North of St. Paul
Water Heater Repair in Roseville, MN
Brown water, a strange smell or grit in the faucet aerator. Before you blame the heater, find out where it starts.
Roseville does not treat its own drinking water. The city buys finished water from Saint Paul Regional Water Services and runs it through its own mains to homes and businesses.
That means Roseville water is the same softened St. Paul water that serves much of the east metro. When something looks or smells off, the first job is figuring out whether it started in the mains or in your water heater.
Getting that right saves money. A plumber cannot fix a problem in the city mains, and the city cannot fix a spent anode rod inside your tank.
Water heater repair in Roseville, ZIP 55113
Roseville addresses use ZIP code 55113 or 55112. Homes range from the streets near Central Park and Bennett Lake to the blocks around Rosedale Center and Har Mar Mall.
Roseville's Permits and Inspections Division handles permits. The city says a homeowner may do plumbing work on a house they live in, as long as they get a permit and have the work inspected. A plumber replacing a water heater applies through the same office.
Many water heater calls from Roseville start as a water quality question. Brown hot water, a sulfur smell or grit in the aerators can point to a spent anode or a broken dip tube, and the bucket test below shows which side to blame. The rest are the usual mix: pilots that will not hold, burned out elements, tanks due for replacement and now and then a leak on a basement floor that cannot wait until morning.
Hot side only, or both sides?
The simplest test takes two minutes. Run the cold water at a tub faucet into a white bucket, then do the same with the hot.
- Cold and hot both discolored. The problem is upstream. Main breaks, hydrant flushing and construction stir up sediment in the pipes. Call the city utility.
- Only the hot side discolored. The water heater is the source. Rusty water often means a spent anode and a tank that has started to rust inside.
- A sulfur or rotten egg smell on the hot side only. Usually the anode rod reacting with the water. It is a fixable heater issue.
- White grit in faucet aerators. Often bits of a crumbling dip tube inside the tank, or sediment kicked up by a flush.
What St. Paul water means for the tank
St. Paul softens its water at the plant, and a recent report put treated water at a little over 5 grains per gallon. That is moderate. A tank on Roseville city water collects less sediment than one on the very hard well water in parts of the west metro.
Moderate water still leaves something behind. Flushing the tank every year or two and checking the anode after year five keeps most tanks healthy.
If you added a home softener on top of city softening, the anode will wear faster. Check it more often.
Housing and the heater
Roseville has a lot of midcentury ramblers and split levels, many with the heater in a basement utility room shared with the furnace. As with other first ring suburbs, a furnace upgrade can leave the water heater alone on an old chimney. Ask for a draft check if that happened in your house.
When you call, say whether the problem shows up on both taps or only the hot one. That detail sends the right person.
Roseville homeowners can find typical costs on the main Minneapolis water heater repair page.
When the city flushes hydrants
Utilities flush hydrants and work on mains from time to time. That can loosen sediment and rust in the pipes and send discolored water into homes for a few hours.
If you notice discolored water during flushing, avoid running hot water until the cold runs clear. Otherwise that sediment ends up in the water heater, where it settles on the bottom and can clog the drain valve later.
If it does get in, a tank flush a few days later clears most of it. Run the cold tap first until it is clear, then flush the heater.
Questions from Roseville homeowners
Where does Roseville get its water?
From Saint Paul Regional Water Services. Roseville buys treated water and distributes it through its own mains.
My hot water is brown. Is the tank failing?
If only the hot side is brown, the tank or anode is likely the source. If cold water is brown too, call the city first.
Do I need a softener on Roseville water?
Many homes do fine without one, since St. Paul softens its water at the plant. It comes down to personal preference.
What is the white grit in my faucet screens?
Often pieces of a broken dip tube inside the water heater, or loosened sediment. A plumber can check the tube.