Spring Cleaning for Your Water Heater

Spring is finally here! With the changing of the season, you may be focused on cleaning up your lawn, planting flowers, putting the deck furniture back outside, and getting the pool prepped for hot weather. If you’re ambitious, you might also be performing a deep clean of the inside of the house. While we recommend doing all these things now that the new season is here, there’s another area of your home that we hope you don’t forget to include on your list of spring-cleaning tasks.

What area of your home are we referring to? Your water heater. Your family depends on your water heater for hot showers, washing dishes, and doing laundry. When this heavily relied-upon appliance isn’t working like it should, you could face higher water bills each month, not to mention annoyed family members taking cold showers, wearing dirty clothes, and eating off paper plates. Yikes!

Fortunately, with a little TLC, you may be able to keep your water heater running efficiently for years to come, all while doing your part to help prevent expensive and unexpected breakdowns. Here’s what to do.

Flush your water heater

Many homeowners may not realize that they should flush their water heater on an annual basis — perhaps even more often if the water composition in the area necessitates. Sediment builds up in the bottom of the water heater tank as time passes. The amount of sediment depends on the quality of water in your area.

When you don’t have your water heater flushed often, sediment could lead to premature wear and tear on the unit’s parts — this means no hot water for you — or it could cause your water heater to operate inefficiently and lead to expensive utility bills.

Should I flush the water heater myself?

If you aren’t comfortable performing a water heater flush on your own, work with a professional in your area who offers the service. An experienced water heater tech will also be able to handle a variety of other maintenance tasks, such as the following:

• Check for any leaks coming from the unit. If any are detected, it’s important to get the issue(s) taken care of as soon as possible before you waste more water (and money).
• Inspect the anode rod. This part of your water heater is a steel wire that’s wrapped in magnesium, aluminum, or zinc alloy. Its purpose is to prevent rust from forming inside your tank. If a replacement is needed, this is also something that’s recommended to have performed sooner rather than later — so that your family’s water supply isn’t jeopardized by corrosion.
• Test the temperature. The technician will make sure that the temperature of the water is safe — not too hot — this is especially important if you have young children in your home. The tech will likely also check the pressure relief valve while testing the temperature settings of the unit.

Benefits of water heater maintenance

When you take care of your water heater, you’ll have fewer unexpected (and costly) repairs to deal with. Also, proper maintenance may help to extend the life of the unit and keep it running efficiently for years to come. This means hot water for your loved ones and potentially less expensive water bills from month to month.

Want more peace of mind?

Consider enrolling in our Water Heater Repair and Replacement Program! This affordable program helps safeguard you from the hassle and cost of an unexpected water heater failure. If your water heater fails due to normal wear and tear, our team will dispatch a qualified, insured contractor from our experienced service provider network to fix it.

Ready to learn more or want to enroll? Visit us online and enter your ZIP code to get started!