Water Heater Repair in Macon-Bibb County, GA
Tell us what your water heater is doing, and a licensed contractor who covers Bibb County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Power outages hit your water heater's recovery
Bibb County sees its share of damaging wind, 55 events over the last ten years. When the power drops, your water heater stops heating, and most tanks pick right back up once it's restored. But if the outage runs long, or hits during a cold stretch when nights average 36°F, you can come home to lukewarm or cold water and wonder if the unit itself failed.
Gas water heaters with a standing pilot keep running through an outage, but anything with electronic ignition needs the power back before it will fire again. If yours stays cold after the lights come back on, the ignition system, not the power, is what needs a look.
- 36°F
- the average winter night, and colder incoming water means longer heating
- 5 months
- November through March, the months homes here need heat
- 31%
- of Georgia households lost power for a day or more in 2024, and a heater with an electric element or electric ignition stops without it
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new water heater would cut about $330 a year off hot water for a typical Georgia home.
Estimates for a typical Georgia home, compared with an older unit built to the federal minimum, from EIA household energy data and Georgia fuel prices. Your home will differ.
Repair makes sense when an element, thermostat or gas valve has failed.
Replacement makes sense when the tank itself is leaking.
- Why is my water heater leaking from the bottom?
- The most common cause is the tank itself failing from the inside, where sediment builds up over the years and corrodes the steel until it gives way. Once a tank is leaking like this, it needs to be replaced, not repaired, because the damage is inside the lining. A leak at the bottom can also come from the drain valve or a fitting nearby, which a contractor can check before assuming the tank is done. Either way, water at the base of the unit means it needs a look soon, since a failing tank can let go without warning.
- Why won't the pilot light on my water heater stay lit?
- Most of the time this means the thermocouple has worn out and is no longer telling the gas valve that the pilot is lit, so the valve shuts the gas off. It can also happen if the pilot tube is dirty or if there is a draft reaching the pilot flame. A thermocouple is an inexpensive part to replace and it is a common repair on older water heaters. If you have already tried relighting it more than once and it will not hold, a contractor should look at the valve and thermocouple together.
- Can a tankless water heater be repaired?
- Yes, most problems with a tankless water heater are repairable. Common issues are a clogged inlet filter, a buildup of scale on the heat exchanger, or a failed sensor, and all of these can be serviced without replacing the unit. Tankless units also run diagnostic codes that show up on the display, which tells a contractor what to check first. Scale buildup is worth asking about specifically, since it can be flushed out before it causes bigger damage to the heat exchanger.