Tankless Annual Maintenance & Repairs
Maintenance & Tankless Water Heater Repair Frisco, TX
Tankless water heaters in Frisco are an energy-efficient, low-maintenance way to get hot water on demand in your North Texas home or business. Highly popular in Frisco and McKinney, these systems give home and business owners an endless supply of hot water with ease. But if a unit wasn’t properly installed or isn’t regularly maintained, it may start giving you trouble: cold water, leaks, a strange taste or color, or other malfunctions.
Great brands rarely need repairs, but when they do, Earl’s Plumbing is the place to call. Our team of licensed Frisco plumbers is manufacturer-trained on a variety of tankless water heater brands. And we always carry the tools and equipment needed to get your tankless system back up and running at full capacity in no time.
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These are the most common questions that we get asked from our customers.
Do Tankless Water Heaters in Frisco Require Annual Maintenance or Service?
Yes, all brands and models of tankless water heaters require “regular” maintenance or service. This “service” should always include a “proper” cleaning of the interior water lines and mechanical parts to remove the mineral build up that forms during the heating process. This buildup is known as “scale.” This scale must be dissolved & removed regularly. Lack of maintenance will make the tankless water heater lose efficiency, and not performing the maintenance for long periods of time will permanent & irreparable damage to the tankless heater eventually causing it to leak. In addition, lack of verifiable maintenance where neglect of maintenance is identified as one of the causes of the failure, will void your warranty.
Most manufacturers use 500 hours as the standard time interval for required service / maintenance. This typically means “annually” for a family of four. However, in hard water areas OR in larger families of 6+, the frequency of service should be increased to every 6 or 9 months. In commercial applications where there is heavier and almost constant use (i.e., washing dishes), then tankless service / maintenance should be a minimum of every 6 months.
The exception to this rule is if you have a Frisco water softener OR water conditioning / filter system. In this case the intervals for service can be increased by 6 months.
How Often Should My Frisco Tankless Water Heater Be Serviced or Flushed?
Most manufactures use the standard of every 500 hours. Basic math for a family of four extrapolated out over 365 days is somewhere around 600 hours give or take. Therefore at least “annually” or even more frequently in larger families or heavy use. The exception would be that if your home has a house water softener OR water conditioning / filter system. Intervals for service could then be increased by 6 additional months.
What happens during the service / maintenance process differs by manufacturer and models. All tankless heaters must be “properly” descaled, but some may have a variety of other requirements to include the service of air filters, water or sediment filters, flame or ignitor rods, condensate neutralizers, etc.
Lack of regular service / maintenance – or worse, never done before – is by far the leading cause of error codes, leaks, and heat exchanger failures. Failure to perform regular and verifiable service / maintenance will cause irreversible damage that will NOT be covered under the manufacturer’s warranty (usually 12 year or 15 years depending on manufacturer).
How Much Does It Cost to Descale & Perform Annual Maintenance on a Tankless Water Heater?
Obviously, this is very dependent on the Frisco plumbing company that you select. It will also depend on how many tankless water heaters you have, the materials used to perform the maintenance and to a certain extent the model and how long it has been since the last maintenance was performed.
At Earl’s Plumbing, the current cost of “tankless maintenance” is $175 for non-VIP Advantage Members and just $125 for paid VIP Advantage Members in good standing. This price is for a single tankless water heater, so per each. Also, there is a caveat to this price… In instances were annual service & maintenance has never been performed and/or gaps in excess of 3+ years, then an additional charge could apply to each unit serviced. Please note that in instances where large gaps of greater than 5 years in between descaling occurs, then the scale removal could cause it to leak internally. In these rare instances, we sometimes will advise home & business owners to NOT perform the maintenance and to just ride it out for as long as the heater will function. However, depending on the water heaters location, this could put the property at significant risk.
The general expectations are that when your tankless water heater is properly & consistently descaled & maintained, the unit regardless of brand or model will far exceed its expected minimum life and manufacture warranty period. An example of this is, the Navien 240Av2 which has a 15 year warranty and came out in Mid-2021. During engineer & lab stress testing this model is exceeding 20 years in lab trials when properly maintained. In contrast, the much smaller and more common Rheem DVLN 9.5 that the new home builders use and has a 12 year warranty typically only lasts 7 to 8 years (sometimes less) when descaling & maintenance is neglected or not completed. So, in summary the little bit of proactive cost to clean & maintain your tankless water heater will save you thousands of dollars in premature replacement costs.
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What Does Frisco Water Heater Repair Cost?
