Our 13.5 Bradford White 55 gallon gas water heater decided to leak today.
Any recommendation on a new brand? We have been happy enough but the reviews for
Bradford White are pretty bad.
Thanks!
FWIW. Our Rheem is 17 years old… but past performance is not a guarantee of the future performance. As one philosopher said, you can’t enter the same river twice. Good luck!
I was told not to expect electric water heaters to last past 12 years. My plumber sticks with B White.
OP asked for gas… The Rheems @ HD seem to have decent reviews.
H just asked with the plumber and he suggested either Rheems or Bradley White.
I was proud that I knew Rheems! But only because you posted.
We have a 65 gallon–I was wrong–so evidently these are “special” and they need to get one next week or we pay $$$ to buy over the weekend.
He did say we can use it anyway as it is a tiny leak and just to monitor it.
Of course we have company arriving Saturday, fingers crossed all is taken care of.
We had company leave a few days ago so am thankful for that!
Sure is going to mess with my schedule this week.
I really believe things come in threes. I had thought early this a.m. that we were going to have some troubles come
our way. Then my fitbit broke and the water heater broke and now I am waiting for the third…but so far nothing tragic.
Seems it is going to $$ and inconvenience.
That is a HUGE domestic hot water heater!!
Oregon101, do you have hot water radiator/baseboard heat?
We replaced our water heater with an indirect unit off of the boiler. It was a double stainless tank, the inner tank was the water we used, the outer tank was the water from the boiler that heated the inner tank.
Also, rather than keeping 65 gallons of water hot, have you considered tandem tanks?
No baseboard heat–but have had it in the past and loved it.
Interesting questions about the size. I do not know why it is so large.
Can say we have never run out of hot water.
It is also a circulating system. Does this have anything to do with it?
My question now is can we/do we want to downsize?
The house is 3270 sq ft.
That is a LOT of water to keep hot. The size of your house isn’t as important perhaps as the number of bathrooms, and bedrooms…which would more correlate to hot water use.
At one time, we were recommended two smaller heaters (2x30 gal) installed in series (not parallel) as an energy efficient way of having hot water available for a large crowd, but not continually heating the larger tank (50+gal) as it got diluted with cold water. We didn’t have the space, though
Except if you are now empty-nesters, the empty bedrooms are of no use in the hot H2O calc: instead, its bodies taking showers!
These fed estimates seem way too high to me. We’ve gotten along well with a 50 gal for four people, and the occasional overnight guest.
I just checked my house. We have two gas water heaters. One for each half of the house. Each are 72 gallons. One is a Rheem and the other is a Guardian brand. We also have a recirculating pump on our water heaters. House is 4700 sq ft with 5 full baths and 1 1/2 Bath. House is 18 yrs old and I think both water heaters have been replaced once.
The size of your bathtubs matters. If you can’t fill all of them at the same time without waiting for the heater to “brew” some more… 
you need a bigger heater.
65 gallon tank here, too. Similar sized house as OP’s - with a large master bath tub. Also recirculating, and a drain line in the bottom of the tank to periodically get hot water for car wash etc. it also helps to prolong the life of the heater by not letting any deposits to accumulate on the bottom (that’s where the corrosion usually starts).
^H mentioned that one fill of our soaking tub takes a lot of water. It only gets filled when G’ is visiting now but it takes a lot of water…
Rheem is what the plumber said or a Bradley White.
I think for resale we will replace with the 65 gallon.
Good idea about the car wash. Our tank is in a lower floor so that would not work.
Interesting though for my future build or remodel. I also will make sure the furnace and the water heater
are near an exterior door. Ours is in a large storage room but still the exterior door is either through the yard and
up- or up the stairs.
In our last house we had a 40 gallon short squatty tank in a crawl space. That was a drag for H to replace.
I probably told our builder that I never wanted to run out of hot water again 
--but really do not remember.
So wondering what difference a 55 gallon v.s. a 65 gallon would make in our gas bill–anyone venture a guess?
So glad our hot water is instant and hooked to our boiler. I do NOT miss having a huge hot water heater in the basement (somehow,we managed with 40 gallons and four people at our old house). And we never run out of hot water!
When after a winter wind storm
our tankless neighbors have to fire up their generators or go to a hotel to take a shower, I really appreciate our gas water heater.
:-S I actually do not know what a boiler is…
grew up with coal and then oil and then electric and then gas.
Did rent once with baseboard water heat and loved it.
But the term boiler is not rattling my brain…
unless is for radiators which I don’t remember ever having.
The boiler is the thing that heats up the water for our baseboard heat. I have had gas, and oil.
@BunsenBurner around here when the power goes out, we have to fire up the generator anyway…or we don’t have water…well…and well pump. I’m crossing my fingers as I say…id rather use the generator once in a blue moon than pay to hear 60 or more gallons of water all the time.
Well, you only pay for the gas used to heat the water you use, right? Same with a hot water tank. There is a minor loss of energy if the tank is not well insulated, but most of them are pretty well insulated now. The energy savings are not that great.
I also get by with a 40-gallon. When we have guests occasionally, we turn it up a bit.