When to Replace Your Water Heater: 5 Factors to Consider

As a homeowner, you want to get the most out of your investment in your home appliances, and your water heater is no exception. So how do you know whether it makes more sense to repair or replace your unit? The five factors for when to replace your water heater that we’ve listed below will help you make the right decision!

When to replace your water heater: 5 factors to consider

1. Age. On average, water heaters last somewhere between 10-15 years. When your water heater hits the 10-year mark, you should start to seriously consider the value of keeping it alive or replacing it with a new unit.
2. Energy consumption. If you have an inefficient water heater with a low Energy Factor, you can offset some of the costs of installing a new, more efficient unit with future energy savings. In addition, water heaters tend to lose efficiency over time, so you should consider installing a new unit if your energy bills begin to significantly rise.
3. Hot water capacity. The whole reason you have a water heater is to provide your home with an adequate supply of hot water. As water heaters age, they often can’t produce water with as high of a temperature as they used to and your hot water supply can run out more quickly. If your water heater no longer produces the amount of hot water you need, it might be time to invest in a new unit.
4. Maintenance history. The operating life of your water heater will depend significantly on how well it was maintained over the years. If you’ve had professional maintenance performed on your unit every year, for example, it will last much longer than a poorly maintained unit. Keep this in mind when you’re considering all of the other factors in this list.
5. Repair history. Have you had to make a lot of repairs on your water heater throughout the past few years? Those repairs can start to add up, and it will reach a point when it doesn’t make sense financially to keep repairing a unit that frequently breaks down. Whenever you need to make a repair on your water heater, especially as it reaches the end of its life, weigh the costs of the repairs against the cost of investing in a new unit.

If you have any questions about when to replace your water heater, or if you’d like a plumbing system serviced or installed in your home, contact Tiger, your Glen Carbon plumbing, heating and air conditioning company.