Water Heater Repair in Cape Girardeau, MO
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What outages here mean for your water heater
Cape Girardeau County has logged 10 winter storms and 120 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and in 2024 nineteen percent of Missouri households went at least 24 hours without power. A gas water heater with a standing pilot keeps heating through an outage like that. One with electronic ignition will not relight on its own once power comes back, and an electric water heater just sits cold until it does. Either way, if the power was out for a while, check the water before you trust it.
Winter nights here average 27°F from December through February, and homes need heat from October through April, seven months of the year. That is seven months where a water heater in an unheated space, a garage or basement, is working against cold air around the tank as well as cold water coming in. The parts that show it first are the thermostat and the heating element or burner, and you will notice the strain as water that never gets quite hot enough, or a tank that takes longer to recover between uses.
- 27°F
- the average winter night, and colder incoming water means longer heating
- 7 months
- October through April, the months homes here need heat
- 19%
- of Missouri 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 $270 a year off hot water for a typical Missouri home.
Estimates for a typical Missouri home, compared with an older unit built to the federal minimum, from EIA household energy data and Missouri 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 from the inside and is cracked, and once that happens the tank cannot be patched or repaired. It could also be a loose drain valve or a fitting at the bottom, which a contractor can tighten or replace without touching the tank. The way to tell them apart is where the water is coming from and whether it stops when the valve is dried off and checked. If the tank itself is leaking, the water heater needs to be replaced.
- Why won't the pilot light on my water heater stay lit?
- A pilot that won't stay lit is usually a sign the thermocouple has worn out and is no longer sensing the flame. When that happens, the gas valve shuts off the pilot as a safety measure even though everything else looks fine. It can also mean a draft is blowing the flame out, or the pilot tube itself is dirty or clogged. A contractor can test the thermocouple and clean or replace whatever part is causing the shutoff.
- Can a tankless water heater be repaired?
- Yes, most tankless water heater problems are repairable. Error codes, a clogged inlet filter, mineral buildup on the heat exchanger, and igniter problems are all things a contractor can diagnose and fix without replacing the unit. Because tankless units have no tank to rust out, they tend to have a longer working life than tank models as long as they get repaired when something goes wrong.