Any advice on electric water heaters?

[Michael]

I'd wait until it springs a leak, then I'd replace it myself. I did one several years ago--turn it off, drain it, disconnect the electric, disconnect the water, haul it out. Then reverse. It took maybe an hour and it cost a couple hundred $ for the heater. In any case, if the heater isn't in a place with a drain, I'd make sure to put the new in a drain pan.

[davester]

deckeda wrote:
1) Edumacate yourself on the recommended tank maintenance and perform it, knowing that things could break or get ugly and you'll kick yourself for trying to "fix what ain't broken.".

http://www.waterheaterrescue.com/pages/W...nance.html

[stephen]

It's a high rise and the units are 9 years old. Two recent failures have caused the building's hazard insurance to go up, and they're encouraging everyone to replace. This plumbing co is offering a "group discount' of about $100 if residents in our building sign up in next few days.

[deckeda]

So if everyone buys a new tank will the insurance then go back down? And if it goes up or down how does that affect owners? Something sounds weird about the insurance going up because 2 claims were made. Apparently the insurance company thinks water heaters never leak.

[Mike V]

In our unit block, two water heater let go and caused quite a bit of damage to the units underneath.

We fitted catch trays to all the water heaters after that.

[davester]

Mike V wrote:
In our unit block, two water heater let go and caused quite a bit of damage to the units underneath.

We fitted catch trays to all the water heaters after that.

Somebody's got to be really cheaping out to not have catch trays hooked to drainpipes under the water heaters in a high rise. That's a disaster waiting to happen. Sounds like stephen's condo has a whole slew of water heaters that are about to pop because nobody bothered to change the anode rod. Just think how much money could be saved by installing new rods rather than replacing all those heaters.

If it were me I'd pull the anode rod (or have the plumber pull it) and look at it. If it was 100% gone then I'd replace the heater. If there was still anode material left then the tank could be presumed OK and I'd just remove the rod. The water heater company probably knows that this would be a valid way to go but they'd rather sell new water heaters and bill the extra labor for removal/installation rather than get the much smaller amount of money for changing a rod.