Water heater quandary.

catfishblues

catfishblues

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2005
Location
Pfafftown, NC
I've got a whirlpool power smart water heater. The control card died today. Naturally, it was after 5 when I discovered the problem. I called the number and was told that the unit is literally weeks outside of warranty. My luck again. Replacement card will be $120 to purchase and overnight, which will result in a Monday delivery. If it could have been here tomorrow, I would have just ordered it. Due to the age and the prospect of a cold shower weekend, I'm thinking about just replacing the damn thing, and hopefully not with a whirlpool product. Service rep was unwilling to do anything for me, and I'm pretty sure he just made that shit up. I have a hard time believing it's been 9 years since I installed it.

TL;DR: Water heater is 9 years old and broken. Fix or replace? If you say replace, what brand would you recommend? I know they all such, but which sucks less? Thanks.
 
Read the manual. I think you can wire it to bypass the smart board. I just installed one at my house. FWIW, get a brand new one just like it and in a month or so, send in the board on the new heater's warranty. Lowes has an extended warranty for around 60 bucks. It adds 3 years to the factory warranty. I went ahead and paid for that. I think this is the first time I have ever bought an extended warranty.
 
When I had to replace mine, it was 7 years old. Rusted pin hole in the bottom. I'm on City water, & electric. Talking with my Brother, & his Plumber friend, they said 5-7 years is average life of a water heater. Not to waste my money on longer warranties. I just went to Lowe's, & bought their's, with a 7 year warranty. It's a Whirlpool, with the fancy electronic box on top. I don't see that Brand makes much if any difference. As for the tank, that's supposed to be glass lined[?], it's all about the Anidize rod. Whatever it's called. Once it's eat up, the tank starts rusting. Your suppose to change out the rod, Right? How? You'd have to stripe the heater down, insulation & foam, to even find the Dang thing! If the tank is "Glass Lined", how does it rust out? If they sold a product that lasted 10-20 years, they wouldn't make any money. Just like they have done to All appliances! Get 5 years out of it,it breaks, throw it away, & buy another.
 
Our last water heater started leaking after 10 years. I wouldn't put too much money into one that's already 9 yrs old.
 
A tip I discovered on my water heater at my current rental home....

The landlords wrote both the purchase date and install date on the unit in permanent ink. No way anyone could forget when it was installed that way.
 
My research indicates that Rinnais don't pay for themselves when compared to a regular gas water heater.
 
drkelly said:
If you have gas at your house, get a Rinnai tankless system.
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this..... our house has a new gas water heater but as soon as it goes (or starts to) it will be swapped for a tankless
 
Most water heaters have the date of mfg printed on the side of them where it lists all the specs . Most water heaters will last just past the warranty , or at least that was my experience when I was selling them . The anode rod is accessible from the top of water heater , its usually by the water inlet and outlet . When it was time to put a water heater in my house , I put in a 7 year Lowes special that I bought with a 10% off coupon .
 
shawn said:
My research indicates that Rinnais don't pay for themselves when compared to a regular gas water heater.
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My only reason for buying one was to prevent running out of hot water. I like to wash cars with hot water, especially once it cools of. I never looked into the cost side of it. We were able to get by with one tankless verses two standard ones.
 
rabb11d said:
My only reason for buying one was to prevent running out of hot water. I like to wash cars with hot water, especially once it cools of. I never looked into the cost side of it. We were able to get by with one tankless verses two standard ones.
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I would have loved to have put a tankless on in our house when we did our addition. My wife wanted a 100 gallon whirlpool (didn't realize at the time when we bought it!) tub and she likes HOT water. We put in a 75 gallon just for the addition where the tub is and have a 50 gal in the main house and she has to stop filling part way to let the water heater catch up.

Main reason we didn't go tankless is that we don't have gas on our street yet and we didn't want to get a tank. If they ever run gas on our street, we are hooking up and replacing appliances as they go out.
 
rabb11d said:
My only reason for buying one was to prevent running out of hot water.
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Bingo!

