buying hot water tank

[housewife]

hot water heater is broken. called installation service . recommended a o smith. did some price comparison and it seems that whirlpool is less expensive. what is the best water heater that i can buy and what is the rating on going with lowe's which is 400 dollars cheaper.

[Mike Swearingen]

Water heaters have varying tank warranties, which often have to do with the price.
Go with one with the longest tank warranty (i.e. "lifetime"), because just about everything else on a water heater can be repaired or replaced except the tank.
I have one with a tank "lifetime" warranty, and I have had it replaced "free" (except for my labor) by Lowe's twice.
Good Luck!
Mike

[master plumber mark]

stay away from the WHIRLPOOL brand .....they are absolute junk ....no matter how long they claiim that their tank warranty is.....

stay away from Smith too.... they are also a a poor quality brand of water heater.

if you already have bought one, ok, better luck next time

if youi want to see some info about water heaters go to this web page and read about the whirlpool disasters

http://www.weilhammerplumbing.com/products/

[hj]

Rheem, Ruud, Richmond, GE, and Vanguard, Whirlpool and maybe ohers are all the same heater made by Rheem. State, Reliance, Maytag, and AO Smith are all made by State-AO Smith.

[master plumber mark]

american water heaters makes Whirlpool and not very well...

Rheem makes richmond for *******, , vanguard for Granges,
and Ge for home depot..

I dont even know if More flow is still in business or not I think that they make the Reliance...


Smith owns State and all they make are dogs.


Bradford White seems to be leading the pack as far as quality...

whatever.

http://www.terrylove.com/images/wh/bw_defender_label.jpg

[hj]

State has always made Reliance and still handles warranty work for them.