Water heater repair in Wyoming, MI

Wyoming's own Lake Michigan plant

Unlike most suburbs around Grand Rapids, Wyoming does not buy its water from the big city. It has drawn from Lake Michigan since 1966 and treats that water at the Donald K. Shine Water Treatment Plant, which sits on the lakeshore in Ottawa County between Grand Haven and Holland. The plant has grown from about 32 million gallons a day at its opening to a rated capacity of around 120 million. From there, large transmission mains carry finished water east across the county to Wyoming, and the city sells water wholesale to neighboring systems such as Georgetown Township.

Water leaving the Shine plant generally falls in the moderately hard band, roughly 7 to 8 grains per gallon. Over several years that leaves a pale, sandy bed on a tank's floor, and it will crust the heat exchanger of a tankless unit that nobody descales. The bigger factor is temperature. Deep lake water stays cold well into spring, so a Wyoming heater in March is often lifting water from the mid 30s, so a heater that kept everyone happy at Labor Day can quit partway through the second shower in March.

North-end bungalows and south-end subdivisions

The older half of Wyoming lies north of 36th Street, around the Godfrey-Lee and Wyoming Park areas and along the Division and Clyde Park corridors. That part of town is mostly small bungalows, story-and-a-half Capes and early ranches built between the 1920s and the Eisenhower years, almost all over basements. Heaters in those homes tend to be 40-gallon gas tanks squeezed next to the furnace, often on a short run of vent pipe into an interior chimney.

South of 44th Street the city looks very different. Subdivisions from the 1970s onward spread across former farmland around Gezon Parkway, Byron Center Avenue and the Metro Health Village area near 54th Street. These are larger ranches, colonials and bi-levels, many with finished lower levels, two full baths upstairs and a builder-grade 50-gallon heater in the mechanical room. Condos and apartment complexes are scattered throughout, and some of them use electric tanks in first-floor closets.

The problems plumbers see most in Wyoming

• Running short in late winter in north-end family homes still relying on the original 40-gallon tank.
• Gritty sediment and popping noises in tanks that have never been drained. Draining the tank, covered on our page on rumbling heaters, usually settles it.
• Damp basements along Plaster Creek and Buck Creek after spring rain, which corrodes tank bottoms and burner parts.
• Hot surface igniter and sensor problems in the power-vent tanks common in south-end subdivisions.
• Failed upper elements in electric tanks serving condos and apartments. Our guide to heating elements and thermostats explains what goes wrong.
• Relief valves dripping after a meter replacement or backflow device closed the system and nobody installed an expansion tank.

Typical water heater prices in Wyoming

West Michigan labor runs a little lower than metro Detroit, and Wyoming quotes reflect that. What pushes a Wyoming quote upward is usually a steep north-end stairway, a flue that needs lining, or a tankless conversion that requires bigger gas pipe.

Permits and licensing in Wyoming

Plumbing and mechanical contractor licenses in Michigan both come from the Bureau of Construction Codes at LARA, and replacing a gas tank involves both. Before hiring, you can look up a company's license status on LARA's website in a couple of minutes.

For a Wyoming address, the permit is issued by the city's own building inspectors at City Hall on 28th Street, not by Grand Rapids or Kent County. On the final visit the inspector looks over vent pitch, combustion air, the gas valve and drip leg, the relief line's end point and the expansion tank. Licensed contractors in Wyoming generally file for it and book the inspection themselves. Neighbors such as Grandville, Kentwood and Byron Township run their own offices, so a house on a border street may answer to a different inspector than one a block away.

Consumers, DTE and fuel choices

Consumers Energy provides electric service across Wyoming. Natural gas in the Grand Rapids area is split between DTE and Consumers, so check your gas bill to see which one serves your street. Both have offered efficiency programs at times that applied to water heaters.

Most Wyoming homeowners stay with gas, which has usually cost less per gallon heated in Kent County than electric resistance. A heat pump tank is worth a look in a south-end mechanical room with good air volume and a floor drain, and it can cut electric water heating costs sharply in a condo that already uses an electric tank. In a small north-end basement packed with a furnace, washer and dryer, there may not be enough air space for one to work well, and a condensing or power-vent gas tank tends to suit the space better.

Lake-effect winters and spring thaws

Wyoming sits close enough to Lake Michigan to catch regular lake-effect snow, and stretches of single-digit cold are common in January and February. Heaters run longer during those weeks, and weak parts tend to fail then. A pilot that flickers out on windy nights, a burner that takes several tries to light, or a tank that suddenly cannot fill a tub are all worth a service call before the next cold snap rather than during it.

Spring brings the opposite problem. Plaster Creek and Buck Creek both drain through Wyoming toward the Grand River, and a fast thaw combined with heavy rain can push groundwater into basements on low lots. The April 2013 flooding that sent the Grand River to record levels in Grand Rapids also left water in Wyoming basements. Keep the area around the heater clear, make sure the floor drain is open, and consider setting a new tank on a raised pad if water has reached that corner before.

Sizing for a growing household

Wyoming has a lot of young families, and a two-bedroom bungalow with one bath can quickly turn into a home with a finished basement bedroom and a second shower. When that happens, the 40-gallon tank that came with the house is rarely enough in winter. A 50-gallon tank with a larger burner fits nearly the same floor space and is the upgrade many north-end owners choose. For bigger south-end colonials, a tankless unit sized for a 75 to 80 degree rise will keep up with back-to-back showers, as long as the meter and piping were checked for the extra demand first.

Repair or replace in Wyoming

On Wyoming's lake water, a well-installed gas tank commonly lasts 10 to 12 years. Under that age, replacing a thermocouple, igniter, element or valve is usually money well spent. When the steel shell weeps, the rumbling returns days after a flush, or only the hot taps run rusty, stop buying parts and price a new heater.

Around Wyoming

Grand Rapids, directly north, operates a separate Lake Michigan plant near Grand Haven and issues permits through its Development Center. Kentwood to the east buys water from Grand Rapids and has a separate building department. Grandville and Jenison to the west sit along the Grand River with a mix of older and newer homes, and Jenison belongs to Georgetown Township, which buys water from Wyoming. Byron Township and Gaines Township to the south include new subdivisions alongside homes on private wells, where hardness and iron run much higher than on city water.

Water heater questions from Wyoming