No hot water, rusty hot water, or a tank that’s finally leaking. We replace and repair water heaters across the Lakes Region — sized for what your household actually does, not just matched to whatever failed. Tank $1,400–$2,600 installed; tankless $3,800–$6,800.
Most water heaters get replaced with whatever was there before. That’s fine if the last one was right and a twelve-year mistake if it wasn’t. A 40-gallon tank that ran out of hot water every single morning will do exactly the same thing for the next twelve years.
So we ask what actually happens in your house. How many people, how many showers back to back, whether there’s an oversized soaking tub, whether the laundry runs at the same time as the morning rush. Then we size from that. It costs nothing extra to get it right and it’s the difference between a unit you never think about and one you resent daily.
Tankless is genuinely good in the right house and oversold in the wrong one. The thing that doesn’t appear in the brochure is incoming water temperature. A tankless heater doesn’t store hot water, it raises the temperature of water flowing through it — so its real output depends entirely on how cold the water arriving is.
New Hampshire well water sits in the low 40s°F for much of the year. Getting that to a usable 120°F is roughly an 80-degree rise. The same unit in a warm climate might only be doing a 45-degree rise. A tankless heater rated to deliver plenty of hot water in Virginia can leave you short here in January — which is exactly when you notice.
The fix isn’t to avoid tankless. It’s to size it for our inlet temperature, which usually means a bigger unit than the box suggests, and sometimes means gas line or venting work that has to be in the quote from the start. If that math doesn’t work for your house or your budget, a good tank is not a consolation prize.
Whatever goes into a camp has to be drainable, because it’s going to be shut down every fall for the entire life of the unit. That affects placement, the drain valve, and whether a tankless unit has the freeze protection and drain-down capability to survive an unheated building. It’s an easy thing to get right at install and an expensive thing to discover in December.
Plenty of water heaters are worth fixing. A failed thermocouple, a bad element, a stuck thermostat, a leaking relief valve — those are $200–$600 repairs on a unit with years left. What isn’t worth fixing is a tank that’s leaking from the tank itself, because that’s corrosion and it only goes one direction.
We’ll tell you which one you have. If your unit is eight years old with a cheap fault, fix it. If it’s thirteen and weeping at the base, replacing it on your schedule beats replacing it at 6am on a Sunday.
A standard tank generally lasts 8 to 12 years. Hard or acidic well water — common across the Lakes Region — shortens that, sometimes considerably. If yours is past ten and you’re seeing rust in the hot water or any moisture around the base, you’re on borrowed time. Replacing on your schedule costs the same as replacing in an emergency, minus the flooded floor.
Rough guide for a year-round house: 40 gallons for one to two people, 50 for three to four, 65 to 80 for five or more or a house with a big soaking tub. But usage pattern matters more than headcount — four people showering in sequence at 6:30am need more than four people spread across the morning. The sizing tool asks the right questions.
Usually yes. Most plumbing installations and major replacements in New Hampshire require a permit from the local building department or the state program, and your licensed plumber pulls it. It matters more than people expect: unpermitted work can complicate an insurance claim and shows up as a problem at closing when you sell.
Maybe — or maybe not. If only the hot water is discolored, it’s usually the tank or a spent anode rod, and a tank that’s rusting internally is on its way out. If the cold is discolored too, the problem is upstream: your well, your pressure tank, or in older village houses, galvanized supply pipe corroding from the inside. Different problem, different fix, very different cost.
Tell us how many people, how many bathrooms, what fuel you have, and whether it’s a year-round house or a camp. We’ll tell you what actually fits and what it costs installed.
Describe what’s happening and where the property is. We’ll come back with a straight answer on what it likely is, what it should cost, and when we can be there. If it’s an emergency, say so in the first line.
We reply to every request within 2 business hours.
