Licensed and Insured Tankless Water Heater Repair in West Vancouver
A tankless water heater suits a West Vancouver home well. It provides endless hot water from a unit the size of a suitcase, without you ever having to think about it. When it starts taking a minute to deliver, runs cold at a half-open tap, or stops firing altogether, that changes fast. Eaton's Heating has repaired tankless units across West Vancouver for 20-plus years, on Navien, Rinnai, Takagi, Noritz, Bosch, Rheem, and every other residential brand, from the renovated homes in Ambleside and Dundarave to the large houses in the British Properties and Caulfeild, with same-day service available. The $189 diagnostic reads the unit's fault history and checks the igniter, flame rod, fan, flow sensor, inlet filter, venting, and gas supply, and any repair is quoted before the work starts with OEM parts and six months warranty on parts and labour. Most tankless problems here are a single worn part or a gas supply that needs a look, and either way the unit is usually back to full hot water the same day.
See what our customers have to say
Brands Serviced
Years of Experience
Homes Served and Counting
Almost every tankless water heater problem you read about starts with scale. Hard water leaves minerals inside the heat exchanger, the flow drops, the unit overheats, and the fix is a descaling flush every year. West Vancouver does not have that problem. The water here comes from the Capilano and Seymour reservoirs and from the District's own Eagle Lake and Montizambert Creek sources, all of it rain and snowmelt off granite, and it is among the softest municipal water in North America. A tankless unit in a Dundarave home is working with some of the gentlest water a heat exchanger will ever see. It still benefits from a descaling flush over time to stay in good condition, and we do that as a standalone service, but when a West Vancouver tankless unit gives trouble, scale is not usually where we find the cause.
The faults we see most in West Vancouver are the ones every tankless brand shares: an igniter or flame rod that has worn, a fan that has failed, a flow sensor or inlet filter blocked with grit, a blocked condensate drain on a condensing unit, or a gas line that was fine for a tank and is too small for a tankless unit once the furnace and fireplace are running. Most of it is standard tankless water heater repair, done in one visit. The one thing worth knowing about the water here is that it arrives cold in winter, so a unit that was sized for summer showers can come up short in January, and we tell you when that is sizing rather than a fault.
The $189 diagnostic starts at the unit's control panel, where every modern tankless heater stores its fault history, and that history usually points to the cause before anything is opened. We then check the inlet filter, the flow sensor, the igniter and flame rod, the fan and its speed, the venting and condensate drain on condensing models, the water temperature set point, and the gas supply with the other gas appliances in the house running. Repairs are quoted before the work starts, with OEM and CSA certified parts and six months warranty on parts and labour. Eaton's Heating is TSBC licensed (LGA0200006), a Home Performance Contractor Network member, and holds a 4.9 rating across 400-plus Google reviews.
The tankless units in West Vancouver are mostly newer, installed during the renovations and rebuilds of the last fifteen years in Ambleside, Dundarave, Cedardale, and Sentinel Hill, and repair is the answer for nearly all of them. When a heat exchanger has failed on a unit past its warranty, we say so and quote a Navien or Rinnai replacement sized for the winter water, not the summer water. Everything we do with hot water, tanks and tankless together, is on our hot water heaters page, and if your hot water comes from a combi boiler rather than a tankless unit, which is the case in many of the radiant-heated British Properties homes, that is a boiler call and we handle it through boiler repair.
A tankless unit draws several times the gas of the tank it replaced while it is running, and in older West Vancouver homes the gas line was sized in the 1960s or 1970s for a furnace, a tank, and a range. Add a tankless unit, a gas fireplace, and a barbecue line to that same pipe and the unit can starve when the furnace fires. The symptom is a unit that runs fine on its own and drops out or throws a fault when something else in the house is burning gas, and it gets misdiagnosed as a bad board or a failing fan more often than any other tankless problem.
That is why the $189 diagnostic checks the gas supply with the other appliances running, not just the unit on its own. When the line is the cause, the fix is gas fitting work rather than a part: upsizing the run to the unit or adding a dedicated line from the meter. We quote it before anything is touched, and once it is done the unit usually delivers everything it was rated for, including on the January mornings when it seemed to be failing. If the line is fine and a part has failed, that is quoted the same way, and either job is done by the same licensed gas fitter on the same visit where parts allow.
Licensed Gas Contractor (LGA0200006)
Authorized Dealer and Installer
Certified Fireplace Dealer
Have a question about your HVAC system? Book an appointment using the form below, or call (604) 535-8434 for immediate help.
The diagnostic is $189 and covers the full check described above. The repair is quoted before any work starts. The least expensive repairs are a flame rod, an igniter, an inlet filter cleaning, or a flow sensor. A fan, a water valve, or a control board cost more. A heat exchanger is the one repair where we will tell you honestly whether the unit is worth it, and on a unit more than twelve years old it often is not. Every part is OEM and CSA certified with six months warranty on parts and labour, and descaling is priced separately as its own service.
In summer, usually. In winter, only if it was sized for it. The large houses in the British Properties, Whitby Estates, and Caulfeild with four or more bathrooms need either a unit sized to the January inlet temperature or two units running in parallel, which is how most of the biggest homes in these neighbourhoods are set up. If the unit in your home was sized for a smaller household or a warmer climate, the winter shortfall is a sizing problem and not a fault. For some households a large hot water tank in West Vancouver is the simpler answer, and we say so when it is.
Over time, yes, and the soft water here means you can do it less often than a unit in a hard-water city. Every tankless manufacturer recommends a periodic descaling flush to keep the heat exchanger in good condition and to protect the warranty, and we do it as a standalone service, booked on its own or with a repair visit. The signs that a unit is due are reduced flow at the tap and an outlet temperature that drifts above the set point on an otherwise healthy unit. In West Vancouver we see those signs later in a unit's life than we do elsewhere in the Lower Mainland, which is one of the quiet advantages of living on mountain water.
A tankless unit fires only when enough water is flowing through it, and every model has a minimum flow below which it stays off. A bathroom sink with a low-flow aerator, or a tap opened halfway, can sit just under that number and run cold forever. The fix is usually simple: a different aerator, a small adjustment to the set point, or in a few cases a recirculation pump that keeps the unit ready. In the renovated Ambleside and Dundarave homes with new low-flow fixtures and an older tankless unit, this is one of the most common calls we take, and it is almost never a repair.
FortisBC has offered rebates on condensing tankless water heaters, which are the type Navien and Rinnai make for most West Vancouver installs. Programs and amounts change, so we do not promise a figure. As a FortisBC Trade Ally we confirm what your home qualifies for during the assessment, and current programs are listed on our BC rebates page.
Because the water coming into the house is much colder in January than in July, and a tankless unit has to lift it further to reach shower temperature, so it delivers fewer litres per minute at the same setting. Nothing is wrong with the unit. A house that ran a shower and the dishwasher together in August may find the shower going cool when both run in winter, and in the large British Properties and Caulfeild homes a unit sized to the summer number will come up short. If the winter shortfall is more than a small dip, the diagnostic tells you whether it is a fault, a gas supply problem, or a sizing limit, and only the first two are repairs.
Simply complete our form to make an appointment. A member of our team will be in touch to confirm your appointment.
