Water heater repair in Kennewick, WA

Columbia River water, two ways

The City of Kennewick draws its drinking water from the Columbia River in two ways. Ranney collector wells, large concrete caissons sunk next to the river with horizontal screens reaching out under the riverbed, pull water that has been naturally filtered through gravel. The rest comes through the city's water treatment plant, which was built in the late 1970s as a seasonal conventional plant and later retrofitted with membrane filtration so it can run year-round.

The Columbia carries a fair amount of dissolved calcium and magnesium by Washington standards, so Kennewick water is moderately hard. That is enough to leave white scale on fixtures, build sediment in the bottom of tanks and gradually coat tankless heat exchangers, especially in homes without a softener.

River water also swings widely with the seasons. In late summer the Columbia runs warm and the supply arrives at the house near 70 degrees; after a hard freeze it can drop into the upper 30s. That spread is far larger than in cities that rely on deep wells.

Kennewick homes and where tanks are found

Older Kennewick sits near the river around downtown, Columbia Drive and the Kennewick Avenue corridor, where many homes date from the boom years when the Hanford project and the dams brought workers to the Tri-Cities. These 1940s and 1950s houses are mostly single-story on crawlspaces or slabs, and the heater may be in the garage, a back utility room or a closet beside the kitchen.

Moving south and west, neighborhoods like Canyon Lakes, the area around Kennewick's golf courses and the newer Southridge development hold homes from the 1980s through today. In most of them a 50-gallon gas tank stands on a platform in the attached garage. Some newer two-story homes put the tank in an interior laundry or mechanical closet with a drain pan.

Kennewick also has many manufactured homes, apartments and duplexes on the east side and along Highway 395, where electric heaters in tight closets are common.

Desert heat, winter freezes and wind

The Tri-Cities sit in the dry rain shadow of the Cascades. Summers bring long stretches of temperatures near or above 100 degrees, and a west-facing Kennewick garage can turn into an oven. Heat speeds up the aging of rubber supply hoses, plastic drain valves and wiring insulation, and a gas burner in an overheated garage may struggle with combustion air.

Winters are short but can turn severe, with arctic air dropping temperatures into the single digits for days at a time and freezing fog hanging over the river. Water lines in garages and exterior walls are the first to freeze, and heaters face their heaviest load just as inlet water hits its coldest point.

Strong winds also sweep through the region, sometimes carrying dust storms off the surrounding farmland. Blowing dust settles on burner screens and heat pump filters, and gusty days can bring pilot outages on older atmospheric gas heaters.

Where Kennewick heaters fail

• Scale and sediment from moderately hard Columbia water, causing rumbling tanks and clogged drain valves.
• Tankless heat exchangers furred with Columbia River scale, cutting flow and tripping fault codes.
• Heat-damaged supply hoses and valves in garages that bake through July and August.
• Frozen and burst lines in garages and on exterior walls during arctic cold snaps.
• Dust-clogged burner screens and filters after windy days.
• Short hot water in January when inlet water drops near freezing and an old tank cannot keep up.

Typical costs in the Tri-Cities

Kennewick rates generally sit below the Seattle area. Jobs grow more expensive when a heater is in an interior closet with a tight door, when a softener or expansion tank needs reworking, or when an emergency call comes during a freeze and every plumber in town is busy.

Permits and licensing in Kennewick

Plumbers working in Kennewick need a Washington certificate from Labor and Industries, and the companies employing them must be L&I-registered contractors with a bond and insurance on file. A quick search on L&I's contractor lookup confirms both before work starts.

Inside city limits, water heater replacement requires a permit through Kennewick's building safety division, part of the city's community planning department. A Kennewick inspector checks for two seismic straps, a relief line that drains somewhere safe, sound gas piping with a shutoff, a proper vent, and a pan wherever a leak could damage finished space. Richland, Pasco and unincorporated Benton County handle their own permits.

Utilities and choosing a new heater

Kennewick electricity comes from Benton PUD, whose power is largely hydroelectric, and natural gas comes from Cascade Natural Gas. Benton PUD's relatively low electric rates make heat pump and even standard electric heaters more competitive than in many places, and each has run efficiency programs at times.

A heat pump water heater does especially well in a Kennewick garage for most of the year because summer garage air is so warm. In winter it runs slower and relies on its backup element, so a larger tank is a good idea. Gas tankless units handle the cold January inlet water if sized correctly, but on Kennewick water they need regular descaling or a softener to stay efficient.

Living with hard river water

On Columbia River water, draining off a few quarts of cloudy water every season, plus a full flush each fall, keeps the tank bottom from crusting over. If the drain valve barely trickles, it is probably clogged with sediment and should be replaced with a full-port brass valve.

Homes with a water softener see much less buildup, but the softener should be set correctly, since over-softened water can wear down the anode faster. Tankless units here want a vinegar or descaler cycle every twelve months or so unless their unit has a scale filter or a softener ahead of it.

When a new heater makes more sense

Repairs usually pay off on Kennewick tanks younger than ten with a bad control, element or thermocouple. A tank leaking from its body, heavy scale that makes it bang and pop, or rust in the hot water mean it is time to replace. When a tank is aging and October is coming, replacing it before the first arctic freeze avoids an emergency call on the coldest night of the year.

Around Kennewick

Richland, across the Yakima River, runs its own water system and permits and has many homes from the Hanford era. Pasco, across the Columbia, also has its own utility and building department. West Richland, Benton City and the unincorporated Finley area east of Kennewick use separate water providers or wells and go through their own offices or Benton County.

Water heater questions from Kennewick