Water heater repair in Fort Myers, FL

Reverse osmosis water from deep wells

The City of Fort Myers has treated its drinking water by reverse osmosis since the early 1990s. A field of wells taps the brackish Upper Floridan Aquifer, the raw water passes through two-stage membranes, and a portion of untreated water is blended back in to restore some alkalinity and hardness before degasification removes hydrogen sulfide. The city has been investing in a major expansion of the plant, driven by growing demand and rising chloride levels in the source wells.

Membrane water is gentle on tanks in terms of scale. Elements in Fort Myers heaters on city water stay fairly clean, and noisy tanks are less common than in hard-water parts of the state. The trade-off is a faster-working anode. Low-mineral water does not leave much of a protective film on the steel, so a Fort Myers tank leans on its sacrificial rod, and that rod deserves a look partway through the tank's life.

Many people with a Fort Myers address are not city customers. Lee County Utilities serves much of the unincorporated land around the city, including Gateway and areas south along US 41, and some rural homes east of I-75 still pump from private wells. Well water there can be hard and sulfurous, which changes everything about how a heater should be maintained.

Historic McGregor, river districts and block ranches

McGregor Boulevard, lined with the palms Thomas Edison helped plant, runs past the Edison and Ford Winter Estates and through some of the oldest residential streets in Southwest Florida. Houses in the Dean Park and Edison Park historic districts date to the 1910s through the 1930s, often wood frame on raised piers. Heaters arrived in these houses decades after they were built, so they turn up in odd places: a back porch closet, a kitchen corner, a crawlspace hatch or a small outbuilding.

Most of the city outside those districts is postwar concrete block. Single-story ranches from the 1950s through the 1970s fill neighborhoods off Cleveland Avenue, Colonial Boulevard and along the Dunbar side of town. Heaters in those homes generally sit in a carport utility closet or an attached garage, and many are on their third or fourth replacement with plumbing that has been patched in several eras.

Newer growth runs east toward I-75 and Treeline Avenue, with gated communities, townhomes and apartment complexes from the 2000s onward. Downtown and the riverfront have added condo towers, where each unit has a compact electric tank in a utility closet.

Hurricane Ian and the Caloosahatchee

Ian made landfall at Cayo Costa on September 28, 2022, and the storm surge forced the Caloosahatchee up and over its banks. Downtown streets, riverside neighborhoods and low parts of McGregor took salt water into garages and ground floors. Any heater that sat in the surge, whether electric or gas, was a loss; salt water ruins controls, thermostats and burner assemblies even when the tank looks fine.

The rush of replacements afterward strained every plumbing company in Lee County. Some installs from that period were done fast, without an expansion tank where the system needed one, without a properly routed relief line or without a permit at all. Homeowners who bought a house rebuilt after Ian should ask whether the heater went in with a permit and have it inspected if the paperwork is missing.

Homes that took damage beyond half their value had to meet current flood elevation rules when rebuilt, and many owners relocated mechanical equipment upward. Heaters now on platforms or moved indoors from a low garage are a common sight in post-Ian Fort Myers.

The problems plumbers see most in Fort Myers

• Fast-consumed anodes in tanks fed by city reverse osmosis water.
• Post-Ian replacements with missing permits, expansion tanks or proper discharge lines.
• Awkward heater locations in historic wood-frame houses near McGregor.
• Sulfur odor and scale on homes that still run on private wells east of I-75.
• Mixed old and new piping around carport closets in 1950s block ranches.
• Storm-related electrical failures after outages and restoration surges.

If the heater is in a cramped closet and dripping, read leaking water heater. For a tank that trips its reset button over and over, see how elements and high-limit switches fail.

Typical water heater prices in Fort Myers

Labor in Lee County jumped after Ian and has since come back toward normal. Simple garage swaps in east Fort Myers subdivisions price at the low end. A crawlspace or porch-closet heater in an older McGregor house, or a unit that must be raised to meet flood rules, lands near the top.

Permits and licensing in Fort Myers

Inside city limits, the building division of the City of Fort Myers Community Development Department issues heater permits. Addresses in unincorporated Lee County, which includes many places with a Fort Myers mailing address, permit through Lee County's building office instead. Changes that affect the exterior of a contributing house in a designated historic district may also need review by the city's historic preservation staff, though most interior heater swaps do not.

Plumbing contractor licenses in Florida come from DBPR, the state agency, not from Lee County. A legitimate plumber can give you a license number that you can match to the business name on the DBPR site in a couple of minutes. Gas work, including connecting a tankless unit to a Peoples Gas line or a propane tank, belongs with a contractor whose license covers gas.

Electric and gas service

Florida Power & Light serves most of Fort Myers, while the Lee County Electric Cooperative, LCEC, covers areas around it, including Cape Coral and North Fort Myers. Some properties near the city's edges may fall in LCEC territory, so check your bill. TECO Peoples Gas keeps a local operations center in Fort Myers and pipes gas to parts of the city, and gas heaters show up in a minority of homes; electric tanks are the standard.

Lightning is a constant in Lee County from June through September. Surges arriving on the power line regularly take out heater thermostats and elements, and a whole-house surge device at the panel is a modest expense compared with repeat repair calls.

Repair or replace in Fort Myers

On city water, a well-maintained Fort Myers tank can pass ten years without much trouble. If the anode is replaced before it is gone and the elements are sound, repair makes sense. Replace a heater that was submerged in Ian's surge, one leaking from the tank body, or one so old that a pinhole leak in a historic house could soak original pine floors.

Around Fort Myers

Cape Coral, across the river, runs its own reverse osmosis utility and permits through its own building division. Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel on the barrier islands rebuilt heavily after Ian and have separate town permitting. Bonita Springs and Estero to the south are incorporated with their own building departments. Lehigh Acres and North Fort Myers remain unincorporated, so Lee County handles permits there.

Water heater questions from Fort Myers