Water Heaters
Repair, replacement and tankless upgrades for gas and electric units - sized for your household and installed to Delaware County code.
Learn moreabout Water Heater Installation & Repair24/7 Emergency
Water where it should not be? Call now, then do three things.
Close the main shutoff, kill power to anything the water can reach, and stop using every fixture in the house. A person answers this phone at 2am, and we will walk you through it while we are on the way.
4.9 on Google (200+)Licensed OH #2368324/7 emergency service
A plumbing emergency is a race against water. Every minute the supply stays open is more drywall, more flooring, more insulation, and a longer conversation with your insurer - which is why the first thing we do on an emergency call is walk you to your shutoff over the phone before we talk about anything else. If you do nothing else on this page, go find that valve now, while the house is dry, and make sure it turns.
The calls arrive on a schedule you could set a calendar by. Hard-freeze nights in January and February bring split copper in garages, crawlspaces and the outside wall of a kitchen sink cabinet. Heavy spring rain brings sump pump failures and surcharged mains in Orange and Liberty Township basements. Water heaters fail whenever they feel like it, though a tank that has been rumbling since Thanksgiving usually chooses the coldest week of the year. Thirty years in these neighborhoods means we know which of those is happening before we pull into the driveway.
When you call, you get a person, not a phone tree routing to a franchise dispatcher three states away. We'll call you back within 15 minutes. We will tell you what to shut off, what a realistic arrival window looks like, and what the work is likely to cost before anyone is dispatched. That last part does not change because it is late - the price is agreed before work starts at 2am the same as it is at 2pm.
What we do
Emergency Plumbing work we take on
Burst and frozen pipes
Split copper and cracked PEX in garages, crawlspaces, attics and exterior walls - central Ohio's freeze-thaw swings do this every winter. We isolate the section, repair or replace the failed run, pressure-test it, and then talk about why that pipe froze: an uninsulated run, a cold-air path from a garage, or a line that should never have been in an exterior wall to begin with.
- Isolate, repair, pressure-test, restore water the same visit
- Frozen-but-not-burst lines thawed safely, never with a flame
- Rerouting or insulation so the same pipe does not do it again
Sewage backups and blocked main lines
Sewage coming up in a basement is an emergency in the health sense, not just the plumbing sense. Stop using water anywhere in the house - every flush and every load of laundry adds to what is coming up - and call. We clear the lateral, confirm flow, and camera the line once it is open so you know whether it was a blockage or a broken pipe.
- Main line cleared from the cleanout, day or night
- Camera inspection once the line is open
- Straight answer on whether it will come back
Water heater failures and leaks
A tank sitting in a spreading puddle has failed and cannot be repaired. Shut the cold inlet at the top of the tank, kill the gas valve or the breaker, and call. Most no-hot-water calls are back running the same day, and a full replacement can usually happen the same day too - which matters when the alternative is a weekend of cold showers.
- Gas and electric, tank and tankless
- Same-day replacement in most cases
- Water and gas or power isolated before anything else
If you smell gas, call the utility first
This one is not our call to take first. Leave the house, do not touch light switches, garage door openers or your phone until you are outside, and call your gas utility's emergency line from a neighbor's driveway. They will make the property safe. Once they have shut it down, we handle the repair, the pressure test and the permitted reconnection.
- Utility first, always - they make the property safe
- We repair, pressure-test and document afterwards
- Licensed and permitted gas work, never a patch
Common problems
What usually goes wrong
Symptoms homeowners call us about, what tends to be behind them, and how we approach the fix.
A pipe burst and water is spreading
Usually caused by
- Frozen line in a garage, crawlspace, attic or exterior wall
- Corroded copper or galvanized section finally letting go
- Failed supply line at a toilet, sink or washing machine
- Water pressure well above 80 psi stressing every joint
Close the main shutoff first - that is the whole ballgame. If water is anywhere near outlets, a panel or a furnace, kill those circuits too. Then call. We isolate the failed run, repair it, pressure-test, and tell you honestly whether this is a one-off or the first of several.
