Had some plumbing done yesterday and the tech mentioned my hot water heater was making some suspicious noises, leading him to wonder if it might need replacing. It is 15 years old. I talked to some of my friends and they felt it was okay to ride that heater until it fails (for one reason or another). It's gas fired. Any experience with this amongst The Hive?
Not sure what "noises" it could be making. I'd just ride it till it dies, then replace it yourself. It's a super easy job.
The only "suspicious" noise that I could think would necessitate immediate replacement of the water heater would be what we normals would commonly refer to as "water running".
Unless it has an induction fan on it and that's starting to make some bad bearing noises. I've had the fan go out on mine, but it was a fairly simple (if slightly expensive) job to do myself. On a 15 year old heater, if the fan is a couple hundred bucks it might be worth just replacing the whole thing, though.
I had one die and leak while I was out of the country. How water proof is your basement? Do you have an alarm next to it in a catch pan? How is your home insurance?
My next one started getting very slow to recover and was ten years old so I replaced it with a tankless. Best upgrade ever. Three teenagers, wife, laundry, dishwasher, I never run out of water, it was a problem before.
I recently had my gas fired WH go. My house is older and my chimney is not lined to code so I had to put an electric one in. Mine was also about 15 years old when the bottom dropped out.
akylekoz said:My next one started getting very slow to recover and was ten years old so I replaced it with a tankless. Best upgrade ever. Three teenagers, wife, laundry, dishwasher, I never run out of water, it was a problem before.
When we bought our house, the owners had just replaced the HW heater with a gas unit. It is a tank unit but we are going to go tankless when it dies. My FIL owns an industrial laundry (and MIL works for the gas company, so discount!) so I got to see how freaking good those tankless units are at keeping water at 165 ALL DAY LONG.
Now, electric tankless units just aren't up to snuff for a whole house, but that's another story.
Since you have gas go with a tankless unit. The minor inconvience of waiting for the water to warm up is about the same as waiting for the hot water to travel from a tank (at least it is close enough to not bother me). I put in shelving where the old tank heater was since the tankless unit takes up so little room. If you really need scalding hot water at the tap instantly, do what we did and get a hot water dispenser.
Why are you heating the hot water?
MiniDave said:Why are you heating the hot water?
It saves money compared to draining and refilling the tank every time the burner lights
Pete. (l33t FS) said:MiniDave said:Why are you heating the hot water?
It saves money compared to draining and refilling the tank every time the burner lights
If you think about it, most of what it is doing is maintaining the temperature...
I'm curious what noises it was making. Depending on the water in your area, 15 years isn't necessarily anything to worry about. Around here that would be considered ancient but most places don't have such hard water.
There are no moving parts in a water heater. Not sure what your tech is talking about.
Unless you have a circulating pump. (99% of houses do not)
In reply to SV reX :
I have heard water heaters make "gurgling " noises as the water expands as it heats, and some air pockets. Could be the (normal) noises the tech is using to hustle up some work selling a new (maybe not needed) unit.
In reply to 03Panther :
Agreed.
(I used an unflattering word to describe the tech, then edited it)
When do you want to change your water heater?
When you're bored and have shopped around until you got a bargain? Or when your water heater has failed?
Did a gas fired tankless before we moved into the house. Fantastic upgrade, but keep in mind that it still has some dependencies on electricity. So you will lose hot water if you have a power outage. Also some of the newer ones have specific venting requirements, it would be good to get an estimate/quote for that portion if you go tankless. THat all being said, I would totally do it again, even with the higher cost than a tank.
We get 7-8 years out of a 40 gallon gas water heater.
We get 6-7 years out of a water softener.
Our town has sucky well water.
I've gotten really good at swapping new ones in (last night was a water softener)
Hey, we just went down this path.
Due to changing insurance, we had to have a home inspection.
Hey, the inspector noted, your water heater is original–so from 1978. But it looks good. The insurance company isn't going to like its age, but I'll note that it still looks to have service left in it.
Less than a week later: Hey, why is there water on the ground next to our water heater?
So, we now have a new one–same spec as the old one but not built in 1978.
That made the new insurance company happy, too, as they likely wouldn't have approved the old one.
Noises they're referring to is likely internal calcium buildup. As the water temp rises you'll get banging and popping noises that are very audible. Eventually the calcium will choke your flow rate. Ours is currently experiencing the exact same issue, it's 16 years old, so about due for a replacement. I'm thinking of installing it myself, but it's in kinda of a PITA area of the garage.
I would recommend replacing your unit with a tankless unit especially since you have gas. The electric units are a more difficult and expensive proposition. We have a Navien in our house here in PA and the last 3 remodels I've done all got tankless heaters of one manufacturer or another(Rinnai, Eemax and AO Smith).
calteg said:Noises they're referring to is likely internal calcium buildup. As the water temp rises you'll get banging and popping noises that are very audible. Eventually the calcium will choke your flow rate. Ours is currently experiencing the exact same issue, it's 16 years old, so about due for a replacement. I'm thinking of installing it myself, but it's in kinda of a PITA area of the garage.
My water heater has been making 'noises' since we moved in and your calcium comment makes sense as we are on well water. When we moved in our hot water didn't last very long so i checked the heating elements (it's electric) and found the bottom one had popped. I also found why, the bottom of the water heater had about ~30 lbs of calcium built up in it and the element was completely covered by it, which is why i assumed it popped as it wasn't fully submerged in water at that point. I spent about 2 hours scooping out as much of the calcium buildup that i could out of the heating element hole, wasnt fun but it got the job done. After that I replaced both elements and called it good. That was 5 years ago and haven't had a problem since, I'll continue to clean out the build up if it happens again until i can justify actually replacing it.
I have kinda crappy water, so I seem to get around 10 years from a water heater. As mentioned, they are relatively easy to replace. Especially with pre-made flex pipe connections and Shark-bite fittings. The biggest PITA the last time I replaced mine was draining and hauling the old one out of my basement.
In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :
My last one was under warranty but you had to bring it back to Home Depot to get the credit. With no one to help I had to strap it to my dolly and hump it up out of my basement a step at a time.
Fun times!
In reply to Datsun310Guy :
Yep. Same. Although it did make me thankful for splurging on a H-F appliance hand truck. While not quite as nice as the commercial/rental versions, it gets the job done for occasional use. The rubber track/rollers make hauling stuff up stairs easier.
BTW, I also, out of bad habits learned, called them Hot Water Heaters up until a few years ago, when a friends dad pointed out, they are heating water, not water that is already hot! I just call them water heaters, now 
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