Water heater repair in Sterling Heights, MI

Lake Huron water by way of GLWA

Sterling Heights buys its water wholesale from GLWA, which in 2016 assumed control of the regional pipes and plants Detroit had built. Much of the water reaching northern Macomb County comes from GLWA's Lake Huron Water Treatment Plant near Port Huron, which pulls from deep in the lake, though the regional network can also move water from Detroit-area plants. The city's own Water and Sewer Division owns the local mains, meters and pressure zones.

Lake Huron water is among the softer municipal supplies in the Midwest, so sediment in a Sterling Heights tank builds slowly and tankless units rarely clog with scale here. The real challenge is temperature. By March, water coming through the meter in a Dodge Park or Lakeside basement can be in the mid 30s, which nearly doubles the work a heater does compared with August.

1960s and 1970s houses with full basements

When Sterling Township became a city in 1968, much of it was still open land. Subdivisions spread quickly along Van Dyke Avenue, Ryan Road, Dequindre Road and Schoenherr Road through the late 1960s and 1970s, filling with three-bedroom brick ranches, two-story colonials with attached garages, and quad-levels with a family room a few steps down. Newer sections north of Seventeen Mile and toward M-59 were built in the 1980s and 1990s, and some infill continues today.

Nearly every one of these homes has a full basement, and the heater shares a corner with the furnace, a few feet from the floor drain and laundry tub. In quad-levels the heater sometimes sits in the lowest level, a partial basement under the family room. Many basements have been finished over the years, and a heater closed into a small utility room with a louvered door is very common.

Basements in Sterling Heights tend to be roomy compared with older Detroit homes, which makes replacements easier. The trickier part is the venting. Original heaters shared a masonry or metal chimney with the furnace, and decades of furnace upgrades have changed how those chimneys behave.

Michigan winters and the Clinton River

Sterling Heights sees long stretches below freezing every winter and regular cold snaps near zero. Heaters run almost constantly on those days, and a 40-gallon tank sized for empty nesters leaves a family of five with lukewarm water. Ice on the roof can also block heater vent terminals on high-efficiency models, shutting them down until the vent is cleared.

The Clinton River winds through the middle of the city, and heavy summer storms, like the August 2014 deluge that swamped much of southeast Michigan, have flooded basements here through floor drains and overwhelmed sewers. A heater with a flooded burner or control valve needs inspection and usually replacement. Owners on low streets by the Clinton and Red Run have often added backflow valves and sump pumps since then.

The problems plumbers see most in Sterling Heights

• Spillage at the draft hood where a heater now vents alone through a chimney built for a furnace and heater together.
• Short hot water in deep winter from 40-gallon tanks heating mid-30s lake water for large households.
• Flooded gas controls after summer storms back water up through basement floor drains.
• Air-starved burners in finished basements where the heater was walled into a small room.
• Failed thermocouples and control valves on standing-pilot tanks approaching fifteen years old.
• Leaking drain valves and fittings on original-location heaters with corroded copper nipples.

Typical water heater prices in Sterling Heights

Macomb County labor is a bit lower than in Oakland County suburbs. Vent corrections, finished basements that need ceiling panels removed, and emergency calls during a January cold snap push Sterling Heights jobs toward the upper end.

Permits and licensing in Sterling Heights

Sterling Heights permits heater replacements through its Building Department, which is part of the Community Development office at City Hall on Utica Road. Inspectors look hard at combustion air in finished basements, then move on to the gas pipe, the flue connector and where the T&P discharge terminates. Michigan's Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs licenses the plumbing contractors allowed to do this work, and gas line changes may also call for a mechanical license.

A homeowner can look up any Michigan plumbing or mechanical license through LARA's online search. It is also worth asking whether the installer will test the chimney draft and check for carbon monoxide during the final, since that is where many local inspections stall.

DTE, Consumers and the gas meter

Most Sterling Heights homes get electricity from DTE Electric and natural gas from DTE Gas, but parts of the city are served by Consumers Energy for gas. The provider affects who to call for a meter shutoff, a gas smell or a new line for a larger tankless unit. Both utilities have run efficiency rebates on water heating at times, so look at their current offers first.

If you are adding a tankless heater, the gas meter and the pipe from it must handle a much larger load than an old 40,000 BTU tank. In many 1960s and 1970s homes that means a larger meter from the utility and new piping from the meter to the basement.

Chimneys after furnace upgrades

Thousands of Sterling Heights homes swapped their original furnaces for high-efficiency models that vent through PVC pipe out a side wall. The gas water heater was often left in the old chimney by itself. A small heater in a big, cold chimney often drafts poorly in January, pushing flue gases out at the draft hood instead of up the stack. Local fixes usually mean lining the flue to match the heater's output, switching to power venting, or choosing a direct-vent tank through the rim joist, and a CO detector near the heater is cheap insurance.

Repair or replace in Sterling Heights

Soft lake water helps Sterling Heights tanks last, and many reach twelve to fifteen years. On a younger tank, a dead thermocouple, igniter or relief valve usually justifies a repair; our gas valve and pilot guide covers these. Once a tank is past twelve years and the control valve fails, rust shows at the base, or the basement has flooded, budget for a replacement instead of another part.

Around Sterling Heights

Warren to the south shares GLWA water and has its own building department. Troy across Dequindre is in Oakland County, with a separate permit office. Utica to the north is a small city with its own permits, while Shelby Township, Clinton Township and Macomb Township issue permits through their township offices.

Water heater questions from Sterling Heights