Water Heater Repair and Replacement in Key Largo, FL

If you find the leak

If it's coming from above. Call the building office or the owner upstairs straight away so the water can be shut off at its source, and knock if someone is home. Keep clear of wet light fittings and switches, move what you can and take photographs.

If it's your own heater, or one you look after. Close the valve on the cold pipe above the heater, or the main shutoff if you can't reach it. Keep clear of the heater's electrical parts and any water near them.

Tell the right people. The building office in a condo, the owner or manager in a rental, and any neighbor the water could have reached. Note the time.

Call. Give the address, the unit and where the heater is, and we'll connect you with a local pro. Owners should contact their own insurer once the water has stopped. Details are in condo water heater leak.

Water heater repair and replacement in Key Largo

The railroad reached the upper Keys early in the twentieth century, and for decades the post office here was called Rock Harbor, after the railroad stop. After the 1948 film "Key Largo" made the name famous, the community petitioned to change its postal address, and on June 1, 1952, the Rock Harbor post office gave way to Key Largo. In 1963 John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park opened offshore as the first undersea park in the United States. Key Largo has never incorporated and remains a census-designated community of Monroe County, the first stop on the pipeline that carries fresh water down the Keys from a wellfield near Florida City. About 11,600 people live in ZIP code 33037.

Census data show about 28% of homes in the 1970s and 28% in the 1980s, with 13% from the 1990s, 12% from the 1960s, 11% from the 2000s and around 8% older. Canal-front houses, many of them raised, keep the heater in a ground-level room, a utility closet or a garage; condos and townhomes keep it in a closet, often beside the air handler; manufactured homes keep it in a compartment. Electricity powers almost every heater in the area.

Close to two in five homes are seasonal or held for occasional use, according to Census data, and many more are let to visitors. With the ocean on one side and Florida Bay on the other, salt air reaches every heater.

For repairs, that means a great many heaters in homes that stand empty for weeks or months, where a slow leak has time to spread before anyone sees it, and closet heaters beside or above neighbors. With more than half the homes built in the 1970s and 1980s, many heaters are on their third or fourth tank, and in a raised canal house the heater may sit in a ground-level room where damp and salt work on it year round.

Service in Key Largo covers ZIP code 33037.

Closet heaters and how they're replaced

In the condos and townhomes, the heater usually stands in a closet built around the original tank, often shared with the air handler. Replacing it starts with measuring the closet, any shelf above and the door the new tank must pass through, since a slimmer or taller model often fits where the old shape won't. The installer plans a pan with an outlet that drains somewhere suitable, a shutoff valve that turns freely, new connectors and a relief valve line that discharges where it should. On the day, the technician checks in with the office, drains the old tank inside the unit and carries it out whole. Salt air works on fittings even indoors here, so crusted valves and connectors are renewed rather than reused. Related: condo water heater replacement.

Rentals and vacation lets

For a home let to visitors or tenants, keep a note of the heater's type, location and manufacture date, and make sure the manager knows where the shutoff valve is. Between stays, a quick look for damp around the heater and a check that hot water comes through catch most problems before guests do. Plan the replacement of an older heater for a quiet week rather than waiting for it to fail on a full weekend. Tenants and guests should contact the owner or property manager first, and the price is agreed with whoever is arranging the work. See drain pan and overflow protection.

Leak sensors and automatic shutoffs

In a home that stands empty for weeks, a leak can run unseen for days. A connected leak sensor on the floor beside the heater sends an alert to a phone the moment it gets wet, so an owner or manager can act from anywhere. An automatic shutoff valve goes further, closing the water supply by itself when a sensor trips, stopping a leak at its source rather than only raising the alarm. It can protect the heater alone or the whole home. Paired with a pan that drains properly, they're worth adding at any repair or replacement. Read more at seasonal home water heater shutoff.

Salt air between the ocean and the bay

With the Atlantic on one side and Florida Bay on the other, salt settles on brass valves, copper fittings and braided connectors, which grow a green or white crust. A joint underneath can weep for months, leaving a mineral trail down the jacket, and the relief valve and its discharge line corrode too. Heaters in ground-level rooms beneath raised houses, in carport closets and in garages with the door left open see it first. At any repair, crusted parts are renewed rather than reused, and in a home that stands empty, a look at the top of the tank on each visit catches most slow leaks before they spread. Details are in leaking water heater.

A sulfur smell after an empty spell

A rotten-egg smell from the hot taps only is commonly associated with sulfate in the water reacting with the tank's anode rod, and it's strongest when water has stood in the tank, as it does between guests or over a summer away. It often passes after the hot taps run for several minutes. Should it keep coming back, a technician can confirm why and generally swaps in a less reactive anode. Removing the anode is never the answer, because the tank then rusts through far sooner. Learn more about rotten-egg smell in hot water.

Water heater services in Key Largo

• Condo Water Heater Leak
• Condo Water Heater Replacement
• Drain Pan and Overflow Protection
• Leaking Water Heater
• Seasonal Home Shutoff
• Rotten-Egg Smell in Hot Water

Key Largo water heater questions

In Key Largo, can a heat pump water heater go in a condo closet?

Rarely in a small closet with a solid door, since the unit needs a good volume of air and a place to send its condensate. Louvered doors or ducting occasionally make it work. In a canal house with a roomy ground-level room or garage, it's a much easier fit.

For a Key Largo home, is a drain pan worth having under the heater?

Yes, especially in a closet over someone else's home or on an upper floor of a raised house. A pan holds a slow leak, but only if its outlet is piped somewhere that can take the water. Fitting one means lifting the heater, so replacement is the easiest time.

For a Key Largo home, will flushing fix an old, noisy water heater?

It may quiet it if loose sediment is the cause, but after years without a flush, sediment can harden into a crust water won't move. Flushing can't reverse scale or corrosion. On an older heater, what comes out tells the technician a lot about the tank.

For a Key Largo home, does the heater need space around it?

Yes. It needs room for servicing, clear access to the shutoff and drain valves, and for a heat pump unit, air around it. Ground-level rooms and garages fill with fishing gear and storage over the years, so keeping the area clear makes visits quicker.

For a Key Largo home, what does an automatic shutoff valve do?

It closes the water supply by itself when a sensor detects a leak, stopping the water rather than just sounding an alarm. It can serve the heater alone or the whole home, and it's most useful in a house or condo that stands empty for weeks at a time.

For a Key Largo home, can the water heater be moved to a different spot?

Often, but it means new water lines, a new circuit, a drain for the relief valve and pan, and sometimes changes to the space. In a condo, the association may have a say. The installer can price moving it against replacing it where it is.

We found a stain on our ceiling but the unit above is empty. What now?

Call the building office straight away; they can usually get into an empty unit and shut off its water. Keep clear of any wet light fittings, photograph the stain, and contact your own insurer once the source is stopped. The office can also warn the owner, who may be far away.

Do you cover all of Key Largo?

Yes. We cover the whole 33037 ZIP code, from the canal-front streets on the ocean side to the condos, townhomes and houses along the bay. Give us your address or mile marker on the call, and we'll match you with a nearby pro.

Nearby communities

We also cover Tavernier, Homestead and the rest of the Southeast Coast.

• Tavernier
• Homestead
• Key Biscayne