Gas water heaters

[silveravant]

Warranty on the tank may be different than on parts.

Water quality has a huge effect on water heater life, especially acidic water. The company I used to work for (MOR-FLO, later American) would only give a 1 year tank warranty in parts of Ohio.

Normal warranty was 5 year on the tank, 1 year parts.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Originally Posted By: mehullica
Buy the cheap on & replace the anode every year. I've gotten 40+ years out of the same water heater by replacing the anode & flushing every 6 months

My experience with gas water heater is:

The original water in a house built 1970 failed in 1998.

The cheap replacement I bought from Sears still working well in 2014 when I sold the house.

The current one in the new house is about 5-6 years old and it is working well.

None of the above water heaters never had maintenance of any kind, no anode had been replaced nor flushed.

I'm not going to do anything about anode but I may do a flush once a year if it is really needed.

 

[hattaresguy]

10 years is about standard on tanked water heaters.

We have been switching over to Navian on demand and so far we have had good results with them. But they are new so who knows.

 

[spasm3]

So i went to remove the old water heater and its dry. No evidence of leaks. I found the water there when we had no hot water. For some reason the pilot went out and the heater had been off for 24hrs. It has been running flawless for the last few days.

Is it possible that with the heater off, and cold water coming into it, that the water i saw was dripping condensation?

I have a new heater in the garage, and the current heater has no evidence at all of leaks while lit.

So do i change it anyway, or put the new heater in the storage building until i need it?

 

[Wolf359]

I've had that happen occasionally, sometimes you can repair old ones. The simple problem in your situation is a bad thermocouple. Even simpler would be that a brief gust of wind in the basement put out the pilot and it just needed to be relit. I wouldn't just store a new water heater. A few times they were bad out of the box, the in house warranty was just for 1 year so the clock is ticking every day it sits. i would take it back and wait til it actually goes. Usually when they're leaking, it's clear that it's rusted out and you see the rust on the heater.

 

[spasm3]

Originally Posted By: Wolf359
I've had that happen occasionally, sometimes you can repair old ones. The simple problem in your situation is a bad thermocouple. Even simpler would be that a brief gust of wind in the basement put out the pilot and it just needed to be relit. I wouldn't just store a new water heater. A few times they were bad out of the box, the in house warranty was just for 1 year so the clock is ticking every day it sits. i would take it back and wait til it actually goes. Usually when they're leaking, it's clear that it's rusted out and you see the rust on the heater.


Thanks! so the water i did see, was that condensation? or could sediment move and its just not leaking now?

I have not had to light it in over a year so i think it just blew out, or perhaps the gas company shut off the lines for a bit.

Thanks for the advice of not storing the new water heater, that makes sense.

 

[KD0AXS]

Here's what mine looked like when I decided it was time to replace it. It was so rusty that the pieces of rust were falling on the burner and interfering with the flame, which would cause it to shut down. It never did actually leak though.

 

[Wolf359]

I've had the burner clogged with stuff before too, it does come apart and once you take it out, you can shake off whatever is sitting on top and put it back in again. I've noticed when that they're really gone, you can see the tops of in the inlet and outlet water pipes covered in corrosion.

 

[spasm3]

here is what mine looks like

[img:center][/img]


[img:center][/img]

[img:center][/img]

[img:center][/img]

I take it the above pic means it was made the 38th week of 1996?

 

[CT8]

Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
10 years is about standard on tanked water heaters.

We have been switching over to Navian on demand and so far we have had good results with them. But they are new so who knows.

I had all the fittings etc to plumb in an on demand water heater when sooner than I expected the water heater started leaking. I went by the shop that sold the heater and being a Saturday afternoon the shop was closed. I went to Home Depot and bought a water and an hour later I was in hot water again.!

 

[SHOZ]

With the way water heaters are increasing in price I would keep it in the spare parts room. From what I hear all gas water heaters are going to be the 90% efficient ones.

Does anyone know if you can buy older tanks and swap over the controls?

 

[zzyzzx]

Originally Posted By: spasm3
With it leaking, i had to buy one today, no plumbing shops open. So i got a rheem. My two story home only had a 30gallon water 36000 btu heater. We never ran out of hot water.
My water heater closet is pretty small but no one really keeps a tall 30 gallon heater in stock, so i got the 40 gallon. I made sure i can easily access the anode rod for future replacement.

Thanks Wolf359 for the anode rod link, I may go ahead and get some on hand.

There was no pan under the old water heater, i think i will add that.


I'd replace my 40 gallon with a 30 gallon just to save space, but only if I could get a 30 gallon for the same price as a 40 gallon. For some reason the 30 gallon water heaters cost more than the 40.

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted By: SHOZ
With the way water heaters are increasing in price I would keep it in the spare parts room. From what I hear all gas water heaters are going to be the 90% efficient ones.

Does anyone know if you can buy older tanks and swap over the controls?


That might be true of everything. Still with the price of a water heater, I'd just stash the money in the stock market, it tends to average higher than the price of water heaters. I've been buying them for the last 10 years and they seem to track with inflation aside from new changes here and there. The controls now are newer which probably accounts for the slightly higher price, I don't expect that trend to continue as commodity prices have been down lately.

 

[spasm3]

so would you go ahead and replace it, or based on the pics am i ok to run it awhile?

 

[cjcride]

Replace it, 15 years is replace time in most cases.
You might want add a whole house water filter.

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted By: spasm3
so would you go ahead and replace it, or based on the pics am i ok to run it awhile?


You didn't really show me pics I wanted to see. How do the connections on the inlets look? What do the controls look like? I don't think yours has the push button ignition that you find on newer water heaters. Basically a good shot of the top of the water heater would say more than the ones you posted.

Looks like it's about 20 years old. If you're worried about it, replace it. With 10+ water heaters, I never replaced one that wasn't broken. All of mine are in the basement so it doesn't really matter if they leak all over the place, the tenants usually let me know by telling me they don't have any hot water. It usually starts out as a small leak, there's usually water on the floor, but it's normally not flooded. Never had one last 20 years, most of mine were all 6 year warranty ones and I think the most I ever saw one last was about 12 years, they usually died by 8-10 years. As a real estate broker, I've probably seen hundreds of homes and a standard question I get is how old the water heater is. Typically they're in the usual range, but normally the most I see them at is 15-20 years and only a small handful at that. Part of that could just be the area, they may last longer in your area. I know in certain areas that I go to, water heaters seem to last longer as the water in that town doesn't seem to rust them out as quickly as in others. I did know a guy who claimed he got his water heaters to last 20 years by replacing the anode rods which is why I started doing that a few years ago and they have lasted longer, but I don't have any right now over 10 years yet.

 

[spasm3]

I replaced it. Its in a closet in my kitchen. Its old enough that its not worth the 1 more year i might get out of it. I'm going to pull the anode rod out of the old one just to see whats there.

 

[Schmoe]

Anode?? We are talking gas right?

 

[DBMaster]

Originally Posted By: Schmoe
Anode?? We are talking gas right?


http://www.waterheaterrescue.com/pages/WHRpages/English/Longevity/water-heater-anodes.html

 

[SHOZ]

I took the anode out of mine. Gave the hot water a sulfur smell. And are those things ever in tight.