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Guide to Hot Water Heater Selection, Inspection, Diagnosis, & Repair PlumbingAPedia © Enter your search terms Submit search form   Search This Website - InspectAPedia.com

• Water heaters: how to inspect, test, adjust, repair, and choose among types of hot water heaters
• Guide to inspecting gas fired hot water heaters
• Guide to inspecting oil fired hot water heaters
• Guide to inspection of electric water heaters
• Guide to tankless coils, indirect fired water heaters, range boilers
• No Hot water? how to get more hot water flow, quantity, performance from your water heater

The articles at this website will answer most questions about domestic water heaters as well as many other building plumbing system inspection or defect topics. This page contains links to in-depth articles on inspecting, testing, and repairing problems residential hot water heaters of all types, including their parts, controls, and alternative sources for hot water as well as tips for improving hot water temperature, hot water pressure, and hot water quantity. Reproduction of this web page electronically at other websites is prohibited. © Copyright 2008 Daniel Friedman, All Rights Reserved. Information Accuracy & Bias Pledge is at below-left. The sketch at page top is courtesy of Carson Dunlop.

Inspection, Diagnostic, & Repair Guide to Residential Hot Water Heaters

While an electric, gas-fired, or oil-fired water heaters, along with tankless coils on heating boilers are among the most common methods for producing domestic or residential hot water for washing and bathing, there are plenty of other ways that people obtain hot water.

All hot water supply systems use some energy source (electricity, oil, gas, solar energy) to heat either a reservoir of hot water stored in a hot water tank, or to heat water as it is used (such as tankless coils and Thermar type heaters.)

An exception is geo-thermal hot water (such as is readily available in Iceland and in more localized areas in other countries). And the most common hot water complaint we hear is "how can I get more hot water quantity - I keep running out of hot water" or "how can I get better hot water pressure?"

Our photo shows clear evidence of flue gas spillage from a gas fired water heater. In articles linked from this page we discuss this and other water heater diagnosis and repair topics.

The articles listed below describe the inspection, operation, diagnosis, repair, and improvement of each type of water heater, and we include detailed advice about how to improve hot water supply in buildings as well as inspection and correction of leaks, high hot water costs, odors, noises, and safety problems.

Use links just below or at the left of each page to navigate this document or to view other topics at this website. Green links show where you are in our document or website.

Technical Reviewers

Particular thanks are due to experts and also consumers who read these articles and suggest corrections, changes, and additions to the material. Content suggestions, technical corrections and content critique are invited for any of the content at our website.

• Daniel Friedman - principal author/editor of the InspectAPedia ^TM Website
• Thanks to Alan Carson and Bob Dunlop, Carson Dunlop, Associates, Toronto, for permission to use illustrations from their publication, The Illustrated Home which illustrates construction details and building components. Carson Dunlop provides home inspection education, publications, report writing materials, and home inspection services. Alan Carson is a past president of ASHI, the American Society of Home Inspectors.
• Critique, contributions wanted: Contact Us to suggest text changes and additions and, if you wish, to receive online listing and credit for that contribution.

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