Water Heater Repair in Whittaker, Michigan

Temprasure repairs gas, power-vent and electric water heaters throughout Whittaker and the rest of Washtenaw County, 24 hours a day with no overtime surcharge. The atmospheric gas tanks in the older Whittaker basements near the Whittaker Road and Willis Road intersection share a chimney with the furnace and fail at the pilot and thermocouple; the power-vent units in the newer subdivisions around Stony Creek Road fail at the blower, the pressure switch and the vent. We stock parts for both, read the codes on the sealed units instead of guessing, and verify the flue drafts properly before we leave any Whittaker house with DTE Energy gas burning in the basement.

Whittaker houses and what that means for water heater repair

Around the crossroads itself the houses are 1880s–1930s farm-village homes with Michigan basements, balloon framing and a forced-air system that was retrofitted into a house built for a wood or coal stove. Those homes tend to have a single undersized return and a furnace that has been replaced two or three times without the ductwork ever being touched. Along Whittaker, Willis and Talladay Roads the common house is a 1970s–90s ranch or raised ranch on a crawlspace or block basement, with the original furnace in a utility room and a condenser that was added in the 1990s on whatever circuit was available. The 2000s subdivisions between Bemis and Willis Roads are colonials and ranches on poured basements with builder-grade equipment that is reaching replacement age, and a lot of them run propane rather than gas. Manufactured homes and modulars on the side roads often have small downflow furnaces and package units that need parts most shops do not stock.

Power-vent water heaters in the newer Whittaker subdivisions are a different repair. The 1970s–90s rural ranches and 2000s acreage homes around an old crossroads builds in Stony Creek Road were put up without chimneys, so the water heater has a blower on top and a PVC exhaust out the side of the house, and that exhaust ends somewhere a wasp can build a nest or a snowdrift can cover it. A blocked vent trips the pressure switch, the unit locks out, and the homeowner gets a beep and a blinking light. We read the error code, check the vent run end to end, test the pressure switch and the blower, and replace only what has actually failed. Whittaker power-vent owners should also know these units have more parts than an atmospheric tank, and we carry the common ones so the repair is finished on the first visit.

Water heaters in Whittaker fail the way they fail everywhere in Washtenaw County: quietly for years, then all at once on a weekday morning. The 1970s–90s rural ranches and 2000s acreage homes around an old crossroads around Whittaker Road north toward Bemis and Judd Road area mostly have 40- or 50-gallon atmospheric gas tanks on DTE Energy service, often in a basement near a sump pit where a leak goes unnoticed until the floor is wet. We are 16 minutes from 48190 with thermocouples, gas valves, elements, thermostats and relief valves on the truck, and when the tank itself is done we replace it the same day whenever a unit is in stock.

Local details we plan around in Whittaker

• DTE gas is available right along Whittaker Road and Willis Road near the crossroads, but a few hundred yards down a side road the gas main ends and propane takes over.
• Permits for Whittaker addresses are issued by Washtenaw County, not by a village or city, because the community has no government of its own.
• Crawlspace ductwork on the 1970s ranches here is frequently rusted, disconnected or chewed, and we check it on every furnace call before we blame the equipment.
• Whittaker is on flat, open ground with Stony Creek running through the low land to the north and east, and the creek bottom holds moisture that keeps nearby crawlspaces damp through late spring. There is almost no windbreak between the crossroads and the fields to the west, so winter wind hits the exposed side of every house. Summer is humid and still, and homes without mature shade trees run their air conditioning longer than their size would suggest.