Hot Water Heater Warning

[davismills]

I'm posting this as it might help someone out of potential disaster.

Two days ago my DW mentioned that the water was not as hot as normal. I quickly went up to the attic where my 16-year-old water heater was located.

I tore the insulation blanket off the heater and notice a rusted, bulging 6 inch crack in the outer metal wall. I quickly turned the electricity off, connected a hose and drained the tank.

My favorite plumber arrived quickly and installed a new heater. He said I was very lucky as the heater was not far from bursting. 50 gallons of water would have destroyed my ceiling. I do have auxiliary drain piping from the pan, but it would have been overwhelmed had the tank burst. The charge for a new tank installed was $1060.00. He also installed an expansion tank.

Check your aging tank, especially if it's in the attic.

 

[Bamaman]

Sometimes it doesn't hurt to change a hot water heater that is old--whether it needs changing--if it is in an attic. My last heater leak was July 4th when relatives came into town but thankfully it was in a basement.

If I was going to spend $1k on a replacement, it would be moving the heater out of the attic to the ground floor or basement. I once had a heater blow in the attic while I was out of town and it simply destroyed my house and dropped the ceiling and insulation on my furniture. Only a fire would have been worse.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

I would have changed it to a Tankless and never looked back.

 

[H2ODude]

Sometimes it doesn't hurt to change a hot water heater that is old--whether it needs changing--if it is in an attic. My last heater leak was July 4th when relatives came into town but thankfully it was in a basement.

If I was going to spend $1k on a replacement, it would be moving the heater out of the attic to the ground floor or basement. I once had a heater blow in the attic while I was out of town and it simply destroyed my house and dropped the ceiling and insulation on my furniture. Only a fire would have been worse.

We think alike. I replaced one leaking HWH in attic and I think I'm about due for a pre-emptive strike. While I could have it moved to garage, I hate to give up the space (tools, you know :roll eyes All I know is this time I'm paying a plumber to replace it, getting old one down and new one up the flimsy pull down stairs was a challenge. I know code does not allow them in attics any more here, sometimes regulation is a good thing.

 

[pjigar]

I have installed multiple tankless heaters in attic but even tankless heaters can and will leak (happed to me). However a leak from tankless heater would not be catastrophic.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

Not to hijack the thread, but as long as Shokwave mentioned tankless ... we're looking at replacing our heater this summer, but it'll have to be electric. Has anybody had experience with a hybrid "heat pump" heater?

 

[CRLLS]

50 gallons of water would have destroyed my ceiling.

It is not just 50 gallons...... the amount of water leaked could be virtually infinite if you aren't there to shut off the water supply immediately. We had a pressure tank fail about 45 minutes after returning home once. Had it failed while we were gone....the well pump can provide a lot of water!

All I can say is it was lucky that you had caught it in time.

 

[street]

Interesting post. I for one am pro-active with such things. I have them replaced every 8 years even of they don't show any issues etc. I will have a plumber schedule me in and just do it. That is one thing that I would never want to happen especially when I have control of a problem.

 

[Blueskies123]

Everyone I know that has installed an electric tankless heater has regretted it. Maybe not you for now, but you will at some point.

 

[Big_Hitter]

good idea to check on those - we had one in the attic in houston and that thing made me nervous

 

[GrayHare]

If corrosion over time is a problem, last I checked, Rheem makes a heater that employs a plastic tank. Could still rupture of course but it won't rust away as is inevitable with conventional tanks. If you have acidic water, choose the titanium heating elements so they won't rust either.

 

[H2ODude]

Not to hijack the thread, but as long as Shokwave mentioned tankless ... we're looking at replacing our heater this summer, but it'll have to be electric. Has anybody had experience with a hybrid "heat pump" heater?

Left FL 20 years ago so my heat pump days behind me. Not sure what you're interested in, but when built house there in 1987 thought I'd be energy efficient and install what I THINK you are describing: recirculation that takes the waste heat from HP (in summer) and circulates it through the hot water tank. Sounded good, and it's been many years, but I recall having many problems including weird circulation patterns in the tank. These were new at the time and the local electric utility said not recommended but I did anyway. May be perfectly now nowadays, but it wasn't for me then.

 

[littleb]

Everyone I know that has installed an electric tankless heater has regretted it. Maybe not you for now, but you will at some point.

We had a gas tankless installed 10 years ago and would never go back to a regular hot water heater. Especially since we had one rupture in the attic and it destroyed our ceiling and walls. Builders save money by installing water heaters in the attic but they can cause many problems.

A builder told me in the past 5 years they only install tankless hot water heaters in newer houses.

 

[redshift]

Not to hijack the thread, but as long as Shokwave mentioned tankless ... we're looking at replacing our heater this summer, but it'll have to be electric. Has anybody had experience with a hybrid "heat pump" heater?

I've installed 2 heat pump water heaters in different homes. They saved a lot of energy over electric resistance heaters, and have the side benefit of cooling and dehumidifying the room, which is helpful in warm climates.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Why would you need a heater if your water is already hot?

 

[CaptTom]

Wow, I don't think I could sleep nights with a water heater in the attic!

Everyone I know that has installed an electric tankless heater has regretted it. Maybe not you for now, but you will at some point.

I'm not a fan, electric or otherwise. I know lots of folks who love them, but they seem to take too long to bring the water up to temp, and even then they don't seem to produce water as hot as a traditional tank system.

It could be because the cold water here really is cold, and it could be the manufacturers and installers set the thermostats way down to prevent lawsuits. But from what I've seen, I have no interest in going tankless.