At Earl’s Plumbing, we are considered by many of our industry peers to be the “Tankless Water Heater Experts.” This is especially true when it comes to Navien tankless water heaters. Despite our small size, we install more Navien tankless water heaters than any other company in the area. Some competitors even refer us to their regular & repeat customers. But obviously, every repair is different, and the price very much depends on multiple factors to include:
COMPANY CHOSEN TO PERFORM WORK
- What plumbing company is completing the repair and their price book models, expected margins and administrative costs.
- Whether that company pays their plumbers via a sales commission structure – this can add hundreds to thousands to the final price.
- The technicians level of experience, their familiarity with the model and their overall skill level.
WARRANTY PERIOD & BRAND VARIATION
- Will the part(s) be covered free of charge under the manufactures warranty (this varies by manufacture & model).
- Very rare & limited but will the “repair labor” be covered under warranty by the manufacture (varies by manufacture & model).
- Is the repair within the original installers limited labor warranty period (this varies by company).
- Was the required annual maintenance performed and has it been consistently done in accordance with the manufactures guidance.
- If required for warranty purposes, can the required annual maintenance be verified with past invoices.
PROBLEM
- How long does it take to complete the manufactures required diagnostic steps
- Is the part available and will it be shipped by the manufacturer OR will it be purchased locally
- Final cost of the part (or parts) that are not covered under the manufacturer’s warranty
- What must be done to access and make the repair (some models are just far easier to work on)
- Is the repair even worth making versus replacement
- Is the repair due to a bad or incorrect installation – shockingly we correct or fix 1 to 2 every month!
Because of these many variables it is impossible to give a specific price for a tankless water heater repair. But to be as transparent as possible, we can provide you with averages and the highs & lows from real completed jobs within our system for that specific “job type.” Those totals look like this…
Using the last 100 “Tankless Water Heater Repair” jobs the average completed invoice was $411. The lowest invoice amount was $195, and the highest amount was $1800. Please note that of these 100 repair jobs used, 12 were due to “incorrect / poor installations”. Of these the average invoice to correct the bad installation was $1214. The lowest install correction was $952, and the highest was $1800. In other words, sometimes you get what you pay for, and the lowest price ends up costing you a lot more in the end.
Call (945) 523-8700Can Vinegar Be Used to Descale a Tankless Water Heater in Frisco?
Yes, vinegar can be used, but it is not recommended because of the amount that would be required to properly descale the heater. Vinegar, once exposed to the various minerals, dilutes and loses its strength to function properly. Therefore, vinegar must be discarded, then reintroduced full strength and the process restarted multiple times over a 60+ minute period of time.
Navien (the #1 bestselling manufacturer in North America), has instructed all their certified specialists NOT to use vinegar due to its ineffectiveness. At Earl’s Plumbing we use a product that does not dilute, and this allows us to complete a basic and proper descale (flushing) in under 45 minutes. Although this product is more expensive than vinegar, it is far more convenient and thorough, and with less time it allows us to reduce our price to the customer.
What Are the Most Common Repair Problems with a Frisco Tankless Water Heater?
This is very brand and model dependent. For the most part, if there are any problems or error codes within the first 1 to 1.5 years, it is usually (90%) installation related. Meaning it was likely not installed properly. The next most common issue is from a lack of the required annual maintenance. Any tankless water heater must be descaled and serviced every 500 hours of use. This usually equates to annually in a family of four. After that it is just normal wear and tear on some of the small moving parts like flow indicators, check valves, flame rods, etc. Frequency of maintenance (or lack thereof) also has a bearing on “wear and tear” of parts.
There are a couple of exceptions to the above observations. Because of new home growth, the most abundant tankless water heater in North Texas is the Rheem RTGH-95DVLN. It is the most abundant because it is the least expensive, and new home builders love cheap stuff. It is the least expensive model out there because…well, let us just say that in comparison to just about any other brand or model available in the area, it is pretty much “the bottom of the barrel.” Cheapest parts, minimal quality controls, poor engineering, etc. This tankless brand and model have almost single handily given the entire tankless industry far too much unfair and unwarranted criticism.
It should be noted that freezing is NOT a common issue for most tankless heaters that are installed correctly. That is IF you can follow basic freeze prevention directions, you can prevent your water lines from freezing in the handful of North Texas nights each year that the temps get into the teens.
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Contact Us Today for Tankless Water Heater Repairs and Maintenance
When properly maintained, your tankless water heater should provide endless, reliable hot water for years to come. When you need repairs or annual maintenance services, trust the #1 installer of tankless water heaters in the Frisco, McKinney, and Plano area—trust Earl’s Plumbing! Call or contact our Frisco plumbing company online today for fast and high quality service.
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