Why is my water heater leaking? Here is the honest version: what you can safely check yourself in the next five minutes, what a technician usually finds when it is not that, and exactly what it costs to find out.
By Argent Heating & Cooling, Northern Virginia, VA. Updated September 27, 2026.
If this means no hot water in the house: A home with no hot water is treated as urgent and prioritized, often same-day. The emergency button on the booking page gets a callback within 60 seconds.
If one of these fixes it, you owe us nothing and we are glad. If not, the next part is what the visit is for.
Leaking. A steel tank leaks when it corrodes through, and the part that is supposed to corrode instead of the tank is the anode rod: once it is spent, the tank itself is what the water eats. Hard water is what uses the anode up and what settles on the bottom of the tank, and a tank that heats through a layer of sediment runs hotter at the steel than it was built for.
These are the causes in the manufacturers' troubleshooting charts and the trade handbooks our technicians train on, in plain words. The visit proves which one it is with a meter before anything is replaced.
A thermal expansion tank on the cold side gives heated water somewhere to go, so the relief valve stops weeping and the tank stops taking the pressure.
$59 on weekdays, $159 evenings and weekends. Published and final, pre-tax, and the price is the price whether we find a loose wire or a bad motor.
Book the $59 visit online Or call (703) 281-6300Real arrival windows, including evenings and weekends. Paying is what confirms the slot; the office calls to confirm the window.