Water Heater Repair in Greenville, MS
Tell us what your water heater is doing, and a licensed contractor who covers Washington County will get in touch.
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What Greenville's power outages do to your water heater
Washington County gets hit with rough weather. Ten years of records show 84 damaging wind events and 6 winter storms, and in Mississippi, 30% of households went at least 24 hours without power in 2024.
A gas water heater with a standing pilot keeps running through an outage like that. Most units built in recent years use an electronic igniter instead, and that goes dark when the power does. It should relight on its own once power is back. If it does not, you will have cold water and no pilot light, and the ignition system is where the trouble usually is.
- 37°F
- the average winter night, and colder incoming water means longer heating
- 5 months
- November through March, the months homes here need heat
- 30%
- of Mississippi households lost power for a day or more in 2024, and a heater with an electric element or electric ignition stops without it
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new water heater would cut about $80 a year off hot water for a typical Mississippi home.
Estimates for a typical Mississippi home, compared with an older unit built to the federal minimum, from EIA household energy data and Mississippi fuel prices. Your home will differ.
Repair makes sense when an element, thermostat or gas valve has failed.
Replacement makes sense when the tank itself is leaking.
- Why is my water heater leaking from the bottom?
- Most of the time this means the tank itself has rusted through and is failing. Sediment builds up on the bottom of the tank over the years, and it corrodes the steel from the inside until a crack or pinhole lets water out. It can also be a loose drain valve or a fitting that has failed, which is worth checking first since those can be replaced without replacing the tank. Once the tank itself is leaking, though, there is no repair for it. It needs to be replaced.
- Why won't the pilot light on my water heater stay lit?
- The most common cause is a thermocouple that has worn out and no longer senses the flame, so the gas valve shuts off as a safety measure. A dirty or misaligned pilot orifice can cause the same thing, and so can a draft in the area that blows the flame out before the thermocouple heats up. A contractor can test the thermocouple and the gas valve to find out which one is failing. Do not keep relighting it over and over if it will not hold. That usually means a part needs to be replaced, not another attempt.
- Can a tankless water heater be repaired?
- Yes, most problems with a tankless water heater are repairable. The heat exchanger, the igniter, the flow sensor and the venting can all fail on their own and be replaced without needing a new unit. Hard water buildup inside the heat exchanger is a common cause of reduced hot water or error codes, and it can often be flushed out. A contractor can pull the error code from the unit's display and diagnose the actual part causing it.