How often do you replace your water heater?

[frankster]

How long should a water heater last?

Our water heater is always just out of the 5 year warranty when it starts leaking.  

Is there something I can do to make it last longer or is that all the longer a water heater last now day's?

[shieldcracker]

That depends on:
1. the water quality (pH, %solid/sediment and mineral content) and
2. the maintenance given to the unit.

I had an electrical heater for over 25 years that is until I got tired of replacing heating elements and flushing the tank. Now I have a line heater (tankless) which does the job and is about the size of a shoe box.
In general you replace a water heater when the tank leaks because most of the original parts can be readily found or be substituted by generic parts. If you flush the tank and replace the anode rod the unit will last a very long time.

[Leonard707]

A water heater should last between 10-20 years with no problems. You may need a water softener or a filter system before water goes into your water heater. You can also drain your water heater once or twice a year to drain all the sediment at the bottom causing poor heating and corrosion

[sapp4l]

Suggest the yearly sediment flush out.

Also, replacing the anode rod every 3-5 years is recommended -- especially for a 5 year warranty tank. As I understand, the longer warranty tanks have a larger (longer) anode -- some have 2 -- to extend the tank life due to corrosion, which is the main killer.

Life is highly dependent on water quality and the corrosion package the manufacturer used.

See www.waterheaterrescue.com] for more info than you'll probably ever want to know about water heaters.

Anode rods are available at local plumbing supply houses for $10-20.

[bakeray]

One more thing on the anode rods... Avoid aluminum rods. When the rods doing its job aluminum rods tend to swell, making it almost impossible to remove.

The site sapp posted is awesome. Used it for school alot when I was in water heater classes.

They talk about anode rods here

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

[Repair-man]

If you buy the cheapest  unit on the market, you will get minimal usage from it, especially if you don't flush it yearly (most don't). If you want to get more than the basic 5 years from it, purchase a better quality  heater, preferably glass-lined for better  longevity. Some are advertised as "self-cleaning" which means they have designed the inlet tube in a spiral  pattern along the edge of the tank to make the incoming water stir up the sediment on bottom and move it out your pipes. Not a great idea, but it helps if the homeowner is too lazy to perform  yearly maintenance of hooking a hose up to it and draining it for a few minutes.

Actually, most folks don't know  how easy it truly is, whether the thing is an attic unit or in a closet. Just run a hose to the nearest toilet or bathtub and let her rip. There no need to turn off the water because you are letting the natural pressure of the water force the bottom-lurking sediment out of the bottom-mounted hose drain. In 20 minutes of water running thru the hose, most of the sediment will have found its way out. Yes, you  use a little water this way but you can turn off the breaker or gas while you do this  so as not to waste power too.  Be sure to only open your drain valve for 3 turns, no more.

The key though, to gettng a longer lasting unit is to start with one...

[niobrara]

Repair-man What do you think of the new GE water heater

[Repair-man]

Give me a f'rinstance here...GE must have a new design...care to elaborate? I don't rush down to Home Depot to see the latest crap GE has to offer, but maybe I should. Have they come up with yet another way to increase the cost of parts again?

[Repair-man]

I found some stuff on these

How It Works — Heat Pump Water Heaters
It's generally easier to move something than to make something. Putting that principle to use, heat pump water heater (HPWH) technology uses electricity to move heat from one place to another instead of generating heat directly.

Here's how:
To understand the concept of heat pumps, imagine a refrigerator working in reverse. While a refrigerator removes heat from an enclosed box and expels that heat to the surrounding air, a HPWH takes the heat from surrounding air and transfers it to water in an enclosed tank.

A low-pressure liquid refrigerant is vaporized in the heat pump's evaporator and passed into the compressor. As the pressure of the refrigerant increases, so does its temperature. The heated refrigerant runs through a condenser coil within the storage tank, transferring heat to the water stored there. As the refrigerant delivers its heat to the water, it cools and condenses, and then passes through an expansion valve where the pressure is reduced and the cycle starts over.

[JWWebster]

Jimbo could that water heater replace an outside condenser? Now that would be truly innovative, using the wasted heat tossed into the atmosphere to heat the water in the house.

[sapp4l]

Yes, the water heater could act as a condenser. That's how GE's heat pump water heater works... it spits out cold air from the unit that cools the space around it. Great if you live in a warm climate.

[bakeray]

I tried to attatch the training PDF I got when I went thru the GE training class on the GE water heater and the files to big.

[AJ]

I have attached the GE Water Heater Manual that bakeray emailed me, thanks! 

[bakeray]

Thanks AJ. 

[viking351]

ASK THIS OLD HOUSE (ATOH) just did a episode on the HPWH water heater.

you can catch it on the web at ATOH.com.