<p>The darn thing broke. Turned off circuit breakers, the hot water spouts, drained water. My emergency call to contract people hasn’t been returned yet. Used all my old towels, no longer leaking. Swept as much water as possible out of garage. Boy, wish I could take a hot bath!</p>
<p>Anyone have suggestions about new model?</p>
<p>It depends where you live and how you heat your house.</p>
<p>We’ve been very happy with our solar water heater–got both state and federal tax credits too! You may wish to look into that possibility, if it appeals. It did reduce our electric bill by about 1/3 or so.</p>
<p>tankless Flash/Instant Natural Gas or Propane.
We have a Bosch 20+ years.
Rennai has a good reputation.</p>
<p>New models that don’t need a pilot light, must use a small amount of electricity. Units are super efficient. </p>
<p>We have an older model that uses a pilot light but does not need electricity. We have hot water when power lines are down. </p>
<p>My dream is to have the Solar Water in line with Flash Heater. </p>
<p>You have until Dec 31 to install a flash heater to get a tax credit. We should ban tank water heaters for new construction.</p>
<p>Our water heater is on its last legs, so we have been researching replacement, which we’ll hopefully have done before the flood! We went through our trusted plumber, who offers a couple of brands, and also looked at Consumer Reports and other online sites. Apparently most water heaters are made by only a few companies, often under different names for a very similar heater. Of those our plumber offers, the best rated seems to be the Ruud (also known as Rheem). We had an enormous (100 gallon) gas hot water heater, which was installed 20 years ago. What we have learned is that the new heaters are much more energy efficient and heat the water much quicker and we can get by with a standard size (50 gallon) tank and still have enough hot water for everything we need. We were told to go with the model that has the longer warrenty (I think 8 years) as the internal components are usually thicker/sturdier and less likely to rust and leak. We hoping ourenergy bill will go down with this replacement.</p>
<p>We just purchased a Noritz tankless water heater (gas). It’s great. Not sure how much it cost us as husband got it from a client at wholesale prices.</p>
<p>One thing about tankless water heaters - it does not equal instant hot water. I thought it did and so do many other people. The water that sits in the pipes gets cold, so if a faucet hasn’t been run in a while (like 15 minutes) will come out cold initially - just like with any hot water heater. You can buy a recirculating pump to get around this but it’s going to jack up your power bill.</p>
<p>What a tankless water does is once you get the water flowing is ensure that you will not run out of hot water and you can run several things at once (dishwasher, washing machine, showers) without running out. That’s the beauty of it. Plus it doesn’t take every much space compared to a standard water heater. It’s about the size of a large suitcase.</p>
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<p>That depends. If you have a garden tub and someone that likes to take baths, 50 gallons is not enough. We had a top-of-the line 60 gallon tank (installed last year - just replaced with a tankless) and if I was taking bath in our smallish garden tub, I would often run out, especially if other appliances were on at the same time or son just took a shower.</p>
<p>We had two 50 gallon tanks (piggy-backed) at out former home and I rarely ran out.</p>
<p>waiting for repair man, but I’m sure I’ll need replacement. Its electric 50 galons, and I live deep south. I rarely use more than one appliance at a time, and just 2 adults here. I checked prices on Home Depot, but forgot about Consumers report. Momof3’s suggestion about the warrantee is really helpful. I don’t know how you can tell its going until it starts leaking.</p>
<p>always something with a house.</p>
<p>Good point about the tub, Momlive. I think we’ll split the difference and go for a 75 gallon version to be on the safe side.</p>
<p>We just recently replaced our electric hot water heater with a heat pump version. I can definitely see a drop in electric use. They’re pretty expensive, though! If you do it before the end of the year there’s a tax rebate, and our electric supplier offered a rebate as well. It’s much taller than the old unit since the heat pump is on top, and it makes noise when the heat pump is on. So far I like it, though. At first I put it on the heat pump only mode, but we’d run out of water when a few of us were taking showers back to back, or we ran the dishwasher and then someone took a shower. I switched it to hybrid mode (heat pump mostly and element when needed), which uses a bit more power, and that’s taken care of.</p>
<p>Our hot water heater is 17 years old, so we thought we should take advantage of the energy rebate and do it in 2010. But I don’t think it qualifies?</p>
<p>This model we looked at is is energy star compliant, but not applicable to the credit. Further research showed no residential tank models qualify. PLEASE ADD MORE INFO IF THIS IS WRONG. </p>
<p>[Federal</a> Tax Credits for Energy Efficiency : ENERGY STAR](<a href=“http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=tax_credits.tx_index]Federal”>Federal Income Tax Credits and Incentives for Energy Efficiency | ENERGY STAR)
Energy Factor ≥ 0.82 OR a thermal efficiency of at least 90%.
Tax Credit includes installation costs.</p>
<p>[GE</a> 50-Gallon 40,000 BTU Natural Gas Water Heater - SG50T12AVG at The Home Depot](<a href=“http://www.homedepot.com/Plumbing-Water-Heaters-Residential/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xhfZbqowZ1z13yke/R-100659227/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053GE]GE”>http://www.homedepot.com/Plumbing-Water-Heaters-Residential/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xhfZbqowZ1z13yke/R-100659227/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053GE) 50-Gallon 40,000 BTU Natural Gas Water Heater
Model #<em>SG50T12AVG</em>***
Store SKU #<em>185191</em>*** Store SO SKU #*607988 $648.00/EA-Each </p>
<p>From FAQ ) Storage tank.<em>There are NO residential</em>storage tank water heaters that can*qualify for the tax credit because none can meet the Energy Factor requirement of .82. However, there are some commercial storage tank water heaters that can qualify for the tax credit because they have a thermal efficiency of greater than 90%. These models are larger than what is typically considered a residential unit and may not have the standard safety features of residential models.</p>
<p>If you are in the “deep south”, I’d seriously consider a solar one…</p>
<p>We have realized that we are working on borrowed time on our 15 year old tank and have done a buch of research.
Tankless is cool, but Not Worth It in areas where utities are normally priced. It would take 23 years for us to cover the cost of a new tankless unit. Ummm, not.
Other parts of the country are different.</p>
<p>Rheem and Rudd are good brands. When I changed mine, I did some research and found out that there are a couple of maintenance pointers that you can do. One is to drain the tank once a year to get rid of sediments, for this, you should add a curved dip tube that can facilitate the sediment removal. Second is to add extra anode rod if your tank has an opening for one. In fact, when you pay extra for warranty, the manufacturer actually equips the tank with extra anode rod. You can buy the extra rod and the curved dip tube ahead of time and tell the plumber that does the installation to put in these things as he installs the new tank. There might be a little charge or sometimes the plumber will do this for free because it takes basically very little time to do it before the tank is fully installed. The rod and tube should cost less than $100.</p>
<p>After 4-5 years, you may want to check and change the anode rod again, the tank will last a lot longer if you do these maintenance procedures.</p>
<p>ttparent, I got 2 estimates yesterday. Both plumbers said “no” to Rudd/Rheem, as they are made in Mexico now and lack some quality control. One plumber only uses A.O. Smith, the other uses A O Smith as well as Bradford/White. He prefers the B/W, as made in America, slightly less expensive, but he thinks quality equal. Both of these brands come with the extra parts you mentioned. I don’t know why neither mentioned solar, but I’ll ask today.</p>
<p>LongPrime, I like your suggestion. Much more costly. Another question for plumber. </p>
<p>I can’t thank you CCers enough for letting me vent & steer me towards info. I think going without a hot shower an extra day is worth getting a better product for my needs.</p>