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Plumbing · Alabama
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No Hot Water

If you smell gas anywhere near the heater, leave the house first and call the gas utility before anyone touches the unit.

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When this becomes an emergency

What a pro does

The plumber starts by splitting the problem in two: no heat at all, or not enough heat. No heat on an electric tank usually lands on a failed element or the thermostat behind the access panel, and on a gas unit it lands on the pilot, the thermocouple or the gas valve. Not enough is a different animal, and around here it's often sediment. Well water carries iron and fine grit, and a lot of towns run water hard enough that scale builds on the bottom of a tank until the burner is heating an inch of mineral instead of water. That's the rumbling people describe. He'll drain and inspect, pull the anode rod if the tank is old enough to make it worth checking, and test the elements or the gas train depending on the fuel. Age matters in the recommendation. A ten-year-old tank with a rusty draw and a weeping seam isn't a repair candidate, and saying so is more useful than replacing one part and coming back in a month.

Frequently asked questions

It can. Sediment and dissolved iron accumulate faster than on treated municipal water, and that layer on the tank bottom insulates the burner and drives the metal harder. Periodic flushing helps. Whole-house filtration or softening ahead of the heater helps more, depending on what the water actually carries.
That points at the tank rather than the supply. The anode rod inside is a sacrificial piece of metal that corrodes so the tank lining doesn't, and once it's spent, the tank itself starts giving up iron. Cold water bypasses the tank entirely, which is why it stays clear.
Often, but it's not a swap. Gas models need a larger fuel supply and different venting, electric models need serious panel capacity, and on water with high mineral content the heat exchanger needs descaling on a schedule. Worth pricing as a project, not as a part.
Sometimes. A dirty or failing thermocouple is a common cause and a straightforward one. But a pilot that won't stay lit can also mean a venting problem or a safety device doing its job, and those need somebody looking at the whole unit rather than relighting it again.

No Hot Water?

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