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Plumbers of Louisville
Plumbing · the Louisville area
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No Hot Water

Any gas smell around the heater means leave the building and make the call from outside, without touching switches on the way out.

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When this becomes an emergency

What a pro does

Losing hot water in January reads as an emergency even though the plumbing itself often isn't dramatic. The diagnosis follows the fuel. On gas the suspects are the thermocouple or flame sensor, the gas control, and the flue, and in older Louisville basements the flue is worth real attention, because a lot of these heaters vent into masonry chimneys that were built for a coal furnace and were never lined for anything else. A chimney that's deteriorating on the inside doesn't draw the way it should. Electric units come down to the elements, the thermostats and the high-limit switch. Then there's the water itself. What comes out of the Ohio River and through treatment is moderately hard, and homes on the Indiana side drawing from limestone aquifers can be harder still, so scale on the tank floor is a normal finding rather than a surprise. That layer insulates the burner from the water and shortens how long the hot lasts. Where the tank has failed rather than a part, the plumber looks at the venting, the connections, and the space around it, since a basement replacement has to work with what the building already has.

Frequently asked questions

Because many of these houses vent gas appliances into an unlined masonry chimney originally built for coal or oil. Combustion gases from a modern heater are cooler and wetter, which breaks down old mortar over time, and a chimney that isn't drawing properly is a safety concern rather than a comfort one.
Usually a reaction between the tank's anode rod and bacteria in the water, more common on wells and on systems that sit unused for stretches. It's a water heater issue rather than a supply issue, and it's addressed at the tank.
Both happen. A thermocouple, a thermostat, or an element on a tank with years left is a straightforward repair. A tank leaking from the shell itself has no repair, because the steel is the part that's gone.
It works against it. Mineral drops out of solution as the water heats and settles on the bottom of the tank, where it traps heat against the steel and stresses it. Regular flushing slows the buildup on a tank that's been kept up with.

No Hot Water?

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Plumbing in the Louisville areaBurst PipeClogged DrainDrain CleaningEmergency PlumberOverflowing ToiletPlumber Near MeSewer Line RepairSlab LeakSump Pump RepairWater Heater RepairWater Leak Repair

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