Is Your Water Heater Up to the Task?

Date: June 19, 2023

5 signs that your water heater is struggling

Hot water is a vital part of everyday life. If you want to wash dishes, clothes or yourself, you need a dependable supply of warm water for your appliances and home fixtures.

If your water heater is getting up in years, then its efficiency and reliability might be in question. At Cubby Oil & Energy, we handle water heater installations and repair jobs in the greater Boston region. We know what warning signs to look for in an older hot water system.

5 indicators that your water heater is failing.

The average lifespan of a traditional storage-tank water heater is 10-15 years. If your unit is over a decade old, keep an eye out for these five signs that it might be time to replace it:

1. Inconsistent hot water from your showers and taps.
2. Standing water near your unit’s tank.
3. Rusty or discolored water coming from your fixtures.
4. Strange noises from your appliance, including clanging, banging, popping or grinding.
5. Difficulty flushing your water heater tank, which could indicate a build-up of sediment.

If you notice any of these issues, contact us for a water heater repair visit. In many cases, this is a relatively minor problem, but sometimes you will need a total water heater replacement.

Cubby Oil & Energy can upgrade your hot water generation.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the average American home uses around 20 percent of its energy heating water. That is a significant chunk of your home’s budget. If your water heater isn’t doing its job efficiently, you could be looking at some unnecessary expenses.

Luckily, heating oil is an incredibly efficient way to heat water. One gallon of heating oil can generate 138,500 Btu of heat. This leads to a genuinely exceptional recovery rate (the number of gallons of hot water a unit can generate in one hour). Oil-fired water heaters can have recovery rates as high as 120 gallons per hour!

At Cubby Oil & Energy, we install and service traditional water heaters, as well as indirect-fired water heaters. These systems use the heat from your boiler to warm up water for your home. The DOE found that indirect-fired water heaters with high-efficiency boilers and insulated tanks generate some of the least expensive hot water. These products also have longer service lives!

Don’t wait to contact us about a water heater replacement.

Simply put, the absolute worst situation for replacing your water heater is to wait until your current unit fails. If you wait, your family will be without hot water while we rush to secure your new water heater as soon as possible. This will limit your choices and lead to a significant disruption of your daily life.

Work with Cubby Oil & Energy to get ahead of the game with your home’s hot water equipment. Contact us today for more information.