Water heater repair in Farmington Hills, MI

Great Lakes water by way of GLWA

Farmington Hills buys its drinking water wholesale from GLWA, the Great Lakes Water Authority, which took over the old Detroit water system in 2016. According to Oakland County's water resources pages, the city's supply comes from two sources: Lake Huron water treated at the Lake Huron Water Treatment Plant in Fort Gratiot near Port Huron, and Detroit River water treated at the Springwells plant in southwest Detroit. Long transmission mains carry it out to Oakland County, where the city's distribution system and meters take over.

The county reports that the Farmington Hills system has no known lead service lines, and phosphate is added at the treatment plants to keep metals from leaching off household piping. Hardness sits in the moderate range, roughly 5 to 7 grains per gallon. That is enough to leave a modest layer of scale in a tank over a decade, and a little more on electric elements, but it is gentler than the private wells that still serve some homes in the north end of the city.

Those private wells are worth mentioning because Farmington Hills is one of the few Oakland County suburbs where a handful of older lots never connected to city water. Well water on those lots runs harder than the city supply and often carries iron, staining fixtures orange and builds sediment in a tank much faster than lake water does.

Colonials, ranches and the basement utility room

Most of Farmington Hills was farmland and orchards until the 1960s. The subdivisions that replaced them, off Middlebelt, Orchard Lake, Halsted and Drake roads and along the 10, 11, 12 and 13 Mile corridors, are largely two-story center-entrance colonials, brick ranches and tri-levels from the 1960s through the 1990s. Nearly every one sits over a basement, with the heater standing in the unfinished utility area next to the furnace, the softener if there is one, and often a sump pit.

Larger homes from the 1980s and 1990s on the northwest side, toward Drake and Inkster roads and near Heritage Park, tend to have 50 to 75 gallon heaters and sometimes two tanks to serve a jetted tub and several bathrooms. Older ranches near the Grand River corridor and the Botsford area are more modest, with 40 gallon tanks that were sized for a smaller family and now struggle when a household grows.

Finished basements are common. When the heater hides behind a closet door in a carpeted rec room, a slow seep can ruin drywall and padding long before anyone opens that door, so a drain pan or a leak sensor beside the tank pays for itself quickly here.

Michigan winters, wet springs and storm outages

Water entering a Farmington Hills basement in February is often below 40 degrees, so a heater has to work hard to deliver a hot shower. Families who notice their tank running short only in the cold months are usually seeing that seasonal demand rather than a broken part, though a failed dip tube or a worn electric element can produce the same symptom. The lost hot water checklist walks through the difference.

Heavy rain is the other seasonal threat. The August 2014 storm that flooded freeways and basements across metro Detroit, and later downpours in 2019 and 2021, sent water into lower levels throughout Oakland and western Wayne counties. In Farmington Hills the culprits were usually overwhelmed sump pumps, groundwater seeping through basement walls and backed-up floor drains along the Rouge River branches. A gas heater whose burner chamber took on water needs professional inspection before it runs again, and most end up being replaced.

Summer thunderstorms and winter ice regularly knock out DTE Electric service on the city's tree-lined streets. Old standing-pilot tanks keep heating through a DTE outage; power-vent and tankless models sit idle until the lines are repaired, which is worth weighing if your street loses power often.

The problems plumbers see most in Farmington Hills

• Rusted tank bottoms on 12 to 15 year old heaters in damp utility rooms next to the sump.
• Short winter showers in colonials where a 40 gallon tank now serves four or five people.
• Iron sediment in homes still on private wells in the northern subdivisions.
• Power-vent fan and pressure switch failures on units installed when a furnace upgrade orphaned the chimney.
• Burned-out electric elements on electric tanks in condos and townhomes.
• Weeping relief valves where a meter backflow device closed the system and nobody added an expansion tank.

Typical water heater prices in Farmington Hills

Prices in Farmington Hills run close to the rest of the Oakland County suburbs. Easy basement access in most colonials keeps labor reasonable, while finished rooms around the heater, a second tank or a chimney that needs a liner push a quote higher.

LARA licensing and the Farmington Hills Building Division

In Michigan, plumbing licenses for both individuals and contractors are issued by LARA's Bureau of Construction Codes. Gas piping and venting fall under mechanical work, so a company replacing a gas heater should hold the right mechanical credentials as well, or bring in a licensed partner for the gas side.

Permits are handled locally by the City of Farmington Hills Building Division at city hall on Eleven Mile Road. Swapping a heater there means a permit, then an inspector's visit to look over the gas hookup, the flue or PVC vent, the relief line to the floor and, more and more often, an expansion tank. The neighboring City of Farmington, which is a completely separate municipality, has its own building department, so make sure the permit is pulled in the right city.

DTE, Consumers Energy and choosing a fuel

DTE Electric supplies power throughout Farmington Hills. Natural gas service depends on the address: DTE Gas serves much of the area, while Consumers Energy also has customers in parts of the city, so check your gas bill before calling about an incentive or a meter upgrade. At times, DTE and Consumers have each offered rebates on qualifying efficient heaters.

Gas tanks dominate in single-family homes. Electric tanks are more common in the city's many condominium complexes and apartment communities, where no gas line runs to each unit. A heat pump model suits a roomy unfinished Farmington Hills basement, since they pull heat from the room air and dehumidify it in summer, though they make the space cooler in winter and need enough open air around them.

Thermal expansion and relief valve drips

Many Farmington Hills homes now have a backflow device or pressure-reducing valve at the meter, which turns the plumbing into a closed system. When a tank heats, the expanding water has nowhere to go, pressure spikes, and the relief valve starts to drip onto the basement floor. Inspectors here commonly expect an expansion tank on new installations. If your relief valve weeps a little after every heating cycle, an expansion tank or a pressure check is the first thing to ask about.

Repair or replace in Farmington Hills

A colonial's basement heater is usually easy to reach, so replacement labor is moderate and repairs are not always the cheaper choice for an old tank. If the heater is under eight years old, replacing a thermocouple, igniter, element or relief valve makes sense. Beyond about twelve years, or with any water at the base, a new tank is the safer call, particularly where a finished rec room sits a few feet away.

Around Farmington Hills

Farmington, the small historic city surrounded by Farmington Hills, issues its own permits and has older homes near its downtown on Grand River. Novi to the west and West Bloomfield to the north also take GLWA water, yet each runs a separate building office, and West Bloomfield has more homes on private wells near its lakes. Livonia across Eight Mile is in Wayne County, while Southfield to the east has a mix of mid-century ranches and high-rise apartments.

Water heater questions from Farmington Hills