Start with the kind of heater you have. A few safe checks sometimes save a visit. Everything past them is a phone call, and two minutes of description usually tells us which part to bring.
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If you smell gas, skip all of this: leave the house, and call the gas company or 911 from outside.
Check that other gas appliances work and that the dial on the heater's gas control reads ON, not OFF or a vacation setting. If the pilot is out, relight it once, following the instructions on the label on the tank, word for word.
Stop there if it will not stay lit. A pilot that keeps going out usually means a failed thermocouple or flame sensor, or a tripped safety shutoff on the burner. That needs a part, not more attempts.
Find the water heater's breaker. If it has tripped, reset it once.
Stop there if it trips again, or if it was never tripped. Electric heaters also have a high-limit reset and heating elements behind access panels that sit over live wiring, usually 240 volts. Leave those to us. A failed element or thermostat is a common repair, and one we stock parts for.
Look at the display. If it shows an error code, photograph it along with the rating plate: the code and your model's manual together tell us what to bring. Gas tankless units still need electricity, so check the plug or breaker after a power cut.
Stop there if the code comes back. Repeat codes usually mean scale, an ignition or flame fault, or a sensor. More on the tankless repair page.
In winter the water coming into the house is much colder, so the heater has to add more heat to every gallon. A tank that kept up in July can come up short in January. Above 2,000 feet a gas burner's usable input is also adjusted down under the National Fuel Gas Code, so a heater sized from a sea-level chart has less in reserve here.
Colder incoming water is the likeliest cause. If it bothers you every winter, the heater may be undersized for the elevation. The sizing guide explains the rule.
Sediment filling the bottom of the tank, or a failing element on an electric unit. A flush or a part may fix it.
A broken dip tube lets cold water short-circuit to the outlet, or the thermostat has failed. Both are repairs.
A short slug of cold between uses is normal for tankless. Hot that fades to cold under steady use is not: scale, low gas supply or a flow problem.
No hot water is usually a part, not a whole heater: a thermocouple, a gas control, an element, a thermostat or a dip tube. We will say so plainly, and the written price comes before any work. If the heater is past its warranty and has other symptoms, the honest answer may be a planned replacement; the lifespan guide explains how we decide, and the repair page lists the parts that fail most.
On most gas tanks the pilot is held open by a thermocouple or a similar flame sensor. When that part fails, or a safety shutoff on the burner has tripped, the pilot goes out. Relight it once following the label on the tank; if it goes out again, leave it off and call. It needs a part.
On a tank, the usual causes are a failed thermostat, a failed lower element on an electric unit, a broken dip tube, or sediment. On a tankless unit, scale in the heat exchanger or a flow problem. All of these are repairs we can usually narrow down on the phone.
Check that it has power again and look at the display for a code. If it restarts, you are done. If it shows a code, or if it was below freezing while the power was out, do not keep running it: call us. The freeze protection guide explains why an outage matters in winter.
The incoming water is colder, so each gallon needs more heat, and the heater recovers more slowly. At altitude a gas heater also has less input to work with, so a heater that was sized from a sea-level chart shows it first in winter.
Often, yes. The symptom, the type of heater and a photo of the rating plate narrow it to one or two parts, so the booked visit starts with the right ones on the van.
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