One afternoon I woke up to find that there was no sizzling water.
There was an ample amount of cold water, but this was in the middle of winter, so the water from the tap was absolutely too cold. I sensed that the pipes were on the verge of frigid, so I turned all the taps on just a little bit, to let a tiny amount of water flow. This is the only way I believe to keep pipes from frigid solid, and if that happens then they usually rupture and need to be updated. I am not an expert when it comes to water heaters, but I believe enough to check the fuel supply and the pilot light, then neither of those were the culprit, so I called a local Heating, Ventilation, and A/C supplier that gave 24/7 emergency water oil furnace services. If this was just about our own comfort or being able to take a sizzling shower I would have waited, but I knew a faulty water oil furnace could lead to a host of other issues. The Heating, Ventilation, and A/C tech arrived looking just as exhausted as I felt, but on the plus side, he was able to suss out the issue with the water oil furnace within a few sixths, but on the drawback side, it wasn’t something he could fix, and my water oil furnace is linked to the natural gas pipes operated by the utility supplier. It turns out the supplier had an issue with the natural gas lines, so the problem wasn’t with our water heater, it was a lack of natural gas!