Where is My Hot Water?

Every so often we get people calling about their water heater not working and they can't figure out the problem. They will tell us that they ran the water in their shower for 15 minutes and it is still ice cold, but the pilot light on their heater is still lit. Your first test, well second if you count waiting for your shower to warm up, is to go to another plumbing fixture and see if the water will turn warm there.

If it in fact does get warm, you know that your problem is now your shower valve, and not your heater. Many times with different types of shower valve, there are small cartridges inside the valve that directs the water to become more hot and cold, and those can sometimes fail or break and need to be replaced. The tricky thing about shower valves is they are always different and sometimes it can be as simple as replacing the cartridge, but other times you may have to replace the entire shower valve, so it is hard to say exactly what it is until we actually get out there.

Although it can still be expensive if you need to replace the entire shower valve, it is still less expensive than having to replace your entire water heater. So make sure you check another fixture to ensure that your water heater hasn't failed! That should give you some temporary relief at least.

Should you be having trouble with your water heater or any other needs, feel free to call us with any questions!