Just like with any large appliance in your home, your water heater needs regular service. During the cold winter months you and your family tend to use more hot water for things like preparing large holiday meals or, taking a bath rather than a shower after a freezing cold afternoon of shoveling snow.
While summertime is usually reserved for spending time outdoors and having fun in the sun, it is also a good time of year to spend a couple of hours making sure that your hot water heater is ready for the winter months. After all, once winter hits being without hot water is far more inconvenient to deal with than if it happens in the summer months.
Having a professional plumbing technician come to your home and service your hot water heater is an inexpensive and easy way to prevent having a major plumbing disaster on your hands.
Maintenance for your water heater should include:
- Check to make sure all components are working properly and the overall operation of the unit is intact.
- Check to make sure the safety relief valve and emergency shutoff valves are working. This ensure the safety of the unit and will help to prevent flooding
- Check to make sure the thermostat is set to the safe and recommended 120F.
- Check the burner assembly to make sure the water heater is efficiently heating water and not unnecessarily using power
- Check filters. Clean and/or replace as needed
- Check the unit’s water pressure to make sure there aren’t any small cracks or leaks in the tank
Once all of these steps have been taken, your technician will flush the water heater tank. Over time a layer of sediment accumulates at the bottom of your water heater tank and acts as a buffer between the water in the tank and the heating element. This causes the water to heat slowly and requires more power usage. By flushing the tank the sediment is removed and the water is able to heat quickly and efficiently.
Not only is maintenance a great preventative measure that will save you time, money, and stress in the long run, it is also a great way to keep your power bill within budget. If your water heater is not working as efficiently as it could be, your power bill will reflect that.