We have a MASSIVE tub in the master suite.
 
We JUST replaced our gas water heater about a month ago, started leaking.
After doing a lot of research, what I gleamed was the most cost-effective route is to just buy a mid-grade 9-year rated model and move on.
The expense of the fancy ones dosn't pay off, and continuing to repair an old one isn't worth it either. Inevitably they ALL rust out... its a big metal tank full of water, after all.
FYI the only difference between teh 6, 9 and 12 year etc warranty models by the same MFR is in the # and type of anode rods they have... higher warranty ones come w/ 2 rods instead of one... but the dirty little secret is that you can just buy a rod for about $50 and add it to double your protection against rust.

I bought a Whirlpool one form Lowe's, you can find 10% off coupons online then pick up in the store.
 
About those Rods, Good luck on trying to get to one, & then get it out! The one I replaced, I torn the top off of, then the foam, to get to the rod, but never got it broke loose.
Mine is installed under the basement staircase, & as with most, I'd have to un-install it, to try to get to the rod.
 
rodney eppes said:
About those Rods, Good luck on trying to get to one, & then get it out! The one I replaced, I torn the top off of, then the foam, to get to the rod, but never got it broke loose.
Mine is installed under the basement staircase, & as with most, I'd have to un-install it, to try to get to the rod.
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They key is to upgrade/add the extra one when you replace the water heater... o_O
E.g. 6 year warranty hear + additional rod and upgrade to magnesium is much cheaper than the 12 year same model!

While I was at it, I also made it a point to put my new one up on some blocks so the drain was higher off the floor - makes it muuuuch easier to routinely drain - and also put one of those catch pans under it, with a drain line going from that over to a drain in the floor.
That.. .and replace the ends of the hard lines w/ flex so it can be moved around if necessary later.

That way when the tank inevitably begins leaking, it won't make a mess...
 
I attempted to replace the board with passive thermostats. It just wasn't going to happen without major disassembly of the unit, and there was already a little evidence of rust and leakage around the upper element, so I decided to dump it. 6 year Rheem 50 gal, two 12" Sharkbite braided hoses, and a couple hours of work and I can take a shower again. I love Sharkbites! Draining and moving the old one gave me an idea of how much rust and sediment was in there. Keyword: Lots! Thanks for the advice, y'all.
 
ManglerYJ said:
I would have loved to have put a tankless on in our house when we did our addition. My wife wanted a 100 gallon whirlpool (didn't realize at the time when we bought it!) tub and she likes HOT water. We put in a 75 gallon just for the addition where the tub is and have a 50 gal in the main house and she has to stop filling part way to let the water heater catch up.

Main reason we didn't go tankless is that we don't have gas on our street yet and we didn't want to get a tank. If they ever run gas on our street, we are hooking up and replacing appliances as they go out.
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Just turn the thermostats up. They're regulated by code to 120F, but if you turn them up to 130F, the water goes a lot farther. You need like 30sec of exposure at 130F to burn, so as long as you don't have any disabled folks in the house that have trouble judging temperature, the risk is fairly small.
 
** thats what we do. Initially I was worried about using more energy, but frankly we've never noticed a difference.
Didn't take the kids long to figure out "don't turn it all the way to hot and leave your hand under it".
 
just replacing our water heater today. 25 year old propane model. rheem tri power.
going back with the exact same one. probly won't last near as long.
 
We just had to replace ours, make sure you dont have a direct vent hot water heater. If you go tankless like we did, you will have to worry about no hot water. But if you want to go back with a tank one, you have to go back in with a direct vent. Direct vent heaters suck, you have to go back in with one if you do, they cost almost twice as much, and they are terribly inefficient.
 
I replaced mine last year in May. The unit was 17 years old, and had a 7-year warranty (did not realize how old it was as I had it inside a water heater blanket). I honestly already forget the brand and type. I settled on a mid-range traditional GE and called it done. Still need to fix the floor where the leak was...
 
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