Why is there no hot water in the house?
On a gas heater, the burner is not firing — usually the pilot, thermocouple or gas control valve. On an electric heater, an element or thermostat has failed, or the high-limit switch has tripped. Establishing which of those it is comes before anything else.
The reason this order matters is money. A thermocouple is a small part. A gas control valve is a larger one. A tank that has corroded through is not repairable at any price, and anyone offering to patch it is selling you a delay.
How do I know if it is the water heater or something else?
Check whether cold water still runs normally at the same fixture. If cold is fine and hot is absent everywhere in the house, it is the heater. If both are weak, it is a supply problem. If only one fixture is affected, it is that fixture.
One more check worth doing before calling: look at the heater itself. Water pooling underneath changes the whole conversation, because the question becomes whether the tank body has failed rather than which component has.
What do I check first on a gas water heater?
The pilot light or igniter. If the pilot is out and will not relight, or lights and immediately goes out, the thermocouple is the usual cause. If the pilot holds but the burner never fires, the gas control valve is the more likely fault.
- Pilot out and will not relight — commonly a failed thermocouple
- Pilot lights then dies within seconds — same, or a dirty pilot assembly
- Pilot holds but the burner never fires — gas control valve
- Burner fires but water never gets hot — thermostat, or a dip tube problem
Do not keep relighting a pilot that will not hold. Repeated attempts on a unit with a gas control fault are not dangerous in themselves, but they waste the afternoon you could have spent getting it fixed.
What do I check first on an electric water heater?
The breaker, then the high-limit reset button behind the upper access panel. If the breaker is on and the reset has not tripped, the fault is a heating element or a thermostat — both are standard repairs on a tank with life left.
A useful symptom: if hot water runs out unusually fast rather than being absent entirely, that is typically the lower element rather than the upper. The upper element heats the top of the tank, so you still get a short burst of hot water before it disappears.
Is water pooling under the heater repairable?
It depends entirely on where it comes from. A leaking fitting or a discharging temperature and pressure relief valve is repairable. Water coming from the tank body itself means the steel has corroded through, and no repair brings that back.
Identifying which is the first thing we do on site, because everything after it depends on the answer. If it is the tank, the useful conversation is replacement cost against the age of the unit, not how to patch it.
If you are weighing that decision, the water heater repair page sets out the typical ranges for both so the comparison is in front of you.
How long should a water heater last in Bend?
A conventional tank typically runs from single-digit years into the low teens depending on use and maintenance. Bend’s median home dates to around 2001, so a large share of original tanks in this city are now past that window.
Bend changes one part of the standard advice. Most water heater guidance is written for hard-water regions where scale on the elements is the dominant failure mode. Bend’s municipal supply runs roughly one to one and a half grains per gallon — soft to slightly hard — so sediment builds far more slowly here than that advice assumes.
The practical consequence: when a Bend tank fails, the cause is usually plain age and internal corrosion. That makes the sacrificial anode rod the component actually worth asking about during a service visit, rather than the annual flush.
Does a water heater in an unheated garage matter?
Yes, on two counts. It loses standby heat to cold air all winter, which slows recovery and costs money. More importantly the cold inlet and the T&P discharge line are freeze-exposed, and a frozen discharge line blocks the tank’s safety path.
Garage and crawlspace installs are a Bend norm rather than an exception, so this is worth checking on any property here. Insulating both lines is inexpensive and we will point it out whether or not it is what you called about.
Last reviewed 2026-09-21 by Bend Plumbing Pros, Bend, OR.