Category: Water Heaters

How to “Go Green” with a Water Heater Installation

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There are a variety of ways to make your house more environmentally friendly. You may not have thought a new water heater installation is one of them. But when you consider how much power goes into running your home’s water heater, you’ll begin to see that putting in the right type of unit can make a significant difference. Below are three ways that you can “go green” when it’s time for a new water heater:

Install a Higher Efficiency Tank Water Heater

Let’s say that you don’t want to make a dramatic change in the kind of water heater your home uses: you’d prefer to stick to the tried-n-true storage tank type. If this is the case, make sure that any new installation is an ENERGY STAR-certified model. These units use around 10% less energy than standard water heaters and can save four-person household hundreds of dollars over its service life. When it comes to green power, if every home used an ENERGY STAR water heater, it would remove about 10 billion pounds of greenhouse gas annually—the equivalent of 900 thousand cars!

Install a Tankless Water Heater

A tankless water heater doesn’t need to run as often as a storage tank model, and this makes it, even more, energy efficient. Not only will you help the environment and your energy bills with a tankless model, but you’ll also have limitless hot water.

Install a Heat Pump Water Heater

If your home doesn’t have access to natural gas, one of the best options for an energy efficient water heater is a heat pump model. These types of water heaters consume far less electricity than a standard electric water heater, which helps in cutting down on dependence on coal and other fossil fuels. Heat pump water heaters also produce few harmful emissions.

Find out more about going green with a new water heater installation: call on Mallick Plumbing & Heating! We service Rockville, MD, and the surrounding areas.

4 Warning Signs You Need Repairs for Your Water Heater

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A water heater is an appliance for all seasons. Even in the midst of a summer heat wave, you still need to have the water heater working away steadily to provide your house with heated water.

However, winter is probably when you’ll be giving your water heater the most consideration, and during the fall it’s wise to keep a sharp lookout for any indications that the water heater is suffering from malfunctions. Even a small issue with a water heater can rapidly balloon into a complete system shutdown—and that’s most likely to happen on one of the coldest days of the winter! Below we’ve listed a few of the early indications that your water heater is running into trouble that’ll require professional repairs before the situation worsens.

ONE: Rumbling from the Tank

Don’t panic about the tank bursting: this is highly uncommon. But you should be concerned about the tank overheating, which can lead to leaks and other damage. This rumbling may also mean that cold water is mixing near the top of the tank with the hot water, possibly from a broken dip tube, which is a common malfunction.

TWO: Discoloration in the Hot Water

A reddish tint to the hot water can point to a number of issues, such as breaks in the hot water lines to excessive sediment in the tank that will require professionals flush it.

THREE: Water around the Base of the System

You shouldn’t see any water pooling around the tank of your water heater. This means leaks are occurring somewhere, and you must have professionals on the job right away to find and seal them.

FOUR: Decline in Hot Water Volume

Are you not getting as much hot water as you used to? This could be an issue with the burners, the heat exchanger, or the sediment build-up on the bottom of the tank.

As soon as you detect any of these warning signs, call on our water heater repair experts. We are here 24 hours a day to provide help when you need it.

Mallick Plumbing & Heating is the Service Contractor of Choice for Gaithersburg, MD.

Time to Schedule Water Heater Maintenance!

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Do you arrange for maintenance for your home’s heating system every fall? If you don’t, you should, since this is the best way to plan ahead for the winter and ensure that your family will have warmth whenever it needs it and that the heater will operate at an energy-saving level.

But did you know that your home’s water heater also requires maintenance every year? Whenever fall arrives and you start thinking about planning for the coming winter, it’s the right time to also plan maintenance for your water heater.

Why Water Heaters Require Annual Inspections and Tune-Ups

It’s easy for people to take the hot water that flows from their taps and showerheads for granted and just assume that the hot water heater will always work when needed. But water heaters undergo a great deal of work stress during a year. The presence of water also causes them to rapidly wear down unless they have regular service from professionals.

Here’s what might happen if a water heater goes without maintenance:

  • Corrosion: This is a water heater’s #1 enemy. Although water heaters are designed to resist corrosion and rust for as long as possible, one that misses maintenance will be at a high risk of corroding when the anode rod fails. During routine maintenance, a technician will replace the anode rod if necessary.
  • Overheating and high pressure: Sediment that builds up inside the tank of a water heater will cause the tank to overheat and spike the water pressure inside. Technicians will flush the tank as part of maintenance if there is too much sediment.
  • Wasteful performance: Any type of water heater will gradually become more expensive to run if it doesn’t receive regular care. In only a few years, you could pay from 25% to 40% more to run the water heater than you should.
  • Leaks: Checking for leaks and fixing them is one of the basic steps of regular maintenance.

If you’re ready to have your water heater properly maintained for the year, call on Mallick Plumbing & Heating. We’re the service contractor of choice in Silver Spring, MD.