Water heater repair in Missoula, MT

Water from under the valley floor

Every tap in the city system draws on the Missoula Valley Aquifer, a deep bed of sand, gravel and cobbles laid down by glacial Lake Missoula and recharged largely by the Clark Fork River. The EPA designated it a sole source aquifer in the late 1980s, meaning there is no practical backup supply for the valley. The city's wells pump from it, and the water gets only light disinfection with chlorine before it goes into the mains, because the aquifer filters it so well.

The utility itself has an unusual history. For more than a century it was privately owned, most recently as Mountain Water Company. After a long eminent domain fight the City of Missoula took it over in 2017, and it now runs as Missoula Water under the city's Public Works department.

Groundwater from valley gravels is moderately hard. Over several years it crusts showerheads around the Rattlesnake and Northside and lays a gritty bed on the floor of a tank. The temperature is the friendlier part: aquifer water stays in the mid to upper 40s even during a January cold snap, warmer than lake or snowmelt supplies elsewhere in the Rockies.

Basements, slant streets and newer subdivisions

The older neighborhoods closest to downtown, including the Northside, the Westside, the University District, the Slant Streets and the Lower Rattlesnake, are full of early 1900s houses with full or partial basements. Water heaters sit next to the furnace in those basements, sometimes venting into an old brick chimney shared with the furnace. After a Northside owner upgrades to a sidewall-vented 95 percent furnace, the heater may be stranded by itself in a chimney that is now far too large for it.

Post-war ranches in Franklin to the Fort, Russell and the Southgate area tend to tuck the heater into a hallway utility closet or down in the crawl space. Newer homes in the South Hills, Linda Vista, Grant Creek, Mullan and the fast-growing areas west of Reserve Street usually put them in an attached garage or an unfinished basement. Duplexes, townhomes and apartment buildings, many of them rentals for University of Montana students, add a steady supply of small electric tanks in tight closets.

Hellgate winds, inversions and smoke

Missoula winters are colder than their snowfall suggests. When arctic air spills over the Continental Divide, it funnels west through Hellgate Canyon and can drive temperatures well below zero with a strong east wind. Pipes in exterior walls, crawl spaces and garages near the Hellgate opening are the first to freeze, and garage heaters close to an uninsulated door can lose their pilot in a gust.

Valley inversions trap cold, still air for days at a time in December and January. Under those conditions, a flue that drafts poorly in mild weather can spill exhaust back into a basement. A quick check with a match or smoke pencil at the draft hood is worth doing whenever a heater room smells of exhaust during a long inversion.

Summer brings wildfire smoke from fires across Montana, Idaho and beyond, as in 2017 when the Lolo Peak and Rice Ridge fires filled the valley for weeks. Smoke itself does not damage a heater, but ash and dust drawn into the burner area of a garage heater can clog its flame arrestor screen. On newer gas tanks with sealed combustion chambers, a dirty screen starves the burner and shuts it down, which feels like a pilot problem but is really a cleaning job.

The problems plumbers see most in Missoula

• Oversized chimneys left serving only the heater after a furnace upgrade in older Northside and Westside basements.
• Frozen lines in crawl spaces and garages during east-wind cold snaps out of Hellgate Canyon.
• Clogged flame arrestor screens after summers of smoke, dust and ash.
• Sediment and scale from moderately hard aquifer water, especially in tanks never drained.
• Small electric tanks in rentals running out of hot water with several student tenants.
• Leaking relief valves where pressure has crept up behind a closed system or failed expansion tank.

Typical water heater prices in Missoula

Missoula pricing is moderate for the Mountain West but has crept up as the valley has grown and skilled trades have stayed in short supply. Basement installs with cramped stairs, chimney liner work and calls out to Lolo, Frenchtown or the Blackfoot Valley typically land near the top of each range.

Montana licensing and Missoula permits

Master and journeyman plumber licenses in Montana are issued by the State Board of Plumbers, housed in the Department of Labor and Industry. A Montana master plumber license, or a shop working under one, is what to look for on a replacement or any gas or venting work.

For addresses inside Missoula city limits, the permit is pulled through the building division within Community Planning, Development and Innovation, which also handles inspections. Homes in unincorporated areas such as Target Range, East Missoula, Bonner and Lolo may fall under Missoula County or the state instead, depending on where the property sits. A local plumber will know which office covers a given address, and the permit cost should appear on the quote.

NorthWestern Energy and what to install

NorthWestern Energy supplies both electricity and natural gas to most of Missoula. Gas tank heaters remain the usual choice in homes with gas service, since they recover quickly and cost less to run than standard electric tanks. Hybrid heat pump tanks have been catching on in Missoula cellars that hold the 50s and 60s all year, where they pull moisture out of musty air as a bonus. NorthWestern has offered efficiency rebates on some models at times; ask your installer to confirm what applies when you buy.

Tankless gas units work well on Missoula's mid-40s groundwater, but older homes often need a larger gas line and new stainless venting to support one. For an honest look at those costs, see our tankless repair and installation page.

Sizing for a Missoula household

For four people in a Grant Creek or South Hills house, fifty gallons of gas-fired storage is generally plenty. Older basement houses on the Northside often still have 40-gallon units sized decades ago for one bathroom, which come up short once a second bath has been added. Rentals near campus with four or five tenants, each showering in the morning, are where small electric tanks fall furthest behind. A larger tank, a high-recovery gas unit or a heat pump model with a generous first-hour rating solves most of these complaints.

Repair or replace in Missoula

Under about eight years, most failures are worth repairing: a thermocouple, a dirty arrestor screen, an element or a relief valve. Past ten, a tank that rumbles, weeps at the base or delivers rusty hot water is better replaced, since aquifer sediment will have worked on the bottom of the tank for years. If an old chimney also needs a liner, put that cost next to the price of a replacement heater with its own direct vent before deciding.

Any water pooling under the tank itself is a replacement, not a repair. For sorting out a dripping fitting from a rusted-through shell, see what to check when a Missoula tank leaks.

Around Missoula

Lolo to the south has its own water and sewer district and many homes built since the 1990s. Frenchtown and Huson to the west rely largely on private wells, some quite hard. East Missoula, Bonner and Milltown lie up the Clark Fork past Hellgate, where the coldest winds hit first. Stevensville, Florence and the rest of the Bitterroot Valley, along with Seeley Lake to the northeast, have separate water systems and permit arrangements.

Water heater questions from Missoula