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Cold Shower Blues: Why Won’t Your Shower Heat Up? Tips From Your Plumbing Service | Myrtle Beach, SC
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The plumbing service team at Benjamin Franklin Plumbing of Myrtle Beach fields a lot of calls about cold showers. Sometimes, customers report that it’s taking too long for their shower to heat up. Others report that the water barely heats or simply remains cold. There are various reasons why your shower may not be delivering hot water. In some cases, you may be able to make a quick adjustment to enjoy those steamy hot showers again. On the other hand, you may need to place a plumbing service call to enjoy hot water service again!
Breaker, Breaker, Check Your Breaker Box
One of the most common reasons for the cold water treatment in your morning shower is a tripped circuit breaker. You’ll need to access your circuit panel and determine if the breaker switch that serves your hot water heater has tripped. If it has, you’ll need to reset the switch and wait a bit for the water heater to heat up your water. Once back in the shower, you may need to let the water run a minute or two so the cold water still in the line can run out.
Hit the Reset Button on Your Water Heater
If your breaker switch for the hot water heater hasn’t tripped, you’ll have to check your water heater. Your hot water heaters should be outfitted with a reset button. Try to press this button to reset the unit. Often, this does the trick. These buttons are typically easy to spot because they’re labeled and easy to access on the appliance. Again, after you press the reset button, you’ll need to wait a bit to see if the heater heats up the water.
Check the Pilot Light
If you have a gas water heater, it will have a pilot light. One of the reasons your shower might only be pumping out cold water is because the pilot light may have gone out. Until your pilot light can be relit, the cold water situation will remain. If you’re comfortable relighting your pilot light, you can follow the water heater’s instructions to relight it. If not, our Myrtle Beach plumbing service can light it for you. Typically, relighting a pilot light that has gone out will solve the problem. However, if the pilot light continues to go out, our plumbers should inspect your unit and will likely need to replace a part that has worn out.
Advanced Water Heater Inspections
If the pilot light or breaker switch hasn’t caused your cold water problem, you should place a call to Benjamin Franklin Plumbing of Myrtle Beach so we can send a skilled plumber to your home to evaluate the tank. If you have an electric hot water heater, the issue may be a failing heating element. As mentioned above, a pilot light that won’t stay lit could simply mean that you need to have a part replaced. Problems with your gas line or water line could also be at the root of the issue. In any case, you’ll need an advanced inspection of your water heater to solve this issue.
Fortunately, our plumbing service pros are used to tackling any make or model water heater. During our inspection, we’ll check to make sure the unit’s thermostat is working properly. If it isn’t, then that’s the cause of your cold water showers. We will also inspect your unit’s heating element. Depending on the make and model, your unit might have one heating element or several. If one of several fails, you may experience warm water–not cold showers, but certainly not comfortably hot ones either.
Fix or Replace Your Hot Water Heater
Once our plumbing service pros determine the problem, they can advise you of the ideal fix. On the other hand, if your unit is old and nearing the end of its span, you might be wondering if water heater repairs are worth it. We can help you decide if now is the optimum time to replace your unit. If the repair is small and commonplace, you might be able to get more time out of the unit. However, water tanks don’t last forever, so if yours is past its suggested span, we can recommend a new energy-efficient model and make the replacement for you.
Can Your Current Water Heater Keep Up with Your Household?
If your household has expanded and cold showers are becoming all too common, it could be that you need to install a larger tank to keep up with the demands of your household for hot water. While your current tank may be heating water just fine, the size of the tank may simply be too small to accommodate your household’s needs. If that’s the case, you can contact our plumbing service and we will help you source a size that suits your home better. It’s no fun to run out of hot water midway through a shower. We can help you eliminate this unpleasant inconvenience by installing the right-sized water heater in your Myrtle Beach home.
If you need a professional plumbing service in Myrtle Beach, SC, contact Benjamin Franklin Plumbing of Myrtle Beach. We offer a full lineup of plumbing services. Of course, we can repair and replace water heaters, but we also specialize in drain cleaning, plumbing repairs, sinks, toilets, garbage disposals, faucets, water filtration, and more. Our plumbers are licensed professionals who have years of experience supplying our Myrtle Beach, SC customers with expert service and fair pricing. Need an emergency plumbing service? No problem! We can provide plumbing repair service 24/7. Simply call us, tell us the problem, and we’ll send a skilled plumber to your Myrtle Beach home or commercial property.