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Lebanon Plumbers, home

Water Heaters

Water Heater Installation and Replacement

A replacement is a chance to fix what was wrong with the original installation, not just to put the same thing back in the same place.

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What is included

What this service covers

What we actually do on this job, and what you can expect us to deal with while we are there.

  • Removing and disposing of the old unit
  • Gas, electric and propane tank installation
  • Conversion between fuel types where the services allow it
  • Thermal expansion tanks on closed systems
  • Correct temperature and pressure relief discharge piping
  • Venting checked and corrected on gas installations
  • Drain pans, shutoffs and isolation valves
  • Commercial water heater replacement

Signs to look for

You may need this if you are seeing any of these

  • Water pooling under the tank with everything above it dry
  • A unit past ten or twelve years old needing another repair
  • Never enough hot water for the household as it is now
  • Rusty hot water that flushing has not resolved
  • Repair quotes approaching the cost of a new unit
  • Wanting the floor space back or a different fuel

Why it happens

What usually causes it

01

The tank has corroded through

Once the anode rod is spent, the steel tank starts corroding. A leak from the body is the end of that process and there is no repair for it, only replacement.

02

Sediment has taken the capacity

In a hard water area a tank that has never been flushed loses usable volume to mineral on the floor of the tank, and the burner is insulated from what is left. It behaves like a smaller, slower heater long before it leaks.

03

It was undersized from the start

The original was chosen for whoever lived there when it was installed. Households change, bathrooms get added, and a tank that was adequate in 2004 may simply not be enough now.

04

The installation was never right

Missing expansion tank on a closed system, relief valve discharge piped incorrectly, or poor venting. These get inherited from one replacement to the next unless someone stops and corrects them.

Our approach

How we handle this job

Specific to this work rather than a generic checklist bolted onto every page.

  1. 01

    Size it for the household you have

    How many people draw hot water in the morning and over what window, whether there is a large tub, and whether another bathroom is likely. Copying the old capacity is the default, not the right answer.

  2. 02

    Check the fuel question honestly

    If the existing unit is electric and gas is already at the property, the running cost comparison is worth doing. If it is not, we will say so rather than sell a conversion that never pays back.

  3. 03

    Correct what the old install got wrong

    Closed systems need a thermal expansion tank, and older installations frequently lack one. Relief valve discharge needs to be piped correctly. Gas venting gets checked properly rather than reconnected.

  4. 04

    Remove, install, test and take the old one away

    The old unit leaves with us. The new one is filled, purged, tested under load and set to a sensible temperature before we go.

A replacement is a chance to fix the original mistakes

Most water heaters get swapped like for like. Same capacity, same fuel, same pipework, same faults carried forward. That is the fast way to do it and it is why some houses have had the same underlying problem through three units.

Two things are worth stopping for.

Thermal expansion. If there is a pressure reducing valve or a backflow preventer on your incoming supply, your plumbing is a closed system. Heated water expands and, with nowhere to go, drives pressure up on every cycle. That stresses the new tank, the relief valve and every fitting in the house. The fix is an expansion tank, and a great many older installations here do not have one.

Relief valve discharge. The temperature and pressure relief valve needs its discharge pipe run correctly, terminating where a discharge would be noticed and would not scald anyone. It is one of the most commonly wrong details found on existing installations.

A 50 gallon residential hot water tank being flushed and serviced

Sizing, rather than copying

The old unit was sized for whoever lived in the house when it went in. If your household has grown, if a bathroom has been added, or if you have simply been living with running out of hot water on a Sunday morning, matching the old capacity just buys the same problem again.

The measure that matters is peak demand: how much hot water gets drawn in the same hour, not how big the house is.

The sacrificial anode rod being drawn out of the top of a water heater tank

Hard water, again

The county’s limestone geology means mineral-heavy water, and that is what determines how long a tank lasts here. Sediment on the tank floor insulates the burner and takes up volume; scale on an electric element is what burns it out.

Annual flushing and timely anode rod replacement are genuinely the difference between eight years and fifteen. We will set the new unit up so both are straightforward to do rather than awkward.

Questions

Water heater replacement questions

Specific to this job. Every service page here has its own, none repeated.

General FAQ

Common questions

What size water heater do I actually need?
It depends on how much hot water your household draws at once, not on how many bedrooms you have. The useful measure is peak demand: how many showers run in the same hour, whether a large tub gets filled, whether laundry and showers overlap. A household that consistently runs out is usually undersized or has a recovery rate problem rather than needing the biggest tank available. We would rather ask a few questions than default to matching whatever was there.
Should I switch to tankless while I am replacing it?
Sometimes, and it depends on the property more than the technology. Tankless saves standby energy, frees the floor space and does not run out during long demand, but installation costs more and often needs a gas line upgrade, new venting or significant electrical work. If you regularly run out of hot water or want the space back, it can be a good fit. For a straight like for like swap on a budget, a tank is usually the sensible choice. The [tankless page](/services/tankless-water-heaters/) goes into it properly.
How long does a water heater replacement take?
A straightforward like for like tank swap is typically half a day. It takes longer where the venting needs correcting, an expansion tank has to be added, gas or electrical work is involved, or the unit is in an awkward space such as a tight basement stairway or a crawl space. A fuel conversion or a first tankless installation is a bigger job again, and we will tell you which category yours is when we quote it.
What is a thermal expansion tank and do I need one?
When water heats it expands. In an open system that expansion pushes back into the main. If your property has a pressure reducing valve or a backflow preventer on the incoming supply, the system is closed and the expansion has nowhere to go, so pressure climbs every heating cycle. That stresses the tank, the relief valve and every fitting in the house. An expansion tank absorbs it. Plenty of older installations here are closed systems without one, and a replacement is the right moment to fix that.
Can you replace a water heater in a tight basement or crawl space?
Usually, and it is worth mentioning when you call. Older Lebanon city rowhomes in particular often have narrow basement stairs, low headroom or a doorway that the original tank clearly predates. There are shorter and narrower tank formats that solve most access problems, and knowing about the constraint before we arrive means bringing the right unit rather than discovering it at the door.
Do you take the old water heater away?
Yes, removal and disposal are part of the job. You should not be left with a corroded tank full of sediment sitting in your basement or at the kerb, and you should not be paying separately to deal with it.
Will a new water heater lower my bills?
Modestly, and be sceptical of anyone promising dramatic savings. A new unit is not fighting a sediment layer and has better insulation, so it does use less energy than a neglected twelve year old tank. The larger savings come from changing fuel where that makes sense, or from tankless removing standby losses in a household with intermittent use. A like for like tank swap is mostly buying reliability rather than a lower bill.
How long should a new one last here?
A conventional tank typically runs eight to twelve years, and hard water shortens that, which matters across this county. What genuinely extends it is annual flushing and replacing the anode rod before it is fully consumed. Those two habits are the difference between the low end of that range and the high end, and neither is expensive.

Related services

Where we cover for this

All service areas

Ready when you are

Need water heater replacement in Lebanon County?

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  • Residential and commercial
  • Price agreed before work starts

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