Water Heater Repair in San Mateo, CA
Tell us what your water heater is doing, and a licensed contractor who covers San Mateo County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
What San Mateo County does to your water heater
Winter nights here average 43°F from December through February, so your water heater works harder to bring cold water up to temperature. That extra work falls on the heating element or the burner assembly, depending on whether you have electric or gas, and those parts wear faster the more they cycle.
Power doesn't stay on every time. In California, 17% of households lost power for 24 hours or more at some point in 2024. A gas water heater with a standing pilot will keep working through an outage, but one with electric ignition won't light until power comes back, and it may need to be relit by hand.
- 43°F
- the average winter night, and colder incoming water means longer heating
- 7 months
- November through May, the months homes here need heat
- 17%
- of California 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 $110 a year off hot water for a typical California home.
Estimates for a typical California home, compared with an older unit built to the federal minimum, from EIA household energy data and California 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 failed. Water heater tanks are lined inside, and once that lining wears through, the steel underneath rusts and starts to weep, usually at the bottom seam where water collects. Sometimes what looks like a tank leak is actually the drain valve or a fitting, and those can be replaced without touching the tank. A leak from the tank body itself is not a repair, since the tank cannot be resealed. A contractor can tell you in a few minutes which one you have.
- Why won't the pilot light on my water heater stay lit?
- The most common cause is a weak or failing thermocouple, the small sensor that tells the gas valve the pilot is burning. When it wears out, it can't confirm the flame is lit, so the valve shuts the gas off and the pilot goes out. A dirty pilot orifice or a draft near the burner can also blow the flame out or keep it too small to heat the sensor properly. This is a repair a licensed contractor should handle, since it involves the gas valve.
- Can a tankless water heater be repaired?
- Yes, in most cases. Tankless units are built with replaceable parts, including the igniter, the flow sensor and the heat exchanger, and a contractor can test each one to find which has failed. Whether a repair makes sense depends on the age of the unit and which part failed, so a contractor will need to look at it before saying for sure.