Water heater repair in Albany, NY

Alcove, Basic Creek and the Feura Bush plant

The Albany Water Board owns the supply and the city's Department of Water & Water Supply runs it. The main source is the Alcove Reservoir, an impoundment on Hannacroix Creek in the Town of Coeymans, about twenty miles south of downtown. Basic Creek Reservoir in Westerlo sits upstream and can release water into Alcove when levels drop. Raw water travels north to the Feura Bush Filtration Facility in the Town of Bethlehem, where it is coagulated, settled, filtered, adjusted for pH and alkalinity to protect pipes, and dosed with chlorine before it enters the city mains.

Water that runs off the wooded hills of southern Albany County picks up little calcium or magnesium, so Albany's supply is soft. The plant's corrosion control is aimed at the city's old service lines, but for a homeowner the practical effect is simple: tanks here stay fairly clean inside, while the sacrificial anode does steady work and should be inspected rather than forgotten.

Rowhouses, flats and Pine Hills colonials

Brick and brownstone rowhouses from the 1800s fill Center Square, Hudson/Park, the Mansion District and the blocks bordering Washington Park from the 1800s. Many have been split into two or three apartments, and the cellar under a narrow row house can hold a heater for each unit, packed in beside a boiler and a century of old piping. Low ceilings, stone foundations and steep stairs make replacements in these blocks slower than in a suburban ranch.

Pine Hills, the neighborhood students and young families share along Madison and Western avenues around the former College of Saint Rose campus, has two-family flats and frame houses from the early 1900s, many with one heater per flat in the basement. Further out, Buckingham Pond, Whitehall, Melrose and the New Scotland corridor have mid-century colonials and capes with a single tank near the furnace. The South End and Arbor Hill carry older rowhouse stock, some of it rebuilt after long vacancy with new mechanical systems.

Capital Region cold and Hudson River weather

Albany winters are long and dependably cold. Arctic air pouring down the Hudson Valley can hold the city below zero for several nights, and that is when rowhouse cellars with leaky bulkhead doors or broken window lights get cold enough to freeze the water line feeding the heater. Reservoir water that left Feura Bush in the upper 30s gives a tank a lot of work, and heaters that were barely keeping up in November start running short by late January.

Heavy snow loads and ice also matter. Snow drifting over a sidewall vent terminal on a direct-vent or power-vent heater can shut the unit down, and ice dams around a chimney top can choke an old flue. Spring thaws and summer downpours flood low basements near the Hudson and along the Normans Kill and Patroon Creek, which is reason to keep stored boxes off the floor around the burner.

The problems plumbers see most in Albany

• Orphaned heaters in rowhouse chimneys after a boiler was swapped for a wall-vented model.
• Frozen supply lines along the front wall of Center Square and Hudson/Park cellars.
• Worn-out anodes that leave soft-water tanks rusting from the inside.
• Not enough hot water for every flat where one tank serves a Pine Hills two-family.
• Drifted-over vent terminals after a Hudson Valley snowstorm, locking out fan-vented tanks.
• Corroded gas connectors and old drip legs in damp stone foundations.

Typical water heater prices in Albany

Capital Region labor runs close to the middle of the Northeast range, cheaper than downstate and a bit above the rural Hudson Valley. Rowhouse cellars with tight stairs, relining a shared chimney, and emergency calls during a deep freeze are what push an Albany bill upward.

Albany plumbing licenses and permits

New York has no statewide plumbing license, so cities set their own rules, and Albany is strict about it. The city's Examining Board of Plumbers, part of the Division of Buildings and Regulatory Compliance, tests applicants and the city issues master plumber licenses that must be renewed. Only a plumber licensed to work in the City of Albany may take out a plumbing permit inside city limits, which means a Colonie or Schenectady license on its own is not enough.

Any Albany heater swap goes through Buildings and Regulatory Compliance for a plumbing permit, and the work must meet the New York State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code, including relief valve piping, combustion air, venting and gas connections. Converting to tankless gas generally involves gas work too. Ask any contractor you are considering to show the Albany license and to write the permit into the estimate.

Venting in an old rowhouse

A brick party-wall chimney built for a coal stove was never designed for a modern water heater. Once the neighboring boiler is swapped for a condensing boiler with plastic venting through the siding, the tank is stranded by itself in a cold, oversized flue that drafts poorly and condenses. Owners in Center Square and the Mansion District see this as rusty streaks on the draft hood, a damp smell near the heater, or a carbon monoxide alarm going off on a calm winter evening.

Albany plumbers usually choose among three answers: reline the chimney in stainless steel, move to a fan-assisted tank piped through the foundation wall, or go electric so no flue is needed. In historic districts, the location of a new vent terminal on the street side can draw review, so plan the route with the plumber before the old heater fails.

Sizing for Pine Hills flats and student rentals

Rentals near the University at Albany's downtown campus and Albany Law School often house four or five adults in one flat, all showering in the morning. A 40-gallon tank that suits a couple can be drained in twenty minutes by that household, especially in winter. Landlords tend to get better results from a 50-gallon gas tank with a big burner, or from tankless equipment matched to that headcount, and a mixing valve keeps outlet temperatures safe while letting the tank store water hotter.

National Grid supplies natural gas and electricity across Albany and has at times backed heat pump tanks and other efficient models with incentives. Heat pump tanks are happy in a spacious, dry cellar yet falter in a cramped, cold rowhouse cellar in February, so it is worth checking the space first.

Repair or replace in Albany

Because soft Alcove water leaves little scale, Albany tanks often fail from corrosion rather than sediment. If the tank is younger than eight or nine years and the trouble is a thermocouple, gas valve or element, repair is usually worthwhile. Water collecting under the heater, a rust tint on the hot side only, or a tank already past twelve years points toward replacement, ideally before a cold snap rather than during one.

Around Albany

Bethlehem, including Delmar and Slingerlands, sits south of the city line with a town-run water supply and town building inspectors. Colonie and its Latham Water District serve the suburbs to the north with a separate permit process, and Guilderland, out past the Pine Bush, keeps a separate town water department and inspectors. Across the Hudson, Rensselaer and Troy have their own supplies, older rowhouse blocks and city plumbing rules, while Watervliet and Menands sit along the river to the north.

Water heater questions from Albany