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How to Fix Your Water Heater Before It Breaks

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Fixing the water heater.

When you fix something before it breaks, what's that called? Simple: Prevention! If you don't want to wrestle with a broken water heater and deal with endless amounts of cold showers in the morning, you'll want to make sure that your water heater is well taken care of. In order to do that, you've got to start fixing it - before it breaks. In this article, we'll break that down so you know exactly how to maintain a water heater starting today.

Keep the demands low. Go take a look at your water heater and see what temperature it's set to heat the water to. If it's over 120 degrees Fahrenheit, you might be working it too hard. Keep it between 115 and 120 degrees Fahrenheit so that there's less demand on your heater over time. You'll also notice that you use less energy when you keep your temperatures low. Do you need your water scalding? At least give this lower setting a try in order to see if you really notice the difference.

Regularly check your T & P valve. Don't know what the T & P valve is? It's actually a very important device on your water heater and you'll want to make sure you can identify it. The T & P valve is vital for maintaining a strong water heater. To regularly check it, simply lift the lever on the side of the T & P valve - make sure you don't lift it the full way, just partly. Release the lever. You should hear a bubbling/gurgling sound that sounds like water moving from one point to another. You want to hear that sound. If not, you'll probably want to get your T & P valve replaced. Note: Make sure you can identify the valve and lever before you do this. It's not a complicated instrument, so just take a gander at a picture online.

Use the drain valve to perform a flush. Every so often, you'll want to use the drain valve toward the bottom of your water heater in order to perform a "flush," in which you empty some of the water into a bucket so that sediment and rust don't build up over time. Check out details on how to run a "mini-flush" here.

Photo Credits: Mr.Thomas

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