Water Heater Repair in Ypsilanti and Southeast Michigan

A water heater does not get noticed until the shower goes cold. In Southeast Michigan that is usually a 40- or 50-gallon atmospheric gas tank sitting in a basement corner next to the furnace, vented up the chimney, fed by DTE gas, and somewhere between 8 and 15 years old. When it stops, the cause is usually one of a short list: a thermocouple or thermopile that no longer holds the pilot, a gas control valve that has failed, a pilot assembly fouled with sediment and lint, a flooded burner compartment after the sump pump lost power, or on power-vent units, a blower motor or pressure switch that has given up. Temprasure repairs all of them, and because Al runs the calls himself from Ypsilanti, a no-hot-water call in Washtenaw or western Wayne County is usually seen the same day.

The repair-or-replace question matters more on water heaters than almost anything else we work on, because the tank itself has a fixed life. The steel inside is protected by a sacrificial anode rod, and once that rod is consumed, the tank rusts from the inside until it leaks. Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, Saline and most of western Wayne are on hard municipal water that builds sediment fast, and the well water in Augusta, York, Lodi and Sumpter Townships is harder still, so anode rods here are often gone by year six and tanks are often leaking by year twelve. A failed thermocouple on a six-year-old tank is a clear repair. A gas valve on a thirteen-year-old tank with a rusty bottom seam is money better spent on a replacement, and we say so before quoting either one.

Our diagnosis is the same for every water heater we see. We check for leaks at the tank seams, the fittings, the temperature and pressure relief valve and the drain valve, and we separate condensation from an actual leak, because a cold tank filling in a humid basement sweats and a lot of panicked calls are just that. We test the pilot and the thermocouple or thermopile output, check the gas valve and the manifold pressure, inspect the burner and the flue for proper draft and spillage, and on electric tanks we test both elements and both thermostats. We drain a few gallons to see how much sediment comes out, because a tank that rumbles and pops is boiling water under a layer of scale and that is what kills the bottom of the tank. Then we quote one flat number for the repair.

Power-vent water heaters, the ones with a plastic exhaust pipe out the side wall and a blower on top, are common in the 1990s and 2000s subdivisions around Canton, Pittsfield and Saline where there is no chimney. They have more to fail: the blower motor, the pressure switch, the control board and the igniter, and their venting can be blocked by a wasp nest or snow. We carry the parts for them and understand the difference between a venting fault and a control fault, which is where a lot of misdiagnosis happens. We also repair direct-vent and the occasional tankless unit, though we will tell you honestly that tankless repair in hard-water areas is often a descaling problem first.

There is no overtime charge for a cold-shower call on a Sunday morning, the dispatch fee that gets us there is credited toward the repair, and when the right answer is a new tank, that estimate is free. Our job is a hot shower at the lowest sensible cost, not the biggest ticket.