No hot water? An error code flashing on the display? A unit that was already old when you bought the house? Fast Track Plumbing repairs, flushes, and replaces tankless water heaters across Tampa Bay, and the licensed plumber who answers your call is the one who shows up to do the work.
honest advice from fast track
"Do I Fix It or Replace It?" Here Is the Honest Answer
It is the first question almost everyone asks, and it deserves a straight answer instead of a sales pitch.
Here is the rule Luke actually uses: when the cost to fix a tankless approaches the cost to replace it, replace it. Repairing a tankless is slow, careful work. Parts have to be ordered, and on older units the parts often no longer exist. Most of the tankless heaters Luke gets called out to are 15 or more years old. At that age, even when a repair is possible, you are putting new money into a unit at the end of its life, and the repair carries no meaningful warranty. A new unit comes with real manufacturer coverage and starts the clock over.
A rough guide from the jobs Luke actually runs:
Your situation
What usually makes sense
- Unit under 10 years old, minor fault, parts available
Fix it. Often a sensor, igniter, or a badly overdue flush.
- Unit throwing scale codes, never been flushed
Flush first. A descale solves more problems than people expect.
- Unit 12 to 15+ years old with a real fault
Replace. Parts are scarce to nonexistent and the labor money is better spent on a new unit with a warranty
- Repair quote near half the cost of a new unit
Replace. The math almost never favors the repair.
One recent call came from a unit made by a Japanese brand that has not been sold in the United States in years. The heater was around 20 years old. No parts, no manual, no path to a repair. That is what old age looks like in a tankless, and it is why Luke will tell you plainly when fixing is a bad deal.
Tankless Problems
Tankless Problems We Fix
No hot water at all, or water that goes hot and cold while you are in the shower (the "cold water sandwich")
An error code flashing on the display
Hot water pressure that has slowly dropped over months
The unit will not ignite, or clicks and gives up
Leaking from the unit or the connections
A rotten smell, rust streaks, or corrosion on the cabinet
Fast Track services all major tankless brands, whether or not we installed the unit, including heaters bought at a big-box store or online. Gas and electric both, though gas is the bigger part of the work in Tampa Bay.
error-code card
What That Error Code Means
Rinnai is the most common tankless in Tampa Bay homes, and its error codes tell you a lot before anyone opens the unit. If you see one of these on the display, here is what it usually means and how Luke can help:
Code
What it usually means
How Luke helps
- 10
Air supply or exhaust blockage
Inspects and clears the venting, checks combustion air
- 11
No ignition. Gas supply, igniter, or flame rod
The most common call. Diagnoses gas flow, cleans or replaces the igniter and flame rod
- 12
Flame failure while running
Checks gas pressure, flame rod, and the solenoid valve
- 14 / 16
Overheating
Finds the cause instead of just resetting it. Often scale.
- 25 / 29
Temperature sensor fault
Tests and replaces the thermistor
- 61
Combustion fan fault
Tests the fan motor, replaces if gone
- 79
Water leak detected inside the unit
Finds the leak before it reaches your wall or floor
- LC (LC0 to LC9)
Scale buildup in the heat exchanger
This is the unit telling you it needs a flush. Book the descale before the scale does real damage.
Flushing Is the Fix
Tampa Water Is Hard on Tankless Heaters. Flushing Is the Fix.
Our region draws its water from a limestone aquifer, and it comes out of the ground carrying a heavy load of calcium and magnesium. Every time hot water passes through your tankless heater, a little of that mineral drops out and sticks to the heat exchanger, the part that actually makes the water hot. Plumbers call it scale. You would recognize it as the white crust on a faucet, except this crust is building up inside the most expensive part of the appliance.
Luke has measured hardness across Tampa Bay homes doing water treatment work, and the readings tell the story:typically 12 to 18 grains per gallon, with the highest he has personally measured at around 24 to 25.Downtown Tampa tends to run a little worse than Pinellas, but the whole Bay runs hard. The U.S. Geological Survey classifies water far softer than ours as “very hard.”
12-18 GPG
Typical Tampa Bay water hardness.
20+ YEARS
Potential lifespan with proper maintenance.