Why do I have no hot water? 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.
Pilot out. A pilot that lights but will not hold when the button is released is the thermocouple: weak, badly seated in the bracket, or not sitting in the flame, so the gas valve never hears that the pilot is lit. The pilot flame itself is what weakens first: a pilot tube or orifice partly blocked, or oxidation on the electrode, gives a flame too small to heat the thermocouple properly.
Not enough hot water. Hot water that runs out too soon on a tank that is lighting fine is usually the dip tube: a tube that has broken up lets the cold inlet water mix straight into the hot at the top. The other answer on the same chart is the combination thermostat and gas valve drifting out of calibration, so the tank is never being brought to the temperature on the dial.
Tankless ignition. Ignition failure on a tankless unit is the burner trying ten times and giving up: the igniter, the flame rod and its ground are what it needs to see a flame, and each is on the manual's list. Behind the igniter sits the gas and the air: supply pressure that sags under load, or an intake blocked by ice, snow or a nest, and the unit fails to light for the same reason a candle does.
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 tank that is opened gets its anode read at the same time: half its diameter gone, or steel showing, and it is replaced, because it is the part that corrodes so the tank does not.
A tank that is opened gets its anode read at the same time: half its diameter gone, or steel showing, and it is replaced, because it is the part that corrodes so the tank does not.
$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.