The average lifespan of a water heater is eight to twelve years. The most common occurrence to let you know that your water heater needs to be replaced is pretty easily discernible if it no longer heats up water or if the tank is leaking, it may be time to replace your unit.
But there are many other reasons that your water heating could malfunction. Keeping regular maintenance of the water heater will extend its life to a max of 8-12 years, but it’s important to make sure that there isn’t an electrical problem such as a tripped breaker or a blown fuse. Calling a professional to examine your water heater is the best way to ensure you can recognize the difference between an issue requiring maintenance and one requiring a replacement.
When Should You Replace a Water Heater?
Water heaters should be replaced after approximately 8-12 years. As stated above, your water heater has a maximum lifespan of 8-12 years. Once that max is reached and your unit stops working, it’s time for a replacement. Water heaters may need to be replaced for one of the following reasons:
The unit is leaking. As you would likely imagine, a leaking water heater isn’t a good sign. Sometimes the problem can be answered with repairs: if the pressure release valve is leaking or the water supply pipes are. But if you find the base of your water heater is leaking, it’s time to bite the bacon and call for a replacement.
Water isn’t being heated up quickly enough or at all. The repair of these issues could be as simple as replacing a heating element and thermostat (electric heater) or the thermocouple (gas heater). However, if after those repairs have been done and your water continues to take a long time to heat up (or if your showers are particularly ice cold), a replacement may be in your future.
Your hot water needs are changing. 40 or 50-gallon tanks are the most common sizes of water heaters for the average household, but if you find your home growing particularly rapidly, it may be time to consider an upgrade to your water heater’s tank size.
You want more upgrades. Another reason you could want to replace your water heater is just to upgrade the unit entirely. A newer unit could have an increased recovery rate, which affects the number of gallons your heater will heat in an hour. Maybe you’re wanting to go green and do your part to help our planet. A newer or greener model will help increase your energy efficiency.
Why Hire a Professional to Install a Water Heater?
When thinking about replacing your heater, can you answer these questions? Are you getting an electric or gas water heater? Conventional or tankless? Do you know the difference? How will you dispose of your old water heater? How will you move your old water heater? Do you even have the correct tools to do a replacement job yourself?
Replacing your water heater is a rigorous task for anyone without training. Water heaters are heavy and bulky. Once you’ve replaced yours with a newer model, how will you transport the old unit? And where will you take it? Appliances have to follow specific ordinances when being removed and discarded.
All of the above is assuming you can even get the job done yourself. Without a professional, do you have all the tools necessary to replace your water heater? To uninstall your water heater, you could use wrenches, a hacksaw, pliers, screwdrivers, and possibly even a propane torch if you have to go through copper piping. Finally, replacing a water heater requires that you complete the job in one sitting. There’s no leaving it for a night and coming back to finish the installation the next day. Can you dedicate a block of your likely sparse free time to completing a project of that size?
The answer to all of these questions is to save yourself time, headache, and trouble and call Bacon Plumbing Heating Air Electric. Our trained and qualified team can get your new water heater installed in a fraction of the time it would take a layman and we bring all the necessary equipment to get the job done in one day.
