When you are troubleshooting with hot water heaters there are several things you might want to check out first. Establish first what kind of hot water heater you own and the important serial numbers and dates stating when it was installed. If you have a tankless water heater such as Rheem or Rinnai the first thing to check is the electrical breaker and make sure they didn't trip. If they did cut them back on and press the reset button. A fault error code will flash on the display of the control panel and this will assist you with the diagnosis that you can fix yourself.
Identifying the problem is number one thing that must be done. No hot water, water that smells bad, noise in the tank are just a few of the problems that may occur. When troubleshooting water heaters first make sure power to hot water heater is off. Even if you have a tankless hot water heater you need to cut off power at the circuit breaker or in case of gas turn the pilot light off before doing any work on the heater. If the power went out before you had any trouble with the hot water heater check for a reset button.
If you have an instant hot water heater or tankless such as a Rheem, Rinnai or Bosch then the problem may be in the wiring. Be sure the current or gas is turned off before beginning any troubleshooting of your water heater. Check your thermostat setting to make sure it is on the right temperature. For a water tank type of hot water heater you must cut the power and let the water cool down for about 5 minutes then drain the hot water tank and run clean cool water through it to clean it out.
Most hot water heaters come with an instruction book. Check what steps they recommend before calling a service representative. When troubleshooting hot water heaters of all types check the obvious things first like power source and leaking tanks. Check to see if you have a loose wire or a bad heating panel. Make sure your pilot light did not blow out or you just need to hit the reset button again to make it come back on. When everything else fails to work and you need to call the service man please remember to tell him all the things you did try to do.
