Quick answer: Most Westwood water heater faults are a thermocouple, heating element, thermostat or sediment buildup and are repairable. A leak from the base of the tank is not: once the steel jacket is compromised the unit must be replaced.
H. Hofmeister & Co. Inc. is a licensed NJ plumbing contractor (NJ Master Plumbing License #10625, NJ HVAC License #19HC002574) at 115 Bergenline Avenue, Westwood, NJ 07675. Family-owned since 1966. Hours 6AM-6PM seven days a week, with 24/7 emergency service. Call (201) 666-1118. This page covers water heater repair - no hot water, leaks, sediment noise and slow recovery.
Most Bergen County towns are on Veolia municipal water, whose mineral content settles as sediment in the bottom of a tank. That sediment is what produces the rumbling or popping during a heat cycle, and it is also why an unflushed heater in this area reaches the end of its life years earlier than the same unit would elsewhere. Ridgewood is the exception: the village runs its own wells through Ridgewood Water. Once a tank leaks from the base the steel jacket is compromised and it cannot be repaired. We serve Westwood, Emerson, Hillsdale, River Vale, Washington Township, Woodcliff Lake, Park Ridge, Montvale, Paramus, Ridgewood, Oradell, Closter, Demarest, Dumont, Haworth, Harrington Park, Northvale, Norwood and Old Tappan.
No hot water at all on a gas unit is usually the pilot, the thermocouple or the gas control; on an electric unit it is usually an element or the upper thermostat, and sometimes just a tripped high-limit reset. Lukewarm water that never gets properly hot on an electric heater normally means the lower element has failed while the upper still works. Hot water that runs out far sooner than it used to is sediment, a failed dip tube, or the household having outgrown the tank.
Rumbling or popping while heating is sediment on the tank floor: water is boiling underneath the deposit layer and forcing its way out. That is the most common sound in this area and it is a flush, not a failure, though a tank that has been doing it for years has been running inefficiently for years. A high-pitched whine is usually a restricted valve. Ticking after a cycle is normally just pipes expanding and is nothing.
Discoloured hot water with clear cold water points inside the tank: either the anode rod is spent and the steel has started to go, or the glass lining has failed. Discoloured water on both hot and cold is a supply-side or service-line issue instead, and that is a different job entirely. The test takes a minute at the tap and it determines whether you are talking about a repair, a replacement, or something that is not the water heater at all.
Past roughly ten to twelve years, a tank that needs a significant part is usually worth replacing rather than repairing, because the vessel is approaching the end of its life regardless of how good the new part is. Any leak from the base ends it immediately. Below that age, a thermocouple, element or thermostat is a straightforward repair and should be treated as one.
Call (201) 666-1118 — H. Hofmeister & Co. Inc., 115 Bergenline Ave, Westwood, NJ 07675.