No hot water is one of the most common calls we get across Charleston and Mount Pleasant, and a fair number of them turn out to be something a homeowner could have checked in a few minutes. Others are real emergencies. This guide helps you tell the difference before you pick up the phone.
First: Is It Actually an Emergency?
Stop and call right away if any of these are true:
- You smell gas near the water heater. Leave the house, call your gas company from outside, then call us.
- Water is pooling around the base of the tank or running from the relief valve.
- A carbon monoxide alarm is going off.
- You hear a burning electrical smell or see scorch marks.
For those, skip the checklist and use our 24/7 emergency water heater service. If none of those apply, work through the steps below.
Check 1: Is It Every Faucet or Just One?
Run hot water at two or three fixtures in different parts of the house. If only one is cold, the problem is likely that fixture, usually a single-handle faucet cartridge or a shower mixing valve, not the water heater. If the whole house is cold, keep going.
Check 2: Did You Just Run Out?
Back-to-back showers, a load of laundry and a dishwasher cycle can drain a tank faster than it recovers. Give it 30 to 45 minutes. If hot water comes back and then runs out again quickly, the tank may be undersized for the household or full of sediment. Our guide on hot water running out too fast covers that scenario.
Check 3: Electric Heaters, Look at Power First
- The breaker. Find the water heater's breaker in the panel. If it is tripped, reset it once. If it trips again, stop; something is shorting and needs a repair.
- The reset button. Electric heaters have a high-limit reset button behind the upper access panel. Turn the breaker off before you open the panel. If the button has popped, press it firmly and restore power. Our reset button guide walks through it. A reset that trips repeatedly means a bad thermostat or element.
Check 4: Gas Heaters, Look at the Flame
- Is the pilot out? Look through the sight glass near the bottom. If there is no flame, follow the relighting instructions printed on the unit. If it will not stay lit, the thermocouple is the usual suspect; see why a pilot light will not stay lit.
- Is the gas control set correctly? Make sure it has not been bumped to "vacation" or "pilot."
- Are other gas appliances working? If the stove is also dead, the issue may be gas supply, not the heater.
Check 5: Tankless Units, Read the Display
Tankless heaters usually tell you what is wrong with an error code on the front panel. Write it down before you do anything else. Then confirm the unit has power (breaker) and gas, and try one power cycle: off for a minute, then back on. If the code returns, that is your answer for the technician. Scale buildup is the most common cause of tankless codes in our hard water, and it needs a descaling rather than a reset.
Check 6: After a Storm or Outage
If the power just came back after a storm, give an electric or hybrid unit time to reheat, and check that the breaker actually reset. A gas unit with electronic ignition may need to be turned off and on again. Water that comes out brown after a municipal disruption is usually stirred-up sediment; run a cold tap until it clears, then check the hot side.
Check 7: Any Water Where It Should Not Be?
Look under and around the unit. A wet pan, damp drywall or rust streaks down the side mean the tank or a fitting is leaking. Close the cold-water supply valve on top of the heater and shut off power or gas. A leaking tank is a replacement, not a repair, and it moves to the emergency list.
Two Things Not to Do
Do not keep resetting a breaker or reset button that keeps tripping. Each trip is the safety system doing its job, and forcing it repeatedly can turn a bad element into a bigger electrical problem.
Do not try to relight a gas unit that smells like gas or shows soot around the burner. Soot and scorching mean the burner is not combusting cleanly, and that is a venting or gas-valve issue to have inspected, not a pilot to relight.
Why It Happens More in Winter
Even in Charleston, the coolest weeks of the year raise the temperature rise a water heater has to deliver, and an aging tank or a tankless unit with scale inside it is more likely to fall short then. If the unit has been "almost enough" all fall, a cold snap is often when it finally is not. Our cold snap prep guide covers the easy steps to get ahead of that.
What to Have Ready When You Call
- Whether the unit is gas or electric, tank or tankless
- The brand and, if you can see it, the model and age
- Any error code on a tankless unit
- What you have already tried (breaker, reset, pilot)
That lets us send the right tech with the right parts, which is how most calls end up being fixed on the first visit.
When to Call Us
If the checks above do not bring hot water back, or you are not comfortable doing them, that is what we are here for. Our water heater repair service covers Mount Pleasant, Charleston, Daniel Island, Isle of Palms, Sullivan's Island, James Island, West Ashley and Folly Beach, same day in most cases, with an upfront flat-rate quote before any work starts. Request service or call (843) 990-6524, day or night.