Water Heater Installation in Freedom, CA

When it goes, it usually goes all at once

Water heaters rarely give you much warning, and when they fail they tend to fail into the garage. If yours is leaking from the base right now, shut the water off at the valve on top and give me a call.

If it is not leaking yet but it is old and noisy, you have time to make a decision rather than an emergency purchase. That is a better place to buy from.

Tank

For most homes a standard tank is still the right answer. It is cheaper to install, simple to service, and there is nothing clever to go wrong.

I install 30, 40, 50 and 75-gallon units in gas and electric. Sizing is mostly about how many people take showers close together — a 40 is fine for most two- and three-bedroom houses, a 50 makes sense if the mornings are busy.

Every install includes the things that get skipped when someone is racing the clock:

• Two seismic straps, upper and lower third, bolted into studs — California code, and it is checked at sale
• A temperature and pressure relief valve with a discharge pipe run down to six inches off the floor
• Proper venting on gas units, connected and drafting correctly
• A drip pan where the location calls for one
• The old unit hauled away, not left in your side yard

Tankless

Endless hot water, wall mounted, and around twenty years of life instead of ten. The catch is that a tankless install is a real project — most homes need a larger gas line and new venting, and that is where the cost sits.

The other thing nobody mentions when they sell you one: our water is hard, and tankless units scale. They need flushing about once a year. Done, they last two decades. Skipped, they clog and underperform and you have paid extra for a unit that dies early. If you go tankless I will show you the service valves and how it is done, and you can decide whether to do it yourself or have me come round.

If hard water is a running problem in your house — spotted glasses, scale on the fixtures, heaters that die early — a water softener does more for the whole system than any single appliance choice.

Signs yours is on the way out

• Not enough hot water, or it runs out faster than it used to
• Rumbling or popping when the burner fires — that is sediment on the tank bottom
• Rusty or brown hot water
• Damp concrete around the base, or rust streaks down the jacket
• A pilot that will not stay lit
• It is over ten years old and you have not thought about it in a while

I work throughout Freedom, Watsonville, Corralitos, Aptos and Santa Cruz County.