Hot water, handled once.
A heater that is noisy, slow to recover, or weeping at the base is telling you something specific. We read it, and we are straight about whether this is a part or a replacement.
Repair or replace, no upsell
A thermocouple, a heating element, a thermostat or an anode rod are parts, and on a tank with years left they are the right answer. A tank leaking from the shell is not repairable at any price, and anyone offering to weld it is selling you a flood.
Age matters more than any single symptom. A tank past ten years with sediment noise and a slow recovery is near the end of a normal life, and putting a part into it buys months rather than years. We will tell you which one you have and let you decide.
Sizing to the house, not the aisle
Replacement is where most of the money is decided, and the default of "same size again" is often wrong in both directions. Bathroom counts, a soaking tub, a laundry schedule and how many people actually shower in the same hour matter more than square footage.
Tankless is genuinely better for some homes and a poor trade in others: it needs gas supply and venting the house may not have, and hard water shortens the interval between descales. We will price both when both are real options, and say when one is not.
The unglamorous parts that matter
Seismic strapping, a correctly sized expansion tank, a drain pan with somewhere to drain to, and a temperature-and-pressure valve with a proper discharge line. These are the details an inspector looks at and the details that decide whether a failure is a puddle or a claim.
Where we do this
Water heaters across Tacoma, Lakewood, Puyallup, Gig Harbor, University Place, Federal Way and the surrounding South Sound.
Common questions
How long should a water heater last?
Eight to twelve years for a standard tank in this water, longer with an anode rod replaced on schedule. Tankless units run longer but need descaling, and skipping that closes the gap quickly.
There is water under the tank. Is it finished?
Not necessarily — it may be the temperature-and-pressure discharge, a fitting, or condensation on a cold morning. Water from the shell itself is terminal. Either way, look at it soon, because the failure mode of a tank is all at once.
Is tankless worth it?
Sometimes. It saves standby loss and never runs out, but it costs more to install, may need gas and venting work, and wants descaling in hard water. In a small household with modest demand the payback can be longer than the unit’s warranty.
Tell us what the house is doing