Water Heater Brand

First, thanks to all for a great forum - it really helped me with a leaky sink drain.

I've seen lots of postings on water heaters, but none really came out and said which brands seem to have the least issues. I'm going to be replacing a 13 year old gas heater and am looking for one that will support a household with 5 people (3 teenagers - do they really count as people) and varying guests. I'm figuring on 65 gallons or so. I'm not going to install it myself.

Thanks in advance for your insight.

Rheem or Bradford White

brad white a+

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

water heater

1. Almost all the water heaters, regardless of the name on the label, are made by four manufacturers.
2. There is no one "best" water heater. Every brand will have some that seem to last forever and others that go bad within 3 or 4 years. It depends on many factors, none of which you or the manufacturer can control.

I'm pretty much talking from past experiences from this point on but I always had good repor from directing customers to Sears/Kenmore water heaters.

They have 6,9,12 year warranties with the product specs different from each warranty. Not just a tag they put on the heater like A.O. Smith tanks do.

Only tanks to have the RotoSwirl dip tube that directs the water fully to the bottom and spirals around where keeping the sediment waterborne is crucial.

Their website is an easy read for the customers; everyone knows sears, a good deal have their credit cards and tanks including installations can be as simple as putting it on the card.

Their extended warranty for $79 is good for 5 years; you have to fulfill your end and call before the anniversary date to honor the warranty. They come out, inspect/service/repair at no charge. If you do not call, you void that $79 extended warranty. I personally cannot offer my customers 5 separate trips to drain/cover repairs on any water heater. I guess the benefit of dealing with a national brand.

A large majority of the time the service after the sale is for the most part good. You still have to call a 1-800 number. I used to be the hired dummy who had to go and inspect/service any MA warranty issues on the tanks for another plumbing contractor. 95% of the time the customer got either a water heater @ no charge or diminished replacement charges even though the customer installed the heater themselves. Not bad in my opinion.

I've installed nearly all the brands common in my area. I guess when I entered myself into business I wanted the luxury of having people pay for their water heater through a well known establishment. I pick it up and I don't have the responsibility of any arising issues of product defect. I still tell my customers to call me first before the 1-800 number. Their diagnosis and my questioning usually pins the problem and I always offer my services first for a fee, letting them know that Sears will not charge. If they want hot water fast enough, they'll call me. It happens that way sometimes. If it isn't a tank leak I can address all issues with them except those damn powervents. No thank you, I'd rather count air holes in my computer monitor.

water heaters

Kenmore is made by AO Smith/State and they use the same tanks, just a different label. Rotoswirls, and they are not the only models with it, only work with a relatively high flow of water, which faucets and showers not longer give. Only bathtubs and clothes washers have adequate flow to activate the self cleaning feature, and even then they have to draw enough water to pull the material disturbed from the bottom out into the piping so it can plug the faucet aerators. Otherwise the materials just settle back down to the bottom of the tank where they started.

w/h

My experience has been the same as HJ's.

Self Cleaning feature is a joke.......

The self cleaning feature is a "little white lie""

thier is no such thing as a self cleaning water heater.

but it sounds real good and it makes people feel all warm and cosey.and

they buy the water heater with the "roto Swirl" or "turbulator" sticker

plastered on the side of it........


Purdue University did a study on this 5-10 years ago and came to

the conclusion that "self cleaning" was deceptive . it still

eventally has to be Manually cleaned....so its a "little white lie"


You cant force sand and sediment to rise up out of the bottom of

the water heater....the reason for it is the law called "GRAVITY"

So all the sediment falls back down to the bottom of the tank

and the "roto Swirl" simply sweeps it to the side of the tank....

where eventually it builds up ........a natural occurance.

and then some dummie like me gets to charge $100 bucks to

come out , take the drain valve out , reach into it with my

"special patented copper scraper"

and MANUALLY flush out the bottom of the heater......


then the process begins again...

