Water heater repair in Bethlehem, PA

Pocono reservoirs and very soft water

Unlike Allentown and much of the Lehigh Valley, which lean on wells, springs and the Lehigh River, Bethlehem draws its entire supply from two mountain reservoirs about thirty miles north. Wild Creek Reservoir, finished before World War II, and Penn Forest Reservoir, completed in 1958, sit in protected forest in Carbon County that the Bethlehem Authority owns and manages. A supplemental intake on Tunkhannock Creek can top up Penn Forest when flows are good. Water travels down twin transmission mains to the city's filtration plant in Lehigh Township, Northampton County, and from there into the city mains.

The city describes its water as very soft, and plumbers who work both sides of the valley notice the difference immediately. Tanks in Bethlehem rarely gather the crusty lime that clogs drain valves in Allentown or on the limestone farmland to the west. The tradeoff is that soft, low-alkalinity water dissolves metal more readily. Sacrificial anodes wear down sooner, brass drain valves and dielectric nipples pit, and pinholes can appear in older copper lines close to the tank.

Stone, brick and steelworker housing

Bethlehem's housing tells the story of two eras. Around Main Street, Church Street and the Moravian buildings of the Historic District stand eighteenth and nineteenth century stone and brick homes, many with low fieldstone cellars where a heater fits between old beams and a sump pit. Narrow brick rowhomes and twins on the South Side, built for the workers of Bethlehem Steel, have shallow basements reached by steep wooden stairs, and replacements there often involve squeezing a tank past a tight turn at the bottom.

North of the river, the Northeast and Mount Airy sections and neighborhoods off Linden Street and Stefko Boulevard have brick twins, Cape Cods and ranches from the 1920s through the 1960s with roomier basements. The West Side, around Broad Street and Eighth Avenue, mixes both. Newer townhouse developments near the SteelStacks redevelopment and in Bethlehem Township sometimes place a tank or tankless unit in a utility closet on the main floor, where a leak does more damage faster.

Lehigh Valley weather and the river

Winters here are milder than in the Poconos but still cold, with January nights in the teens and reservoir water arriving at the house in the upper 30s by late February. That deep chill lengthens recovery time and is when tanks with a failing burner or a weak element finally show it. Summers are humid, and sweating cold-water lines drip onto heaters in basements without a dehumidifier.

The Lehigh River and Monocacy Creek have flooded low parts of the city in big storms, including the remnants of Ivan in 2004 and the January 1996 snowmelt flood. Basements along the Monocacy near the Colonial Industrial Quarter and on low South Side streets are most exposed. Any heater that has had water above its burner door should be treated as finished.

The problems plumbers see most in Bethlehem

• Anodes used up early by the city's very soft Pocono reservoir water.
• Pitted brass drain valves and tank nipples that start dripping in the second half of a tank's life.
• Tight stair turns in South Side rowhomes that complicate every replacement.
• Low fieldstone cellars in the Historic District with little clearance above the vent.
• Shared chimneys left oversized after the furnace moved to a sidewall vent.
• Closet leaks in newer townhouses where the drain pan was never piped anywhere.

Typical water heater prices in Bethlehem

Rates in the Lehigh Valley run a bit higher than in Scranton or Reading because so many contractors also serve the New Jersey and Philadelphia markets. Historic District homes with fieldstone walls and limits on where a vent can exit the house tend to land at the upper end, as do jobs on South Side blocks where parking a truck near the door is a challenge.

Permits and licensing in Bethlehem

Pennsylvania leaves plumber licensing to local governments outside Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and Bethlehem regulates who may work in the city through its own code enforcement office in the Department of Community and Economic Development at City Hall on East Church Street. Replacing a water heater calls for a plumbing permit and an inspection that covers the gas connection, venting, the relief valve and its discharge line.

Because Bethlehem straddles Lehigh and Northampton counties and sits beside several townships, ask the plumber to confirm the address is inside city limits before assuming which office handles the permit. Hanover, Bethlehem and Lower Saucon townships, plus Fountain Hill and Freemansburg boroughs, all run their own inspections. Properties in the Historic District can face added review when an exterior vent terminal changes the look of a facade.

Taking care of a tank on soft water

In Bethlehem the routine that matters is about corrosion, not scale. Have a plumber pull and inspect the anode within the first three years, and replace it as soon as the core wire shows through. Where a tank develops a rotten-egg smell, which happens occasionally with soft water and magnesium anodes, an aluminum-zinc rod or a powered anode usually cures it.

Dielectric unions or lined nipples at the hot and cold connections keep copper and steel from reacting, and a plastic-bodied drain valve tends to outlast the cheap brass ones on many tanks. A light flush once a year is still worthwhile to clear whatever silt slips through from the reservoirs, but it rarely produces the buckets of white grit that homeowners in harder-water towns are used to.

Venting in old Bethlehem homes

Many Historic District and South Side houses originally burned coal, then oil, then gas, all through the same masonry chimney. After a high-efficiency furnace or boiler moves to a sidewall vent, the water heater is left as the only appliance in a flue built for far more heat. Cold flues draft poorly, and in winter exhaust can roll back into the cellar.

Plumbers in the city typically address it with a stainless or aluminum liner, a power-vent tank, or a sealed-combustion unit. In the Historic District, where a new wall vent on the street side may draw attention from preservation reviewers, a liner through the existing chimney is often the least complicated path. UGI, which supplies natural gas across the city, can tell you whether the meter and service line can support a larger appliance if you are considering tankless.

Repair or replace in Bethlehem

On soft water, a tank's fate often depends on how well its anode was looked after. A heater under ten years old with a bad thermocouple, element or gas valve is worth repairing, especially in a rowhome where removal is laborious. When rust shows at the base, the jacket is wet, or the anode was never changed and the tank is past a decade, replacement is the smarter spend. PPL Electric Utilities and UGI have offered efficiency rebates at times, which can help with a heat pump or condensing gas model.

If the heater is already leaking, start with our leaking water heater page, and see water heater replacement for what a new install involves.

Around Bethlehem

Hanover Township and Bethlehem Township wrap around the city on the north and east and are largely served by the Bethlehem water system, with their own code offices. Fountain Hill sits on the hill west of the South Side, and Freemansburg lies downriver to the east. Allentown, to the west, runs on a different, harder supply. Lower Saucon Township and Hellertown to the south include homes on private wells in the hills toward the Saucon Valley.

Water heater questions from Bethlehem