Water heater repair in Somerville, MA

What MWRA water does inside a Somerville tank

Somerville buys its drinking water from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. It starts as rain and snowmelt collected in central Massachusetts, in the Quabbin Reservoir, which drowned four Swift River towns in the 1930s, and the Wachusett Reservoir by Clinton, then travels east through deep tunnels to the John J. Carroll Water Treatment Plant in Marlborough, where ozone and ultraviolet light handle disinfection. The city's own water division then moves it through a dense grid of mains under streets that were laid out long before anyone imagined parked cars on both sides.

The authority adjusts pH and alkalinity before the water leaves Marlborough to keep old lead and copper plumbing from leaching, but the supply stays extremely soft. For a heater, soft water means very little calcium crust on the burner floor and only occasional descaling for a tankless coil. It also means the sacrificial anode works a bit harder, so tanks in Somerville tend to fail from internal rust and pinhole leaks rather than from a layer of mineral rock.

Because the source is a mountain reservoir and not a shallow river, the temperature of what reaches a Union Square kitchen swings with the seasons. By late January the cold line can read near 38°F, and a heater has to lift that water well over 80 degrees before anyone gets a comfortable shower.

Triple-deckers, two-families and stacked cellar heaters

Walk any block in Spring Hill, Winter Hill, Ten Hills or East Somerville and you will see the wood-frame triple-decker: three flats, each with its own front porch, built mostly between the 1890s and the 1920s for workers at the brickyards, meatpacking plants and rail yards. The usual layout puts one water heater per unit in the shared basement, so a cellar under a single triple-decker might hold three 40-gallon tanks standing side by side, each with its own gas meter and its own vent connector headed for a single brick chimney.

Two-family houses with side-by-side or up-and-down units are just as common near Magoun Square, Ball Square and Teele Square. Many of these buildings were converted to condominiums over the last two decades, and the conversion often brought a jumble of equipment: a sealed-combustion tankless on one floor, a power-vent tank on another and an original atmospheric heater still in service for the third. Knowing which unit owns which appliance, and which shutoff feeds which flat, saves real time on an emergency call.

Basements under these houses are rarely generous. Fieldstone or brick foundations, ceilings around six and a half feet and narrow bulkhead or interior stairs mean a 50-gallon tank has to be walked out on a dolly with two people guiding it. Newer construction around Assembly Square and the Green Line stations at Union Square and Gilman Square is different, with closets or mechanical rooms inside each apartment and electric or heat pump units serving a single condo.

Nor'easters, frozen cellars and Union Square flooding

Greater Boston winters are long, and the February 2015 snowstorms showed how quickly a city with little off-street parking can grind to a halt. For heaters, the problem is the cold. A drafty fieldstone cellar in West Somerville can sit in the 40s for weeks, chilling the tank jacket, the cold supply line and the vent connector, so recovery slows just as three households all want hot water before work.

Somerville also runs on largely combined sewers in its older sections, where storm runoff and household drains share the same pipes. Union Square sits low and collects a large share of the city's stormwater, and intense summer downpours have pushed water back up through floor drains there and in nearby streets. The city has pursued sewer separation and drainage projects in Spring Hill and around Poplar Street, but a basement heater in a low block is still exposed. Any gas burner or electric element that was under water needs a professional look before it runs again.

The problems plumbers see most in Somerville

• Pinhole leaks and rusty water from tanks whose anodes have been eaten away by soft MWRA water.
• Three heaters sharing one flue that was sized for a coal boiler a century ago.
• Running out of hot water in a top-floor flat where a long, uninsulated pipe run climbs three stories.
• Mixed-up shutoffs in condo-converted cellars where nobody labeled which valve serves which unit.
• Flood-soaked burners and controls after a cloudburst backs up a floor drain near Union Square.
• Tripping power-vent blowers on tanks installed during renovations, especially when the exhaust pipe is blocked by snow.

Typical water heater prices in Somerville

Labor in the inner Boston suburbs runs high, and Somerville adds its own costs: resident-only parking that forces a van onto a side street, steep cellar stairs, and chimney liners in buildings where three appliances share one flue. A replacement in a ground-floor unit with a clear bulkhead tends to land near the low end; a third-floor condo with a tankless retrofit lands near the top.

Licensing and Somerville Inspectional Services

Massachusetts treats plumbing and gas fitting as two separate licensed trades, overseen by a state examining board within the Division of Occupational Licensure, and its code is among the strictest in the country. On a Somerville heater swap, the water piping falls to a licensed plumber and every inch of gas work falls to a licensed gas fitter. Many Somerville contractors carry both credentials, but on a gas job you should see both license types represented on the paperwork.

Somerville's Inspectional Services Department issues the paperwork. Expect one permit for the plumbing and, on a gas unit, a second for the gas piping, after which a city plumbing and gas inspector checks the venting, the relief valve drain, the gas piping test and the connections. In a condo building, check whether the association requires notice or proof of insurance before a contractor enters the shared cellar.

One building, three heaters: getting the setup right

When the tanks for all three flats share a brick chimney, the order of replacement matters. Swap one atmospheric heater for a high-efficiency sidewall unit and the remaining two may end up venting into a chimney that is now too cold and too large for their reduced exhaust. A good Somerville plumber looks at the whole flue before quoting, and may suggest relining it in stainless steel to suit whichever appliances are staying.

Many owners decide to retire the chimney altogether and move each unit to its own direct-vent or heat pump heater. That clears space in the cellar, removes a combustion appliance from a room where tenants store bicycles and laundry, and can qualify for Mass Save incentives that Eversource and National Grid customers have been offered at times. Wall terminations need clearance from windows, porches and the property line, which on Somerville's tight lots can rule out some walls entirely.

Recirculation is worth asking about for top-floor flats. A small pump or a dedicated return line can bring hot water up three stories in seconds instead of a minute, and it cuts the gallons wasted while a tenant waits at the tap.

Gas through National Grid, power through Eversource

Natural gas in Somerville is delivered by National Grid, and electricity comes from Eversource. That split matters when choosing equipment. A gas tank is cheap to run and recovers quickly, but it needs a working vent. A heat pump water heater runs on Eversource power, pulls heat from the cellar air and dehumidifies a damp basement as a side benefit, though it recovers more slowly when three households shower in a row.

Somerville has set ambitious climate goals, and some owners renovating a triple-decker now plan the whole building around electric heat pumps for space heating and hot water. If an electric service upgrade is part of the plan, coordinate it with the heater replacement so the wiring, panel space and permits are handled together.

Fix it or replace it in Somerville

Soft water lets a well-maintained tank go a long time, so repairs on a heater under nine years old are usually money well spent. Igniters, thermocouples, gas valves and relief valves are all fair game. Once rust stains appear at the bottom seam, or the water turns brown even after running the tap, the steel itself is failing and no part will save it. For rental owners, replacing a borderline tank before winter is often cheaper than an emergency call on a January weekend with tenants waiting.

Two pages go deeper: weighing a fix against a new Somerville tank and full replacements in Somerville cellars. Already seeing a puddle by the furnace? Go straight to Somerville leak help.

Around Somerville

Cambridge to the south runs its own reservoir system and water department, separate from the MWRA, and has its own inspectional services office. Medford and Arlington to the north and west are MWRA communities, and each runs its own building department; housing there mixes two-families with single-family colonials. Everett and Charlestown across the Mystic River share the same reservoir supply but handle permits through their own city halls, Everett locally and Charlestown through Boston's Inspectional Services.

Water heater questions from Somerville