You all like Rotoswirl dip tubes

like my stomach likes mexican food.

From a technical point of view, I still offer draining of water heaters with these dip tubes. I know just as well as any other plumber that sediment eventually lands at the bottom. Otherwise they would never build up sediment.

What I do think is unmatched is the length of the dip tube since it goes all the way to the bottom. Why do Reem/Ruud tanks have the shortest dip tube of all of them? (GE brand) The dip tube is barely over 2/3rds of the way down the tank. That means it's tempering ready to use hot water with incoming cold. Serves no purpose in my book. I'd rather have that incoming cold coming in at the lowest point of the tank where the heating source is. Makes sense to me; we all know what a deteriorating dip tube does for mixing of hot and cold and loss of efficiency.

I figured you all would go after the warranties or R-values of the tank specs, maybe the dual anode rods on the 12 year tanks. All of which are unmatched by the competition, even A.O. Smith's own brand even though they make them for Sears!

I don't make money by pushing their product, I just like the fact that my customers in the past have had such good experiences from beginning of sale all the way to years later. And when issues arise they are dealt with. Not a perfect record but no business is without falter.

We all put products in our hands that work the best for us. Whether you are driven by profit margins or customer satisfaction long after the sale. I don't plan on leaving my area unless I take a dirt nap so I put my company name behind what has worked in the positive.

Customers are shocked when I tell them I will not install a Whirlpool gas water heater. I know why they bought it, it's the cheapest water heater on the market. Remember those famous words, if you're walking by it your more likely to buy it. A very good reason HD Lowes and Sears have been in the water heater selling business without any problems. People want to see and feel (strange) what they are about to purchase. NO ONE has ever not known of Sears. If they don't, they live in a cardboard box like me.

dip tubes and designers.....

I do have a clue why they all make different sizes of dip tubes.....


Actually , in theory the "roto swirl" sounds like a great idea.......


even though it really dont do nothing......except make the customer feel

all warm and fuzzy....


Why Rheem and Bradford white make theirs so short is debateble.....


What I was told a long , long time ago... was some bullshit called


" stratificatioion " yes thats -- stra---ti--fi--cation

thats a new word for us all to use at work.........
-----------------------------------------------------------

they claim that by putting the dip tube all the way down into the

bottom of the tank it has a tendencey to make the gas or electric thermostat

have a false reading and come on and re-heat the tank..

when only 2 or 3 gallons of.water .were only used....

So the tank pre-maturely re-heats.... (good theory)


so they put theirs up 2 foot or so off the botom half of the tank to get it


properly " stratisfied" or dispersed into the lower half of the



tank.............thats "stratification" ....... for ya...................


and that is the load of hoo-ey I tell all my customers....


makes me look and sound real smart. (sometimes)..

Rheem Dip Tube

My thought would be the cold water hitting the hot bottom in one spot, at least on a gas unit, might over time cause the glass to fracture and break exposing the steel and rusting out sooner. Electric wouldn't make any difference, I don't think the temp variation would affect the element at all.

Another thought is mineral build up would take a lot more time to affect the filling/heating/mixing of the tank. I have had heaters where the dip tube exit point was covered with lime and calcium build up by 8" or more. I had 1 heater that was 3/4 full of buildup and still working, very very slowwww rcovery but still worked. Had to be cut open and buildup removed by hand to get the weignt down enough to move it.

All just a guess.

Interesting side note re stratification...this applies to salt water. There is a phenomona thatwill allow salt water with the proper salinities to basically become a neat heat collector, allowing the underlying water to heat up to very high temperatures without the surface getting particularly hot. Normally, the top would get hot and then mix with what is there in this case, with the bottom slowly cooling as mixing becomes less of a factor. Under just the right conditions, the heat gets transferred and the underlying water can get extreemely hot. This is used to good effect for energy storage in Isreal I read somewhere. Think of thermocline in the ocean, where there is a band of water at much different temepratures at depth - it is used to good effect with hiding submarines.