Help! My Shower Is Cold, Do I Need A Plumber? | Bedford, TX
Most people wake up and wander into the kitchen for a hot cup of coffee and then grab a quick bite or head upstairs to the kitchen. After wasting a bit of time puttering around while the water warms up you take one last sip of coffee and then jump in. Most of the time this process probably works out well, but if you step into the shower and it is ice cold your day will suddenly take a very quick turn. Outside of maybe one or two people on the globe, no one wants to step into an ice-cold shower so it may time to call a Bedford, TX plumber.
While you wait for the plumber to show up at your home, you can explore a few issues that might possibly help explain your cold shower or at least narrow down what is going on. In most circumstances, something will be wrong with your plumbing that you need a plumber to address, but every so once in a while the solution is actually innocuous so it won’t hurt to investigate a bit while you wait. After all, you can’t do anything without hot water so you have nothing to lose.
Take a Good Look at Your Hot Water Usage
The very first thing you should do before you panic and call the plumber is think about your home’s hot water usage. Are you the first one to get in the shower? That makes the situation a lot different than if the kids or your spouse has already been in the shower. If you have a standard hot water heater there is only so long that you can expect your water to last until your water heater cycles. In this case, you don’t have an emergency, but you do need to consider if there is a better way to conserve water or if you need to upgrade the size of your water heater.
Take a Peak at Your Water Heater
On the other hand, if you are the first one in your home to jump into the shower you may have larger issues to deal with. The first thing that most people think of when they find a cold shower is the water heater, and rightfully so. There are a lot of scenarios that may cause your water heater to stop malfunction. In this case, you will need to call a plumber but can check a few things out around your water heater while you wait.
Take a minute to run to the lower floor or basement of your Bedford, TX house and see if the pilot light is on or not inside of your water heater. If the pilot light is not on you have your answer as to why the water was freezing. You can attempt to relight the pilot light on your own if you know how, and that hopefully will solve the problem. However, if you try to relight the pilot light and it either won’t stay on or it won’t light at all this is a sign that you need to have a plumber look closer at your water heater. The ignitor can break or corrode which could be where the problem lays.
If the pilot light is on but you still don’t have any hot water the next thing you should do is check the thermostat on your water heater to make sure that it didn’t get hit or knocked out of place. Most homes have their water heater temperature set around 120 degrees Fahrenheit. If yours is in the right place then at this point you have no choice but to wait for the plumber to help guide you to the next step.
While down there peak around the water heater to look for leaks. Any damp spots on the floor nearby can indicate a leak which turns a lack of hot water into a bigger emergency that you need to take care of right away before the leak becomes a burst tank. If your unit is making any type of odd noise like screeching, banging, or knocking then you should turn it off while you wait for the plumber to arrive.
Test Other Faucets in Your Home
One other way to isolate whether the problem is your water heater or not is to try out other faucets around your home. If you don’t have hot water on any floor of your home or in any room then the problem is probably related to your water heater. On the other hand, if you have hot water on a different level of your home then you have a separate issue that needs to be addressed.
Thinking About Replacing or Repairing Your Shower Valve
If you do notice that other faucets are just fine outside of your shower, then it may be time to look at your shower valve. The shower valve is responsible for mixing hot and cold water before it pours out of the showerhead. If something is wrong with the valve it may not be allowing any hot water to pass into the showerhead. All it takes is for one small part like the washer or O-ring to corrode or wear out to ruin the steady flow of water.
If none of these issues appear to be the problem, or if you discover one of them is the problem but you have no idea how to fix it then it is time to call a plumber. Tioga Plumbing & Electric has been helping Bedford, TX residents with their plumbing issues for years and will be happy to come to take a look at what could be causing your hot water issues.
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