Water Heater brands?

gcvmom

Here we go again!
Okay, anyone here that can recommend a GOOD brand of water heater?

Ours is 21 years old and leaking. Supposedly they're only designed to last 8 to 12 years, so I guess we got our money's worth!

I just want to be sure the next one we buy lasts at least 1/2 as long as this one did.

Thoughts?
 

Pam R

New Member
We put in a Bosch tankless. It's gas run and they offered a version that does not require power to work. We opted for that one, for when we lose power, we still have hot water.

Best investment we ever made. I think it's 3 yrs old now, and so far so good.

Pam R.
 

Marcie Mac

Just Plain Ole Tired
I will be keeping an eye on this thread - mine is the original one when the house was built in 64 and I am pushing the envelope with it.

Pam, I have been looking at the Bosch tankless as I have gas as well. In my old office the owners put in a tiny tankless, electric, and the water never got really "hot"
Maybe because it was so small. Can you adjust the settings on yours so you get really hot water? And can you do laundry, dishes and shower at the same time and not run out of hot?

I was sort of attracted to those wall ones as they take up less room and being in Ca, can forego the big bolting straps we need to use on conventional ones.

Marcie
 

Fran

Former desparate mom
Our last house we put tankless and loved it. You can adjust the temp. The only warning I have is that if your power goes out or blinks off during a storm it goes to a much cooler default setting. You have to put the temp to where you want it again. I'm sure it's a safety feature.
We had a lot of hot water. I only put them in 2 yrs before we moved so I don't know how long they last. I didn't have any problems once we knew about the default setting.
 

Lothlorien

Active Member
We have hot-water base board heat.....does a tankless keep up with that? We don't need one and hopefully won't for a long time to come. We do need a water-softener, which I'd like to get one of those tankless things.

I just took a peek at our system, which has a boiler (Weil-McLain) an Expansion tank (Watts) and another big tank, which is what I guess a holding tank that keeps the water hot and that is Amtrol. The guy that built our house was an electrician and was in the business. When we had our air conditioning installed, the hvac guy told us that what we had was a $40,000 system (including the baseboards and work), so I'm assuming we got the best stuff down there.
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
I think we have to stick with the storage-type tank unit because I've got my washer, dishwasher and two bath/showers that are supplied by this tank. From what I've read, the tankless can typically provide up to 3.5 gallons per minute.
 

Star*

call 911........call 911
Notice the spiggot coming out of the wall and how the clever "person" put the water bottle at an angle to facilitate the best use of flowing water into the heater.

Genius really :smug:
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
O. M. G. ! Staaa-aaarrrrr! That's the SAME brand we have installed NOWWWWWW! And I thought that company went out of bid-ness... Looks like they have the higher-end model than ours (we opted for the economy version -- sans spigot. We just fetch a pail from the crick...) ;)
 

witzend

Well-Known Member
The thing that I learned about "longer lasting" water heaters is that they are all the same. You're just paying for a longer warranty on a 10 year heater than on a 5 year heater. I saw this on one of my home improvement shows and was very impressed. If I had known about it when we bought ours a few years ago I would have bought one then.

http://www.hotwater.com/products/residential/gas.html
 

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
Supposedly mine was new when I bought the house...and that was 12 years ago. I'll keep an eye on this thread as well.
 
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