Cold shower this morning? Pilot light out and you can’t get it lit? Standing water around the base of the tank? You’re in the right place. Wahl has been keeping Pittsburgh homes in hot water since 1980, and a water heater is one of the few jobs we can usually finish the same day we show up.

What we install and service

Wahl works on every kind of residential water heater you’ll find in an Allegheny County home, and we cross-train our techs and installers so the person who walks in your door can answer questions on all of them, not just the one they’re trying to sell you.

• Gas tankless water heaters. Endless hot water, smaller footprint, longer life. The Rheem Ikonic and RTGH series are our workhorses.
• Electric tankless water heaters. Point-of-use and whole-home, for homes without natural gas service.
• Heat pump water heaters. Rheem ProTerra. Two to four times more efficient than a standard electric tank. Federal tax credit eligible.
• Gas tank water heaters. The traditional 40 or 50-gallon tank, in standard atmospheric, power-vent, and direct-vent configurations.
• Electric tank water heaters. For homes with no gas line, or where running gas isn’t practical.
• Indirect water heaters. For homes with a boiler. Hot water shares the boiler’s burner, no second flame needed.
• Combi boilers. Heat and hot water from one unit. See our boiler page for the full picture.
• Recirculation pumps. Instant hot water at every fixture, no more waiting at the kitchen sink.
• Powered anode rods. A longevity upgrade for existing tanks. An electric current replaces the standard sacrificial anode, prevents corrosion, extends tank life, and (for the right hot-side sulfur-smell issues) eliminates the rotten-egg odor. We install these during service calls on tanks worth saving. More detail on the water heater repair page.
• Water heater repair. When replacement isn’t the right call, we fix what’s there.

Not sure where to start? Read our How to pick a water heater guide. It walks you through the decision the way we’d walk you through it in your basement.

Why Pittsburgh water heaters fail early

A water heater in Squirrel Hill or Mt. Lebanon doesn’t have the same life expectancy as one in Phoenix. A few reasons:

Hard water. The Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers carry minerals that build up inside the tank as scale. Scale insulates the burner from the water, the burner has to work longer to heat the same gallon, and the bottom of the tank cooks itself. Every Pittsburgh water heater we pull out has scale. The question is just how much.

Older housing stock. A lot of Pittsburgh homes were built before 1960. Many still have galvanized supply lines, undersized gas piping, or chimneys that don’t meet current venting code. We see water heaters fail early because the system feeding them isn’t right, not because the tank itself was bad.

Cold incoming water. Pittsburgh ground water comes in around 45 to 50 degrees in winter. That’s cold. Your heater has to lift it 75 to 80 degrees to hit a 125 degree setpoint, which is more work than the same heater would do in a milder climate. Undersized units cycle constantly and wear out faster.

Basements that flood. Pittsburgh basements take on water. A tank that sits in standing water, even briefly, ages from the outside in. We’ve seen 4-year-old tanks rusted through at the bottom from one bad sump pump failure.

We factor all of this into what we recommend. The “right” water heater for your home depends on your incoming water, your venting, your gas service, your floor space, and how you use hot water, not just on what’s on sale.

Same-day and next-day install

Most water heater installs in our service area happen same-day or next-day. We stock the popular Rheem tanks (40 and 50-gallon gas, 50-gallon electric) and the Ikonic and RTGH tankless units on our install trucks year-round. If you call before noon and your home is set up for a like-for-like replacement, we can usually have hot water back on by dinner.

A few jobs take longer: – Switching from gas to electric (or electric to gas) usually adds a day for electrical or gas line work. – Tankless conversions take a full day. You’re adding a new gas line, a new exhaust vent, a condensate line, and an electrical circuit, and we’d rather do it right than fast. – Heat pump water heater installs sometimes need a new dedicated 30-amp circuit and a condensate drain.

We tell you the timeline before we start. No surprises.

The Wahl process, start to finish

1. You call or schedule online. A real Pittsburgh person answers the phone. We ask what’s going on and book the visit.
2. A licensed plumber comes out. Not a salesman. The same person who diagnoses the problem is the person who can fix it.
3. We pull a full picture. Age, condition, venting, gas pressure, supply line condition, electrical, water quality, the works. Five minutes of measurement saves a five-year headache.
4. We sit down and walk you through options. Three or four solutions, side by side, on paper, with prices. Standard price and Wahl Club member price both shown. You pick the one that fits.
5. We install it that day if we can. Most water heater installs are same-day. Some need a return trip, and we’ll tell you which up front.
6. We test, we walk you through it, and we clean up. You get a one-year maintenance agreement built in, photos of the install, and a written warranty.

Warranty and what’s included

Every Wahl water heater install includes:

• The water heater itself (manufacturer warranty: 6 years on most tanks, 12 to 15 years on tankless, 10 years on heat pump models).
• A new T&P (temperature and pressure) relief valve, code-compliant discharge piping, and a new safety pan where applicable.
• A new pressure-reducing valve or expansion tank if your home’s pressure setup requires it.
• New shutoff valves and flexible connectors.
• Proper venting (the right liner, the right pitch, the right termination).
• Permit pull and city inspection coordination.
• A one-year maintenance tune-up included with the install.
• One-year labor warranty standard, extended warranties available.

We don’t cut corners on the install kit. The single most common reason a water heater fails early is a bad install, not a bad heater. The fix for that is making sure the install is right the first time.

Financing

Most water heater replacements are unexpected expenses. We offer financing through GoodLeap, Synchrony, Wells Fargo, and EasyPay. Approval takes about two minutes from your phone. We’ll walk you through the options before we start.

Emergency service, 24/7

A tank can rupture at 2 a.m. on Christmas Eve, and yes, that has happened to a Wahl customer. We run 24/7 emergency dispatch for water heaters across our whole service area. If the tank is actively leaking, get the water and gas (or power) shut off if you can do it safely, then call us. We’ll be on the way.