Sorry Water Heater

[Thomas McCurnin]

De-Scaler Filters are available for about $250 and do a pretty decent job of removing the impurities which cause mineral buildup. While they are generally recommended for tankless water heaters, I would have to think they would work equally well for traditional tank water heaters.

[Rollie Meyers]

Is the OP's WH a Whirlpool? They have a horrible reputation & Lowe's persisted in selling them for years, and removing it would be a good idea, last year replaced my 40 YO State WH, had a lot of lime scale & had a spare for it, my gas bill dropped by about $7 bucks a month, it did not leak but decided to replace it on my terms.

[Scott Winners]

I have two daughters and a wife, all three with long hair. My desire to have "endless" hot water is zilch.

[Stan Calow]

I have two daughters and a wife, all three with long hair. My desire to have "endless" hot water is zilch.

That was a friend's experience. Wife and two teens. He thought the tankless would cut their water and gas bills, but found it went up. They were all taking much longer showers because they could.

[Alan Lightstone]

I have two daughters and a wife, all three with long hair. My desire to have "endless" hot water is zilch.

Will Lowe's exchange an old tank WH and two daughters for two sons and a tankless WH?

We removed two large tank WHs in our house during its renovation for a single tankless propane WH. Long runs so there is a definite delay with water wastage, but I can only assume the propane bills have gone down substantially compared to two units.

[Jerry Bruette]

We put in a 30 gallon indirect fired water heater when we built our house. In 35 years the only thing I've done is adjust the temperature, and we have endless hot water.

[Zachary Hoyt]

I put in an electric tankless water heater. It's no more than 12 feet of pipe distance from anything except the washing machine, which is maybe 18-20 feet. Using 1/2" pex pipe it doesn't take too long to get places. No natural gas here and I don't want propane. I figured since I had to replace everything I would go all electric.

[George Yetka]

OP all the tanked water heaters are the same 5 year, 7 year, 10 year, etc. You are just buying longer warranties they come off the same line. That being said 25 years is great. You probably have good water.

I wouldnt have installed a tankless 10 years ago but today I would. They have become more reliable with lower gas needs. Originally you had to pipe 1-1/4" gas lines to them, now 3/4 is ok. You will have to plumb pvc/cpvc to the outside unless you had a direct vent tanked heater before. Not a huge deal just more work. 5 years ago a 40 gallon gas atmospheric vent heater was $400 so it was a no brainer to not spend 2k plus more install on a tankless. Now with that same tanked heater being closer to 1,000 and the tanklesses being more reliable and cheaper than they used to be it becomes a harder choice. If you are doing it on your own. figure on a day or 2 for install of tankless or 1-2 hours on the tank. Profesional will do tank in 30 minutes or less than 1 day on tankless.

[Bill George]

Our bill for heating water with Nat Gas is $20 per month. Why a tankless? They are $1000 more that an a tank type and need to have a major upgrade in the gas line to save what $$? They run at much higher temperatures meaning more Lime deposits. No thanks.

[Brian Elfert]

I have a power vented tank water heater so it needs power to run. My house originally had no natural gas so there is no traditional flue. I need the power vented water heater because I have PVC venting out the wall.

[Bruce Wrenn]

OP all the tanked water heaters are the same 5 year, 7 year, 10 year, etc. You are just buying longer warranties they come off the same line. That being said 25 years is great. You probably have good water.

Better grades of WH contain either larger, or two anodes. First WH in house was a big bucks State brand. Gas valve failed at 18 years. New valve was more than cheappie WH from Lowes, which lasted 25 years. The problem is bottom of tank where burner is is flaking off, which means a rupture not to far into the future. Anodes don't protect that area, as it's outside the actual tank. Picked up replacement tonight, and will install on Thursday. Because WH is on second floor, it will involve some physical labor to remove and install

[George Yetka]

Better grades of WH contain either larger, or two anodes. First WH in house was a big bucks State brand. Gas valve failed at 18 years. New valve was more than cheappie WH from Lowes, which lasted 25 years. The problem is bottom of tank where burner is is flaking off, which means a rupture not to far into the future. Anodes don't protect that area, as it's outside the actual tank. Picked up replacement tonight, and will install on Thursday. Because WH is on second floor, it will involve some physical labor to remove and install

Same as in the 3 they keep next to each other that look identical but have 3 different warranties. There is definately different grades. My water is very high in iron and has a sulfates and I have a significant treatment system but I still get stuff in the tank. So I bought a high end AOsmith with electronic Anode. The heater that was in when i moved in was 6 years old and I pulled the anode. It was completely gone.

A good trick for getting the old one out is draining it. It should make it quite a bit lighter . A real trick is using a pump to drain it so you dont have to wait hours. The tanks will usually have scale and other solids that clog that bottom valve unless you drained yearly.Also once you get the firs 6" out open up that relief valve.

[Jack Frederick]

Cameron made a comment about tankless having problems at low flow rates. George about having to run tankless at higher temps. Look at your use temps with hot water. Shower valves are maxed by code at 110-112*. Sitting in a tub over 105 and youy are no longer bathing, but par-boiling. Tankless come set for 120* typically but can be adjusted up or down on their controls. I leave mine at 120 for most of the year. Summer I’ll drop it to 115*. Winter in the Northeast I might go to 125*. I know Rinnai’s so I will use their specs. The units will fire at .4gpm of flow. Minimum flow rate is either 10 or 15kbtu depending upon model. All will hold operation down too .4gpm. Consider how you operate with a tank water heat. In order to get more hot water you turn the unit up. I’ve trained thousands of plumber on tankless and have gotten many calls where the plumber turned up the temp because the customer wanted it at 140* and the tankless would not fire or would cycle on minimum flow. It is counter intuitive on water heating but the correct way on tankless is to turn the temp down. To high a setting means the unit falls below the minimum firing rate at high set point temps. Youy hav e to have a high enough flow to stuff the 15kbtu into that amount of water. GPMxDelta Tx500=btu is the rule here. You can push the numbers around.
Todays tankless are very reliable. The one caveat to that is they must be installed properly. That seems to be asking a lot. Our new home has a new Navien unit in it. There are obvious errors in the installation. I called the company that installed it and asked when he would like to come out and repair the install. He didn’t take it well. I fixed it myself.

[Brian Elfert]

Same as in the 3 they keep next to each other that look identical but have 3 different warranties. There is definately different grades. My water is very high in iron and has a sulfates and I have a significant treatment system but I still get stuff in the tank. So I bought a high end AOsmith with electronic Anode. The heater that was in when i moved in was 6 years old and I pulled the anode. It was completely gone.

Is that what is considered a powered anode? You can get powered anodes to put in just about water heater. My concern would be the electricity used even though not a whole lot.

[Jim Koepke]

I have two daughters and a wife, all three with long hair. My desire to have "endless" hot water is zilch.

That was a friend's experience. Wife and two teens. He thought the tankless would cut their water and gas bills, but found it went up. They were all taking much longer showers because they could.

My father didn't like my brothers and I taking too long in the shower. After what he felt was long enough he would close the valve to the water heater causing the shower to go cold. I guess he felt that was needed in a house with 4 teenagers.

jtk