Water heater repair in Harrisburg, PA

DeHart Reservoir and Capital Region Water

Capital Region Water, the authority that took over the city's water and sewer systems from the old Harrisburg Water Authority, supplies drinking water to Harrisburg and parts of a few neighboring municipalities. Its main source is the DeHart Reservoir, a five-mile lake surrounded by thousands of acres of protected forest on the ridges north of Dauphin. Raw water travels down to the authority's Water Services Center, a conventional filtration plant that coagulates, filters and disinfects it before it enters the city's mains.

For a few days each year, and in a drought or emergency, the authority blends in treated water from the Susquehanna River so the river intake stays ready. Most of the year, though, Harrisburg drinks forest runoff that is low in calcium and magnesium. That is good news for tankless heaters and for the bottoms of tanks, which collect far less chalky scale here than they would in the limestone valleys of Cumberland or Lancaster County.

The soft water has a flip side. Low-mineral water can be a little more aggressive toward metal, and the city's mains include many old cast iron pipes along with lead service lines that Capital Region Water has been replacing street by street. When crews work on a block, rust and loose sediment can come through the taps and settle in the heater. A tank that suddenly gives off brown water after nearby main work usually needs a good flush rather than a new part.

Rowhouses from Midtown to Allison Hill

Harrisburg is a rowhouse city. Midtown, Old Uptown and the Capitol Heights blocks hold long runs of tall Victorian brick rows, many of them carved into apartments, and the water heater in each one sits in a fieldstone or brick cellar reached by a narrow stair. Shipoke, the tiny riverfront neighborhood south of downtown, has some of the oldest rows in the city, and their cellars barely clear the Susquehanna's normal level.

Up the hill to the east, Allison Hill packs twins, rows and converted mansions onto steep streets, and owners there often juggle two or three small tanks for separate units. Bellevue Park, the planned garden suburb laid out in the early 1900s, has larger stone and stucco homes on winding lanes with roomier basements. Further north, Uptown, Camp Curtin and the streets around Italian Lake mix 1920s rows with postwar singles, and there the usual setup is a 40-gallon UGI-fed tank beside the furnace.

Getting a tank into or out of these houses is often the real job. Front Street rows can have cellar entrances through a sidewalk hatch, Midtown back alleys are too tight for a truck, and Allison Hill's slopes mean a heater may go down a long set of exterior steps before it reaches the basement door.

Susquehanna floods and central Pennsylvania cold

Harrisburg has been flooded by the Susquehanna many times. Hurricane Agnes in 1972 put water deep into downtown and Shipoke, and Tropical Storm Lee in 2011 forced evacuations of the riverfront again. Cellars along Front Street, in Shipoke and in low parts of South Allison Hill near Paxton Creek can take on water from the river, from the creek, or from backed-up combined sewers during cloudbursts. Any gas heater whose burner, control or wiring went under water needs to be replaced, not relit.

Winters in the Harrisburg area bring regular stretches in the teens and single-digit nights, and DeHart water arrives near 40°F in January. The heater has to lift every gallon by about 80 degrees for a hot shower, so a tank that keeps up easily in September may run short by February. Stone cellars with gaps around old coal chutes stay cold all winter, which slows recovery and can blow out a standing pilot when the wind comes off the river.

The problems Harrisburg plumbers see most

• Rusty or brown hot water after Capital Region Water main or service line work stirs up the street pipes.
• Corroded tank bottoms and fittings on heaters that have run for well over a decade on soft DeHart water.
• Flood-ruined burners and gas valves in Shipoke, Front Street and Paxton Creek cellars.
• Pilots blowing out in drafty Midtown and Allison Hill cellars on windy winter nights.
• Orphaned heaters backdrafting in tall rowhouse chimneys after the boiler was replaced.
• Several apartments sharing one tank that was sized for a single family a century ago.

A pilot that will not stay lit in a cold Harrisburg cellar is covered in our Harrisburg-tested pilot fixes, while a puddle under a rowhouse tank is handled in our help for a dripping rowhouse tank.

What water heater repair costs in Harrisburg

Labor in the Harrisburg area generally runs below the Philadelphia suburbs. Expect a higher bill when a tank has to come out through a sidewalk hatch or down a steep Allison Hill stair, when a Midtown chimney has to be relined, or when a gas line from the UGI meter has to be enlarged for a bigger burner.

Licensing and permits in the City of Harrisburg

Harrisburg plumbers answer to the city rather than to Pennsylvania, because the Commonwealth never created a statewide plumbing license. The City of Harrisburg licenses plumbers itself through its Bureau of Codes, which also enforces the Uniform Construction Code inside city limits. A contractor replacing a heater in Midtown or Uptown should hold a city plumbing license and a Harrisburg business privilege license, and should arrange the plumbing permit and inspection through the Bureau of Codes.

Separately, anyone doing home improvement work in Pennsylvania should be registered with the Attorney General's office as a home improvement contractor, and that registration number belongs on the written quote. Across the river in Cumberland County, and in Susquehanna, Lower Paxton and Swatara townships on the Dauphin County side, each municipality runs its own permit process, so a city license does not automatically carry over.

Venting heaters in old Harrisburg chimneys

Many Midtown and Capitol Heights rows were built with a brick chimney for a coal stove or boiler, and later the gas water heater was tied into the same flue. Once that coal-era boiler gives way to a condensing model piped out the wall, the heater ends up venting by itself into a tall, cold chimney that is far too large for its small burner. On a cold morning the exhaust can stall and spill back into the cellar, and the first sign is often browned paint above the draft hood or a CO alarm chirping at dawn.

Capital-area plumbers usually solve it with a slim stainless flue insert, a power-vent tank blowing out toward the alley, or an electric or heat pump model that needs no flue at all. Side-wall vents on attached rows have to stay well clear of neighbors' windows and doors, so the back wall facing the alley is usually the only practical spot. Every cellar with a gas appliance should have a working carbon monoxide alarm.

Choosing a heater for a Harrisburg rowhouse

Soft DeHart water makes Harrisburg a reasonable place for a tankless heater, since scale builds up slowly on the heat exchanger. The obstacles are usually the gas service and the venting: older rows often have a small line from the UGI meter, and a tankless unit sized to heat 40-degree January water can need a much larger one. Weigh that rowhouse gas line problem against what tankless really costs to own on DeHart water.

Heat pump water heaters can make sense for PPL Electric customers in finished basements, but a damp fieldstone cellar near the river that sits in the 40s all winter is a poor home for one. For buildings split into apartments, separate tanks per unit avoid arguments over who used the hot water and let each tenant carry their own utility bill.

Repair or replace in Harrisburg

Under about eight years old, most fixes are worth it: thermocouples, elements, thermostats and relief valves cost far less than carrying a new tank down a cellar stair. Past ten years, a weeping seam, a rusted base or any flood exposure points toward a Midtown-ready replacement carried down that cellar stair, and running the repair-or-replace numbers for Harrisburg rarely favors patching a tank that old. UGI and PPL have at times offered rebates on efficient water heaters, so ask what is available before you buy.

Around Harrisburg

Camp Hill, Lemoyne and New Cumberland sit across the Susquehanna in Cumberland County, with their own borough codes offices and water from a private utility rather than Capital Region Water. Susquehanna Township, Lower Paxton Township and Swatara Township surround the city on the Dauphin County side, where split-levels and newer homes put heaters in garages and finished basements. Penbrook, Paxtang and the old steel town of Steelton are compact boroughs, each with its own permit desk.

Water heater questions from Harrisburg