Question about water heater warranty

[swampratt]

Was it a builder's special from big blue or big orange?

No it was not it was from a plumbing company he contracted with many times when he worked at Martell Mechanical.
I want to say it was a Bradford White.

 

[Snattlerake]

No it was not it was from a plumbing company he contracted with many times when he worked at Martell Mechanical.
I want to say it was a Bradford White.

That's what I have, 50 gal.

 

[Letfreedomring]

We bought our house that was built in 2010 about 10 years ago (time flies) and went halvesies on a 1 year home warranty with seller JIC. Home was only rented for a short time to people that their house had burned down. Within that first year we owned it the original 2yo? Bradford white gas water heater sprung a leak from the tank and would not light so the home warranty covered replacement with a Rheem and the furnace had a bad micro-switch which was replaced. Each call cost me $60 for each call but saved me a bunch in replacement costs and service calls. We canceled after that first year so I think we actually came out ahead. Only downside was it took a while to get someone out to look at them both times.

 

[Oklahomabassin]

I love my gas water heater.

 

[enuf]

Well, I can tell you about my warranty - bought one at Home Depot, did not purchase the extended warranty. It started leaking a year before the warranty expired. Took it back to Home Depot, they gave me a new one and charged me the difference from my original to the current price - like $60. The Warranty started over. About a year before that warranty expired, it started leaking, took it back to Home Depot and they charged me the difference from my original price to the current price, like $60 again. I guess we'll see how this one does. That is all I know.

 

[dennishoddy]

We are total electric. In the 33 years we have lived in this home, I've had to replace the water heater twice. This 50 gallon Rheem from Locke Supply has been heating water for almost 12 years now.
I don't know if the fact we have a water softener feeding it has anything to do with the lifespan of the water heater, but we aren't seeing the short life issues you folks are.
Now that I say that, there will be a large puddle of warm water on the floor in the morning.....

 

[swampratt]

It's the plastic bellows inside a steel tank issue in my mind.
Coated steel tank is much more reliable.

 

[Snattlerake]

We are total electric. In the 33 years we have lived in this home, I've had to replace the water heater twice. This 50 gallon Rheem from Locke Supply has been heating water for almost 12 years now.
I don't know if the fact we have a water softener feeding it has anything to do with the lifespan of the water heater, but we aren't seeing the short life issues you folks are.
Now that I say that, there will be a large puddle of warm water on the floor in the morning.....

My regular plumber Kousins Plumbing just called me and we discussed it some more. He said a softner will increase the life of the tank. I'm thinking about a regular yearly flushing. That is a draining of the tank to remove any sediment. I'll look into that more.

 

[dlbleak]

The neighbors and I used to flush ours on Labor Day. No particular reason other than we all remembered. We’d get a 6 or 12 pack and just go from garage to garage and drain the tanks. Interestingly though, mine was usually pretty clean but two houses east of me always had pretty good sized chunks of sediment come out. The house next to him had more than mine but not as bad as his.

 

[TerryMiller]

Wow! Hearing about the lifespan of some of these water heaters is almost frightening. Our youngest son's house still has the original hot water heater from when it was built in 1999. I'll have to look to verify, but I think it is an A.O. Smith unit. Something I saw online mentioned that A.O. Smith was best for gas hot water heaters and Rheem was best for electric ones. However, that might have only been a comparison between those two brands and didn't include all others.