Your Colorado Springs Plumber

Power vent /power direct vent water heaters – To identify if you have this type of water heater look for a black motor on the top of the unit.
If your customer has a power vent or direct vent water heater and they call because the water heater is not working they will need to follow the steps below. They can even try to avoid issues by doing this today.

• Unplug the water heater unit inside the home
• Go out to the candy cane vents if possible ( some are located up high or on roof) and pop out any screens inside of them ( you can use a butter knife or screw driver
• With a dry rag or t-shirt wipe out the inner rim of the vent
• Leave screens off (till warmer months)
• Plug unit back in and wait a few minutes – this should be good to go now.

Note: if vents are high or on roof, they may have to wait till we warm up to do anything unless they have the ability to follow the above steps on a ladder.

• Please check all hose hookups to make sure no hoses are attached.
• Drip water from faucets CSU is recommending that the stream is the depth of a pencil tip
• Open any and all cabinets going to faucets – this is kitchen, bathrooms, and wet bar sinks (showers and tubs if on an outside wall as well. )
• If the H.O. notices a possible freeze have them pint a space heater towards the faucet pipes under cabinet (this should only be done if they can monitor the space heater at all times and the space heater should not be placed in the cabinet.)

If they think they have a freeze continue to leave all faucets in the house on a drip until water usage comes back to each fixture.