Hot water systems are important for everyones day to day life. But like other applicances at home, water heaters failure can occur at any moment.
You can avoid the annoyance of a damaged water heater by being on watch for these four signs that your water heater is faulty and could fail.
4 Signs Your Water Heater Could Fail
1. Old Water Heater
The older your water heater is, the more likely it is to fail and stop working.
That’s why it is critical to know just how old your water system is. The age of your water heater can be found on the manufacturers sticker in the serial number of the heater.
The serial number incorporates the date your water system was manufactured. However, the date won’t be clearly formatted in the serial number, as each manufacturer has their own date code, so do a search on the manufacturers website to find out when your heater was built.
In general, if your water heater is more then ten years old, you should consider replacing it. Keeping water heaters for longer than ten years usually results in a leak, which can damage your property, so we strongly recommend a replacement after ten years of use.
2. Rusty Water Tank Water
A common indication that your water heater will begin to leak and might fail is the appearance of rusty water coming from the heater.
However, you may just have rusty pipes if you have galvanised piping. To test if it your piping or water reservoir is at fault, drain four 18L buckets of hot water out of your heater.
If you reach the third bucket of hot water and the water is still coming out rusty, then it is safe to say that the hot water system is at fault and not your piping. When this happens, you may be at a higher risk of water heater failure and will need to replace your heater.
3. Noisy water heater rumblings
Throughout the life of your water heater, sediment will build up on the floor of your water tank. Each time the sediment is heated and reheated, the sediment will harden. Hardened sediment is the cause of the banging and rumbling sounds coming from the heater tank system whenever it heats up, and should be treated as an indication that your water heater is nearing the end of its useful life.
4. Water heat tank leaking
Any sign of moisture outside and around your water tank should be taken seriously as a sign of a leak or fracture in your water tank.
When metal heats, it expands, exposing any small fractures that may leak water from the water tank. When the metal cools down again, the tank should stop leaking.
That being said, you should check that there a no other leaks coming from any connections or fittings to the tank.
If your water heater needs replacing, contact us today!
