Water heater repair in Warwick, RI

Where Warwick's water comes from

Warwick has no reservoir and no surface water treatment plant of its own. Most households, roughly nine in ten, are customers of the Warwick Water Division, a city department that buys water wholesale from Providence Water. That supply starts in the Scituate Reservoir in the western hills and is filtered at the Philip J. Holton Water Purification Plant before running east through transmission mains to the city. The division also keeps a separate small system for Potowomut, the neck of land south of Greenwich Bay that is cut off from the rest of Warwick.

The western side of the city, including Cowesett, Natick, Apponaug and the Toll Gate area, is served instead by the Kent County Water Authority. Kent County buys much of its water from Providence Water too, but it also pumps groundwater from its own wells, among them a well tapping the Hunt River aquifer. The authority leans on Providence Water most heavily in summer and relies more on its wells in the cooler months, so the blend at a Cowesett tap is not identical from season to season.

Scituate water is famously soft, and it is adjusted for pH and alkalinity at the Holton plant so it does not attack pipes. Well water adds a bit of mineral content, but western Warwick is still far from hard-water territory. For a tank, that means the bottom rarely fills with scale. Instead, the anode wears steadily, dielectric unions and nipples corrode, and tankless heat exchangers stay relatively clean for years.

Capes, ranches and village houses

Much of Warwick filled in after World War II, and the housing shows it. Hoxsie, Norwood, Lakewood, Hillsgrove and Wildes Corner are full of capes, ranches and raised ranches from the 1950s and 1960s, many with a gas or oil-fired heater in a poured-concrete basement or a utility closet off the kitchen. In the raised ranches, the heater often sits in the lower level right beside the garage or a finished family room, so a slow leak can ruin carpet before anyone notices.

The shoreline villages are older and more varied. Pawtuxet Village, split with Cranston along the river, has nineteenth-century homes with fieldstone cellars. Conimicut, Shawomet and Oakland Beach began as summer cottage colonies and were later winterized, which left some homes with crawl spaces or slab floors and heaters tucked into closets. Warwick Neck and Cowesett hold larger colonials and contemporary homes, where a pair of tanks or a boiler with an indirect heater is common.

The bay, the river and the 2010 flood

In late March 2010, days of heavy rain drove the Pawtuxet River to a record crest. The water swamped the Norwood neighborhood, closed the Warwick Mall for months and flooded the city's wastewater treatment plant on the river. Homeowners along the Pawtuxet and its tributaries pulled ruined water heaters and furnaces out of their basements for weeks afterward, and many replacements went in on raised platforms.

Salt water is the other threat. Oakland Beach, Conimicut Point, Warwick Neck and the low streets off Greenwich Bay took surge in the 1938 hurricane and again in Carol in 1954, and nor'easters still push water into some yards. Even without flooding, the salty, humid air near the water speeds up rust on burner assemblies, gas connectors and the jacket of a tank sitting in an unheated garage or crawl space.

Winters are milder than inland New England, but cold snaps still bring Scituate water in near 40°F, and a shoreline cottage with thin walls can let the area around the heater drop low enough to blow out a pilot on a windy night.

The problems plumbers see most in Warwick

• Rusted burner trays and gas connectors in homes within a few blocks of Greenwich Bay or Narragansett Bay.
• Worn anodes in tanks fed by soft Scituate water, followed by early tank leaks if no one replaces them.
• Leaks into finished lower levels of raised ranches in Hoxsie and Lakewood.
• Flood-damaged gas controls in basements along the Pawtuxet and its brooks.
• Pilot outages in drafty former summer cottages at Oakland Beach and Conimicut.
• Corroded dielectric unions where copper meets the steel tank nipples.

Typical water heater prices in Warwick

Warwick rates track Providence and the rest of southern New England. Expect a bill near the upper end when the heater sits in a tight crawl space at a beach cottage, when a flood-damaged gas line needs work, or when a raised-ranch lower level is finished around the tank and walls have to be protected on the way out.

Licensing and Warwick building permits

Plumbing licenses in Rhode Island are issued by the Department of Labor and Training, not by the city. Water heater installation is master plumber work, or work done by a licensed journeyperson employed under a master. Gas piping and appliance connections fall under the state's pipefitting and gas licensing rules, and many Warwick plumbing shops hold both credentials.

Inside the city, permits come from the Warwick Building Department at the Municipal Annex on Centerville Road, which issues plumbing, mechanical and electrical permits and handles inspections. The department uses an online permitting system, and the contractor normally files the application. An inspector will look at the relief valve discharge, the vent connection, the gas shutoff and, on a replacement after flooding, how the new unit is supported above the floor.

Raising a heater out of harm's way

If your basement has taken water before, whether from the Pawtuxet in 2010 or a sump that failed in a summer downpour, plan for the next time when you replace the heater. A sturdy platform of masonry block or a manufactured stand lifts the burner and gas valve above the usual high-water line. The vent connector and gas piping then have to be reworked to the new height, so it is cheaper to do it during a replacement than as a separate project later.

Near the shoreline, some owners skip the basement altogether and move the heater to a first-floor closet or a utility room. A compact tankless unit or a power-vent tank on an outside wall can make that practical, though clearances from windows and property lines on narrow beach lots limit where the vent can exit. Read more about replacing a tank in a new location.

Rhode Island Energy and fuel choices

Rhode Island Energy delivers both natural gas and electricity in Warwick, having taken over the former National Grid service. Gas lines run through most of the postwar neighborhoods, so gas tanks dominate there. Some Potowomut homes and older cottages that never got a gas main rely on electric or oil-fired heaters, and condos near the airport and along Post Road often use electric tanks.

Rhode Island Energy and state programs have at times paid incentives toward heat pump and high-efficiency gas units. Warwick basements that hold above roughly 45°F through the winter suit a heat pump tank, and the unit pulls moisture out of the air while it runs, a real plus in damp shoreline cellars.

Repair or replace in Warwick

When a Warwick tank younger than about eight fails at the thermocouple, element or relief valve, fixing that one part makes sense, and adding a fresh anode at the same visit can buy years on soft Scituate water. A tank that sat in floodwater, one with rust streaks running from the bottom seam, or one past twelve years in a damp coastal basement is a better candidate for replacement. Puddles under the tank call for quick action, starting with these first steps for a Warwick leak.

Around Warwick

Cranston, across the Pawtuxet to the north, is a direct Providence Water customer and runs a separate building inspection office. West Warwick and Coventry are largely served by the Kent County Water Authority and have their own building officials. East Greenwich, just south of Cowesett, has older homes near Main Street and newer subdivisions to the west, with its own town permitting. Across the bay, North Kingstown relies mostly on town wells drawing from local aquifers rather than Scituate water.

Water heater questions from Warwick