Water heater repair in Evansville, IN

Drinking the Ohio River

The Evansville Water and Sewer Utility, a department of the city, draws raw water from the Ohio River and runs it through its filtration plant along the riverfront east of downtown. Treatment there settles out the mud the river carries after rain upstream in Kentucky and southern Indiana, filters it and disinfects it before it is pumped into mains that reach most of the city and a good share of Vanderburgh County.

What arrives at your tap is moderately hard, and it is not the same water from month to month. A spring rise brings cooler, siltier water; a dry September brings warm, more concentrated water that leaves a little more mineral behind every time a tank heats it. Fine particles that make it through treatment and the calcium that drops out inside the heater end up as the tan grit plumbers drain from Evansville tanks.

Summer is the unusual part. By late August the river can be warm enough that water entering a West Side home is already in the 80s, so heaters loaf along. In January that same pipe delivers water near 40°F, and a 40-gallon tank that coasted through July suddenly runs out halfway through the second shower.

Where heaters sit in Evansville homes

Evansville's housing tells you where to look. The brick Italianate and Queen Anne homes of the Riverside Historic District and the streets around Haynie's Corner usually have full or partial basements, and the heater sits near the foot of the stairs beside an old chimney. Jacobsville, Lamasco and the near West Side mix narrow frame cottages and two-story homes, many over damp stone foundations or low crawlspaces with a heater squeezed into a back porch closet.

Bungalows near Bayard Park and Akin Park often have basements that were dug out after the house was built, with ceilings too low for anything taller than a standard 40-gallon tank. The post-war ranches spreading east along Lloyd Expressway and north toward North Park tend to sit on slabs or crawlspaces, so the heater is in a garage corner or a hallway utility closet next to the furnace. Newer subdivisions out by the east side shopping corridor lean toward garage installs with power-vent or high-efficiency gas units.

Floods, the levee and wet basements

The 1937 flood put much of Evansville under water, and the levee and floodwall system built afterward still holds the Ohio back from downtown and the low neighborhoods along Pigeon Creek. The river rarely comes over the top now. The trouble is groundwater and storm runoff: when the Ohio sits high for weeks in spring, water tables near the river climb, sump pumps run constantly, and basements in older neighborhoods seep.

If seepage reached the burner or control valve of a gas heater, even briefly, leave it off until a plumber inspects it; most of the time the control has to be replaced or the whole heater swapped. Heavy summer thunderstorms that overload the combined sewers in older parts of town cause the same damage faster. In flood-prone basements, setting the new heater on a sturdy block stand keeps the burner above the usual high-water line.

The problems plumbers see most in Evansville

• River grit packed in the bottom of tanks that were never drained, causing popping and a rumble you can hear upstairs.
• Gas controls ruined by seepage after high-water springs in Riverside and Lamasco basements.
• January run-outs when 40°F river water meets an old 40-gallon tank in a family home.
• Orphaned flues in brick homes where a new furnace vents out the side wall and leaves the heater alone in the chimney.
• Rusted fittings and connectors in damp crawlspaces on the West Side.
• Burned-out elements in electric heaters in apartments and slab ranches with no gas service.

What water heater work costs in Evansville

Labor in the Tri-State area runs a little lower than in Indianapolis, so Evansville bills often land in the lower half of these ranges. Steep cellar stairs in Riverside, a crawlspace that floods, or a chimney that needs a liner can push a job toward the top.

Licenses and permits in Vanderburgh County

Indiana's plumbing licenses are issued by the state, through the Indiana Plumbing Commission, which operates under the Professional Licensing Agency. A licensed plumbing contractor is responsible for the work, and you can look up any Indiana plumbing license on the agency's online search before a crew arrives.

Permits inside the city and in unincorporated Vanderburgh County go through the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Building Commission, a joint office in the Civic Center downtown. A heater swap that involves new gas piping, a different venting arrangement or a change from electric to gas should be permitted and inspected. Homes across the line in Warrick County, including Newburgh, deal with that county or town instead, and Henderson, Kentucky handles plumbing through Kentucky's state system.

When you get a quote, find out who pulls the Building Commission permit and if its fee is included. A contractor who works the county every week will know the inspectors and what they look for on vents and relief valve piping.

CenterPoint Energy: one company for gas and power

CenterPoint Energy, which took over the old Vectren territory, supplies both natural gas and electricity across Evansville and much of southwestern Indiana. That simplifies a few things. If you smell gas near the heater, CenterPoint's emergency line is the call to make before anything else, and the same company is on the hook for your electric service if an element-type heater keeps tripping a breaker after a storm.

CenterPoint has offered efficiency incentives on water heaters and other equipment at times. Programs change, so check what is current before choosing between a standard gas tank, a high-efficiency condensing model or a heat pump water heater. A heat pump unit in an Evansville basement does well through the long humid summer and also pulls moisture out of the air, which damp cellars near the river appreciate.

Getting the size right for river water

Because the incoming temperature here swings by roughly 40 degrees between seasons, a heater sized in summer can disappoint by February. Families of four or more in the bigger homes around Washington Avenue and the older east side are rarely regret going one tank size larger in gas, or a high-recovery 50, than with the 40-gallon unit the house was built with. For a tankless unit, sizing has to be done against winter water near 40°F, not the warm summer supply.

Tankless heaters also take the brunt of Evansville's hardness. Plan on descaling them with a pump kit roughly once a year, sooner if the hot water starts fluctuating or the unit throws a scale code. A whole-house softener, which many homeowners in Vanderburgh County already have, stretches that interval and helps tanks too.

Repair or replace an Evansville heater

Most tanks on Ohio River water last somewhere between 8 and 12 years, with the short end belonging to tanks that never had the grit drained or that sat through a wet basement or two. For an Evansville tank still shy of eight years, fixing a bad thermocouple, burned element, stuck thermostat or leaky relief valve is usually money well placed. Water pooling under the tank, rust streaks from the bottom seam or a gas control that has been under water all point to replacement.

Keep the age of the house in mind. In a Riverside basement with a narrow stairway, carrying a new tank down is the expensive part, so a repair that buys three good years can make sense. In an east side garage where the heater is easy to reach, replacing an aging unit before it leaks is often the better call.

Around Evansville

Newburgh and the growing stretch of Warrick County east of the city have their own water providers and permit offices, and many homes there are newer with garage or basement heaters. Darmstadt and the northern Vanderburgh County subdivisions often have rural water or wells, which brings iron and harder water into the picture. Mount Vernon in Posey County runs its own utility and building office. Across the bridge, Henderson, Kentucky draws its own river water and follows Kentucky's statewide plumbing permit rules.

Water heater questions from Evansville