care of your home’s water heater only makes sense. From Framingham to Dedham and many other cities and towns in Middlesex and Norfolk counties, Needham Oil Complete Heating & Cooling provides expert water heater maintenance . We know what it takes to keep a water heater running efficiently.

Flush your water heater once a year.

One of the most helpful things you can do to take care of a storage-tank water heater is to flush it annually. This will clear away much of the sediment that can cause internal corrosion and end up causing the unit to fail.

Flushing a water heater is straightforward, and you can handle it yourself. Your equipment’s manual will provide step-by-step instructions. Here is a general overview of the process:

1. Set your water heater’s burner to “Off” or “Pilot.” This is crucial to prevent damage to your tank.
2. Close the cold water supply valve.
3. Connect a garden hose to the tank’s drain valve, then run the end of the hose to a bathtub, slop sink or outside your home.
4. Open a hot water faucet in your house. It should remain open throughout this process to prevent a vacuum from forming inside your water heater tank.
5. Open up your water heater’s drain valve and begin draining the tank. Be aware that the water coming out of the hose is hot.
6. Once the tank has drained, open the cold water supply valve. This will pour fresh water into the tank and flush more sediment.
7. Close the drain valve, detach the hose, and let the tank refill.
8. Turn your burner back on.

Flushing your water heater each year will slow the onset of internal corrosion and improve the quality of the water coming from your tap.

Look for warning signs that your water heater is struggling.

The average lifespan for a storage-tank water heater is around 10 years. (Tankless water heaters last closer to 20 years.)

If your equipment is approaching 10 years of service, it’s crucial that you start looking for signs that it might fail. This isn’t always easy because corrosion happens from the inside, where you can’t always see it. But here are some common indicators of trouble approaching:

• Your hot water tap is producing rusty or brown water.
• You hear rumbling, banging or other strange noises coming from the unit.
• There is water around the base of your tank.

Please do not ignore these warning signs. If your tank starts to leak, that’s typically the end of the line for it. Then, we’ll need to move quickly to find a water heater replacement, and in the meantime, your family will have no hot water.

If you’re proactive and contact the Needham Oil Complete Heating & Cooling team, we can inspect your equipment immediately. We can repair it or, if it’s near the end of its life, get to work finding a water heater replacement.

Don’t panic if your water heater is starting to struggle. Request service from our expert technicians — we’ll make sure you’re Completely satisfied!