There is no water at all
Usually caused by
- Main shutoff or meter valve closed, sometimes by earlier work
- Frozen service line or frozen interior main
- Failed pressure-reducing valve blocking flow
- Utility-side outage or a break in the service line
We check the simple things first, in order, because more than one no-water call has ended with a valve someone closed and forgot. If it is frozen, we thaw it safely and look for why it froze. If it is a failed PRV or a broken service line, you get the diagnosis and the price before we start digging or cutting.
Sewage is coming up in the basement
Usually caused by
- Fully blocked lateral between the house and the city main
- Roots or a collapsed section in an older clay line
- City main surcharged during heavy rain
- Failed sump pump combined with a saturated yard
Stop all water use in the house immediately, keep people and pets off the affected floor, and call. We clear the lateral, confirm flow with water actually running, and camera the line so you know whether you have a maintenance problem or a pipe problem. We stop the water - restoration and drying is a different trade, and we will tell you who to call.
The sump pump quit and it is still raining
Usually caused by
- Power outage with no battery backup fitted
- Float switch stuck or tangled on the discharge line
- Seized pump after years of silt
- Frozen or blocked discharge line outside
If the pit is rising, a wet vac or a utility pump buys you time until we arrive. We replace the pump, check the check valve and the discharge, and if this is the second outage-related flood in that basement we will make the case for a battery backup rather than waiting for the third.
How it works
What happens after you call
Four steps, no surprises. The price is agreed before anything is opened.
A person answers
Not a call centre, not a queue. We ask where the water is, whether it is still running, and whether anything electrical is near it. We'll call you back within 15 minutes.
We talk you through the shutoff
Before anything else, we get the water stopped. Main shutoff for a burst line, the cold inlet for a water heater, the angle stop for a fixture, the breaker for anything electrical near the water.
A real arrival window and a price
You get an honest window rather than a comfortable one, and the price for the work before we start it. That does not change because of the hour on the clock.
Stop the damage, then fix the cause
First we stop the water. Then we make the permanent repair, pressure-test it, and tell you what caused it - so the same pipe, pump or valve is not the reason we meet again next winter.
Reviews
What neighbors say
Five-star reviews from Powell and the surrounding suburbs, unedited.
“Keith has done several jobs for us on multiple occasions. He has been available in the evenings as well as on Saturday mornings when it was an emergency. On one occasion, after finishing the job at our house, he willingly walked over to my neighbor's house to help her with her toilet that had broken and was able to fix it right on the spot. He is beyond generous and always informative about the problem at hand. He will tell you what you SHOULD spend our money on and what isn't necessary. I love this about him! I continue to recommend him to everyone I know.”
“I highly recommend Koehler Plumbing, Keith is amazing and more importantly honest and ethical. Had a garbage disposal that went out. I just knew I'd have to replace it, Keith fi...”
“Highly recommend Koehler Plumbing for any plumbing work! I have used them to replace a hot water heater, sink faucet, sump pump with back up and replaced a hot water shut off va...”
“Koehler Plumbing is the best service around. When you call they are very responsive and will set a date for repair asap. And will also have the best price. Call now for all your...”
Questions
Emergency Plumbing questions we get asked
Still stuck? Call us at (614) 204-5532, or send us the details.
Related work
Other things we handle
Drain Cleaning
Cabling, hydro jetting and camera inspection for kitchen lines, laundry stacks and mature-tree root intrusion in main sewers.
Learn moreabout Drain Cleaning Services
Pipe Repair & Replacement
Supply and drain line repair - frozen splits, copper pinholes, failing galvanized and polybutylene, and cracked buried lines.
Learn moreabout Pipe Repair & ReplacementService area
Where we work
Powell is home base. These are the communities we cover day to day, in rough order of how often we are there.
Powell, OH 43065
(614) 204-5532
Request service
Book emergency plumbing service
We'll call you back within 15 minutes.
- Free, no-obligation estimates on non-emergency work
- Upfront pricing before anything is opened or ordered
- Licensed OH #23683, insured, and veteran-owned since 1996
Emergency? Call (614) 204-5532 - a person answers, day or night.
Request emergency plumbing service
We'll call you back within 15 minutes.
Have a plumbing problem? Talk to Keith.
We'll call you back within 15 minutes.