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+--- Thread: Who Says There's No Inflation? Hot Water Heater 300% in 10 Years! (/showthread.php?tid=187420)
Re: Who Says There's No Inflation? Hot Water Heater 300% in 10 Years! - ztirffritz - 01-25-2016
Huh...I bought one at Lowe's for $350 and installed it myself in an afternoon. Hauled the old one to the dump for $5.
Re: Who Says There's No Inflation? Hot Water Heater 300% in 10 Years! - mrlynn - 01-25-2016
ztirffritz wrote:
Huh...I bought one at Lowe's for $350 and installed it myself in an afternoon. Hauled the old one to the dump for $5.
The plumbers say the water heaters (and other appliances) you buy at home centers are crap. True? I've heard from many contractors that even with the same model name, at Lowes or Home Depot you're getting a lesser product. Of course they have an incentive to say that.
/Mr Lynn
Re: Who Says There's No Inflation? Hot Water Heater 300% in 10 Years! - macphanatic - 01-25-2016
3d wrote:
Oof. Not sure I would mess around with a gas water heater install.
Electric, water AND GAS line project with no permit required? Where is this?!
If the last one was installed correctly, it's a matter of moving connections. I've replaced my water heater 3 times over 26 years. I put shut-off valves on both water connections with flex line to the water heater. Gas is hard piped with a flex connection. I replace the gas flex line every time I replace the water heater. It takes longer to drain a water heater than it does to install it.
Permits don't make it safer. In many places the sole purpose is revenue generation. They usually don't have the staff to inspect water heater, toilet and other installs. They focus on the big things like major electrical reno or installs, structural items and major plumbing.
Re: Who Says There's No Inflation? Hot Water Heater 300% in 10 Years! - Speedy - 01-25-2016
http://forums.macresource.com/read.php?1,1955398,1955398#msg-1955398
Good info in this recent thread. davester has a link with some great info, especially about the sacrificial anode.
Re: Who Says There's No Inflation? Hot Water Heater 300% in 10 Years! - Racer X - 01-25-2016
Bixby wrote:
My plumber told me the extra you pay for a long-warranted water heater basically pays for their insurance against their own failures. Those heaters don't have better parts or thicker insulation. So a unit with a 6-year warranty is mechanically no better than one with a 10-year warranty.
Usually the longer warranty ones have a second anode in them. But yes, the same. Mine has a 6 year warranty. Install the second anode, and the warranty doubles.
Re: Who Says There's No Inflation? Hot Water Heater 300% in 10 Years! - mrlynn - 01-26-2016
What's all this about anodes? I have a gas heater. No electricity (except some kind of thermocouple that keeps a battery in the pilot control powered).
/Mr Lynn
Re: Who Says There's No Inflation? Hot Water Heater 300% in 10 Years! - Speedy - 01-26-2016
A sacrificial anode protects any exposed steel inside the tank from corroding. Doesn't matter the type of heat source.
Re: Who Says There's No Inflation? Hot Water Heater 300% in 10 Years! - mrlynn - 01-26-2016
Speedy wrote:
A sacrificial anode protects any exposed steel inside the tank from corroding. Doesn't matter the type of heat source.
Guess I should look into replacing ours in a few years. Would that have prevented the rust-out that killed our tank after 10 years?
/Mr Lynn
Re: Who Says There's No Inflation? Hot Water Heater 300% in 10 Years! - Paul F. - 01-26-2016
mrlynn wrote:
[quote=Speedy]
A sacrificial anode protects any exposed steel inside the tank from corroding. Doesn't matter the type of heat source.
Guess I should look into replacing ours in a few years. Would that have prevented the rust-out that killed our tank after 10 years?
/Mr Lynn
Quite probably, yes... It would have.
When you connect a steel tanked water heater to copper piping, you create a battery, which creates corrossion. The sacraficial anode is put there to be the part that corrodes away to protect the expensive bits from corroding away.
Re: Who Says There's No Inflation? Hot Water Heater 300% in 10 Years! - Racer X - 01-26-2016
I even added sacrificial anodes to my Buick engines.
Aluminum timing cover/water pump rear, iron water pump, iron block and heads, aluminum intake, copper, brass and solder in the radiator and heater core. That's one heck of a battery waiting to melt down. The only thing to protect it is the buffering agents in the coolant preventing it from becoming an electrolytic bridge. And my anodes in the intakes.