Water Heater Repair in Winston-Salem, NC
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Power outages here take your hot water with them
A quarter of North Carolina households went at least a day without power in 2024, and Forsyth County has seen 12 winter storms and 174 damaging wind events over the past ten years. When the power drops, an electric water heater stops heating, and most units need that power back before they start again on their own.
Gas water heaters with an electronic igniter have the same problem. Only a standing pilot light keeps working through an outage, and fewer heaters have one now. If your water goes cold during a storm and stays cold after the lights come back on, something in the heater didn't reset the way it should have.
- 30°F
- the average winter night, and colder incoming water means longer heating
- 7 months
- October through April, the months homes here need heat
- 25%
- of North Carolina households lost power for a day or more in 2024, and a heater with an electric element or electric ignition stops without it
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new water heater would cut about $300 a year off hot water for a typical North Carolina home.
Estimates for a typical North Carolina home, compared with an older unit built to the federal minimum, from EIA household energy data and North Carolina fuel prices. Your home will differ.
Repair makes sense when an element, thermostat or gas valve has failed.
Replacement makes sense when the tank itself is leaking.
- Why is my water heater leaking from the bottom?
- Most often the tank itself has rusted through and is holding water that has to go somewhere. Once a tank starts leaking from the inside out, there is no patch or seal that fixes it, since the steel has already given way. It can also be a loose drain valve or a fitting at the bottom that a contractor can tighten or replace, so it is worth checking those before assuming the tank is done. Either way, shut off the power or gas to the unit and the cold water supply to it, then have someone take a look before more water gets on the floor.
- Why won't the pilot light on my water heater stay lit?
- The most common cause is a worn thermocouple, the small sensor that sits in the pilot flame and tells the gas valve it is safe to keep sending gas. When it wears out it stops reading the flame correctly and shuts the gas off, even though the pilot lit fine a second ago. A dirty pilot orifice or a draft near the burner can cause the same thing, so it is not always the thermocouple. A contractor can test which one it is rather than replacing parts one at a time.
- Can a tankless water heater be repaired?
- Yes, most problems with a tankless unit are repairable. Mineral buildup on the heat exchanger, a failed igniter, or an error code from a sensor are all things a contractor can flush, clean, or replace without swapping the whole unit. Hard water buildup is the most common reason these units need service, since it narrows the passages the water runs through and makes the unit work harder to heat it. A contractor can look at the error code and the unit's age to tell you whether repair or replacement makes more sense.