Water Heater Repair in Franklin, TN
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Franklin winters put more work on your water heater
Water heaters in Franklin run hardest from October through April, seven months a year, when incoming water is coldest. The burner or heating element has to work longer to reach the same temperature, and that extra run time wears on the thermostat and the heating element or burner assembly sooner than it would in a mild month.
Williamson County has seen 10 winter storms and 205 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and statewide, 20 percent of households went at least 24 hours without power in 2024. A gas water heater with a standing pilot keeps heating through an outage. One with electronic ignition, or an electric water heater, will not come back on until the power does.
- 30°F
- the average winter night, and colder incoming water means longer heating
- 7 months
- October through April, the months homes here need heat
- 20%
- of Tennessee 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 $60 a year off hot water for a typical Tennessee home.
Estimates for a typical Tennessee home, compared with an older unit built to the federal minimum, from EIA household energy data and Tennessee 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 inside over years, and it wears through the glass lining and then the steel underneath, so water finds a way out at the bottom seam or the drain valve. A leaking tank does not get sealed or patched, it gets replaced. If you see water there, shut off the cold supply line to the tank and call a contractor before it gets worse.
- Why won't the pilot light on my water heater stay lit?
- The most common cause is a worn thermocouple, the small sensor that sits in the pilot flame and tells the gas valve it is safe to stay open. Once it wears out, it fails to hold that signal and the valve shuts the pilot off again. A dirty pilot orifice or a draft blowing across the flame can do the same thing. A standing pilot does not run on electricity, so a power outage will not cause this. A contractor can tell which of these it is and replace the part that needs it.
- Can a tankless water heater be repaired?
- Yes, most problems with a tankless unit are repairable. A failed igniter, a clogged inlet filter, a bad flow sensor, or mineral scale built up on the heat exchanger are all things a contractor can service without replacing the unit. Scale is a common one in tankless systems because they heat water fast across a narrow set of coils, and hard water leaves deposits there over time. If the heat exchanger itself has cracked, that is the one failure that usually means replacement instead of repair.