Why Your Water Heater Works Harder in Winter

Your water heater in Tyler is fighting a battle in January that it doesn’t fight in July: incoming cold water.

During the summer, groundwater temperatures in East Texas run around 70°F. In January, that same water arrives at your heater closer to 45–50°F. It has to close that gap every single time you turn on a tap, and it has to do it constantly.

That extra workload adds up. If your unit is already running inefficiently due to mineral buildup, an aging heating element, or a corroded anode rod, winter is usually when those problems surface. What was a minor inefficiency in August becomes a noticeable spike in your energy bill, or a morning with no hot water.

Tyler winters are typically mild, but they’re not uniform. A normal January day might hit 55°F in the afternoon. A cold snap can push overnight temps into the low 20s or single digits. We had an extended freeze in 2021 that kept East Texas below freezing for over 200 hours straight.

Your water heater and the pipes around it need to be able to handle both scenarios.

Signs Your Water Heater Is Struggling

Don’t wait for a complete failure to take notice. These are the warning signs worth paying attention to:

• Running out of hot water faster than usual. If your 40-gallon tank used to handle two showers back-to-back but now it can’t, the heating element or thermostat may be on its way out.
• Water that’s warm but never quite hot. Your heater is working but can’t reach the target temperature efficiently.
• Rumbling or popping sounds. That’s sediment at the bottom of the tank getting heated. Not dangerous by itself, but your heating element is working harder than it should be.
• Discolored or rust-colored water. Could be the anode rod failing or the tank itself starting to corrode.
• Visible moisture or pooling near the base of the unit. That warrants a call. Small leaks can become big ones fast.

If you’re dealing with any of these, a water heater repair call is worth scheduling before you’re stuck without hot water on a cold morning.

Simple Insulation Tips That Make Sense for East Texas

This is the part where a lot of blogs tell you to wrap your tank in an insulation blanket. That advice is worth qualifying.

Older water heaters, anything installed more than 10–12 years ago, often have minimal built-in insulation. A fiberglass tank wrap ($20–30 at any hardware store) can genuinely help, reducing standby heat loss during cold stretches. Modern water heaters are already well-insulated from the factory, so it’s less of a priority on newer units.

What is worth doing:

• Insulate the first few feet of the hot water outlet pipe. Foam pipe insulation is cheap, easy to cut to size, and reduces heat loss between the tank and your fixtures.
• Check the area around your water heater for drafts. If your unit is in an unconditioned garage or utility closet, cold air infiltration around doors or vents makes the heater work harder. A simple weatherstripping fix can help more than you’d expect.
• Keep your garage from getting too cold if that’s where your water heater lives. Most units handle ambient temps down into the 30s fine, but during an extended freeze a small space heater nearby is a reasonable precaution.

Winter Is Actually a Good Time to Flush Your Tank

Most people don’t realize that flushing sediment out of your water heater tank is one of the best things you can do before winter arrives, not after.

Sediment (mostly calcium and magnesium from hard water) settles at the bottom of the tank over time, acting as an insulating layer between the heating element and the water. That makes the heater work harder and raises your energy costs. In Smith County and much of East Texas, the water is moderately hard, so this buildup happens gradually but reliably.

Flushing the tank takes about 30–45 minutes: turn off the heating element or gas supply, connect a hose to the drain valve at the bottom, run it to a floor drain or outside, and let it drain until the water runs clear. Then close the valve, refill, and restore power.

If your water heater hasn’t been serviced in a few years, water heater maintenance before the coldest months is smart timing.

Tank vs. Tankless: What Changes in Winter

If you have a traditional tank water heater, everything above applies. The main winter concern is efficiency and the added demand from colder incoming water.

If you have a tankless water heater, the picture is a little different.

Tankless units heat water on demand, so there’s no standby heat loss. That’s a genuine advantage year-round. But when incoming water temperatures drop in winter, a tankless heater has to work harder to hit your target temp. Most residential units are sized for a specific temperature rise (usually around 70°F), so very cold groundwater can strain an undersized unit. If you’re noticing inconsistent hot water in winter, that’s worth a conversation with a plumber.

One thing to check: pipes leading to and from a tankless unit in unheated spaces can still freeze even though most modern units have built-in freeze protection. Foam insulation on those lines is a simple precaution that’s easy to overlook.

Curious whether a tankless setup makes sense for your home? You can learn more about tankless water heaters and what’s involved in making the switch.

One More Thing Worth Mentioning

Water heaters don’t fail in isolation. Pipes running through an unheated crawl space or garage wall can freeze during an East Texas cold snap even when the water heater itself is fine. Frozen pipes can burst, and that turns a water heater conversation into a much bigger one.

If you end up dealing with leaking pipes after a freeze, The Mink Plumbing offers emergency plumbing services for exactly those moments.

What to Actually Do Before Winter Hits

You don’t need to panic-prep your water heater every November. Tyler’s winters are mostly mild, and a well-maintained unit will handle a typical season just fine. But if your heater is older, hasn’t been serviced in a while, or is showing any of the warning signs above, winter is the wrong time to find out.

A little attention in the fall goes a long way.

Ready to get your water heater checked out before cold weather settles in?

Schedule a service appointment with The Mink Plumbing. We’ve been keeping East Texas homes running for over 60 years, and we know what it takes to get through a Tyler winter.