Springfield’s water heaters split along the same line as the heat. Close to nine in ten Kings Park and North Springfield owners burn gas for heat, so the tank next to the furnace, down in the basement or the utility room, usually burns gas as well. Three in four Newington Forest owners heat with electricity, and their tanks tend to be electric, tucked into a closet. West Springfield, two thirds gas and about four in ten homes townhouses, has plenty of both.
The chimney is the Springfield wrinkle. When a 1960s house swaps its old furnace for a condensing one that exhausts through PVC out the side of the house, the gas water heater ends up drafting alone up a flue sized for two appliances. Sometimes a stainless liner sized for the water heater sorts it out. Sometimes the better answer is a power vent water heater that leaves the chimney behind altogether.
Newington Forest’s electric tanks make for an easier changeout: nothing to vent and no gas to disconnect, $2,757 to $5,493 installed. Where the tank sits in an upstairs closet, the pan under it and the drain from that pan are the difference between a wet closet floor and a stain on the ceiling below.
Pressure ages them too. Before December 4, 1972, the county’s plumbing code didn’t call for a pressure reducing valve, so a Springfield house older than that may be running straight off the main. A tank on high pressure cycles its relief valve and strains its fittings every day, which is why an expansion tank is part of every price on our list rather than an extra.