Hot Water Repairs and Replacement in Northern Beaches, Sydney
Just about every home in Australia would have a hot water heater to heat water for bathrooms, laundries and kitchen purposes. Problems with hot water heaters can disrupt the routine of your home including cooking and the ability to just take a hot shower.
There are electric hot water heaters or gas hot water heaters and trouble-shooting differs for each.
Why do hot water systems fail?
Electric hot water heaters
Electric hot water heaters come in two categories; storage heaters and instantaneous systems.
Faulty electric hot water heaters stem from three main issues. The heater can be out of date and corrode from inside of the tank which can cause brown water or a slight tinge of brown to come through the hot water tap. This is most noticeable in the bathtub and when you see this colouration occur, unfortunately, it’s a good sign the heater has had its day and needs a replacement.
Secondly, electrical components can fail. This would involve the thermostat and the element. These can be replaced quite easily and covered by warranty in heaters under one year old. If the heater is older than five years, the better option is to replace the entire system and get the five to seven-year warranty available on most heaters these days.
Thirdly, the temperature pressure relief valve located high on the heater can stop working. When this occurs it means the valve has faulted and needs to be replaced. This valve acts much like the pressure release in a hot water kettle, allowing the steam pressure escape.
Gas hot water systems
Gas heaters are of two types, storage heaters and instantaneous systems. Issues usually arise from these heaters when the heater can be out of date and corrode from the inside of the tank which causes brown water or a slight tinge of brown to come through the hot water tap. This is most noticeable in the bath tub. When this occurs unfortunately the heater has had its day and a replacement is needed.
Secondly, there are three main parts to the gas heater; the burners which can corrode and need replacing, gas control valves which do fault over time or in the case of a pilot light not staying alight, a thermocouple. This works by sending electronic pulses to a control valve telling the valve to open and allow the gas through to the heater creating ignition and burning.
Which hot water system should I install?
For gas needs, instantaneous units are our recommended gas heater installation. You may need to upgrade gas services and install a power point to run these units however once they are established these units are much cheaper to run than storage heaters. When a hot water tap is turned on in the property there is a flow switch in the heater which ignites the burners, and the water gets forced through copper coils heating the water up to a certain temperature and out of the faucet. With this system, gas is only used when the hot water tap is turned on.
There are good warranties on these systems from suppliers and we can recommended units which from experience have proven to be reliable. But if the unit is out of warranty and you have problems, Davy Plumbing can help.