On a side note, I just looked, and a 50G electric water heater with a 12-year warranty is $600 at Lowe's. If plumbers are getting $1,000 each to install them, I might just come out of retirement to start a new career!

 

[Sunset]

Incredible, I would not want one of those in the attic, that is just asking for trouble.

We have ours in the basement, and recently replaced it as it started to leak (slow drips). But there was no danger to the house even if it had burst as it's right beside the drain, and the basement is unfinished.

 

[Music Lover]

We had a gas tankless installed 10 years ago and would never go back to a regular hot water heater. Especially since we had one rupture in the attic and it destroyed our ceiling and walls. Builders save money by installing water heaters in the attic but they can cause many problems.

A builder told me in the past 5 years they only install tankless hot water heaters in newer houses.

I'd never buy a house where the only option was tankless...the builder would have lost a customer if that was the only available option. I'd also never buy a house with a water tank in the attic...not that they'd ever do that here with our winter climate.

 

[dvalley]

Hmm, I've wondered about my 15yr old water heater, may be I should pre-preemptively replace it. I'm just worried that generally the old stuff was built better and the new one I get will probably only last half as long. In a 'don't try to fix what ain't broken' kind of way.

 

[REWahoo]

Another potential issue with replacing a water heater in the attic is the new efficiency standards that went into effect in 2015. Many (most) water heater manufacturers added more insulation to accomplish this, resulting in larger diameter tanks. The opening to your attic may be too small for the new water heater to fit. Not good.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

I've installed 2 heat pump water heaters in different homes. They saved a lot of energy over electric resistance heaters, and have the side benefit of cooling and dehumidifying the room, which is helpful in warm climates.

Thanks, that's very helpful. As it happens, our basement can get humid in the summer -- if the water heater would serve as a dehumidifier that would mean additional energy savings.

 

[Texas Proud]

Wow, I don't think I could sleep nights with a water heater in the attic!



I'm not a fan, electric or otherwise. I know lots of folks who love them, but they seem to take too long to bring the water up to temp, and even then they don't seem to produce water as hot as a traditional tank system.

It could be because the cold water here really is cold, and it could be the manufacturers and installers set the thermostats way down to prevent lawsuits. But from what I've seen, I have no interest in going tankless.

On a side note, I just looked, and a 50G electric water heater with a 12-year warranty is $600 at Lowe's. If plumbers are getting $1,000 each to install them, I might just come out of retirement to start a new career!

I had a tankless in my old house.... put in 28 years ago, so I think they probably have improved over time....

The time to get hot water was about the same... maybe a few seconds slower, but not horrible... mine could produce HOT water, and I mean almost steam if you wanted...

My big problem was flow rate... I had to have too high of flow for it to heat water at the rate I wanted... IOW, with the low flow shower heads you had to have almost full hot water for it to work... and that is just too hot... as I said, I think they have fixed that problem...

 

[samclem]

Has anyone got experience with an active anode rod? It involves replacing the sacrificial magnesium or aluminum anode rod in the water heater with one that plugs in and is permanent. This seems like a good way to get a very long life out of a water heater, and is certainly easier than checking and replacing the anode rod every 5 years or so (few people actually do that, anyway).

Here's an example of a unit available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Corro-Protec...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=SWEK3QNR790MTFPS64CN

The same concept is used to protect ships, pipelines, etc from corrosion. I just wonder if there are practical reasons it's not more popular for water heaters. Spending under $200 to protect the water heater from rust-out for a LONG time seems like a bargain.

 

[SonofCohoes]

Wow, I don't think I could sleep nights with a water heater in the attic!



I'm not a fan, electric or otherwise. I know lots of folks who love them, but they seem to take too long to bring the water up to temp, and even then they don't seem to produce water as hot as a traditional tank system.

It could be because the cold water here really is cold, and it could be the manufacturers and installers set the thermostats way down to prevent lawsuits. But from what I've seen, I have no interest in going tankless.

On a side note, I just looked, and a 50G electric water heater with a 12-year warranty is $600 at Lowe's. If plumbers are getting $1,000 each to install them, I might just come out of retirement to start a new career!

$1060.00 installed not 1600.00

 

[CRLLS]

Has anyone got experience with an active anode rod? It involves replacing the sacrificial magnesium or aluminum anode rod in the water heater with one that plugs in and is permanent. This seems like a good way to get a very long life out of a water heater, and is certainly easier than checking and replacing the anode rod every 5 years or so (few people actually do that, anyway).

Here's an example of a unit available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Corro-Protec...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=SWEK3QNR790MTFPS64CN

The same concept is used to protect ships, pipelines, etc from corrosion. I just wonder if there are practical reasons it's not more popular for water heaters. Spending under $200 to protect the water heater from rust-out for a LONG time seems like a bargain.

We replaced our water heater about 2-1/2 years ago. We got one with a 12 yr warranty. From what I have read, the tanks themselves are the same across the various warranty lengths, only the type/size of the anode changes to get the longer warranty. Who really knows?

Our water has iron bacteria. Within about 2-3 weeks the sulphur smell from the hot water was horrible. We shocked the system and tried again. Another 3 weeks or so before the smell came back. Upon recommendation from the mfgr, we replaced the anode with a special resistive type. that was supposed to reduce the bacteria activity. It did, it lasted 4-5 weeks before the smell came back.. We learned about the powered anode as a "fix" for the smell and purchased on for over $200 dollars. 2 years later, no problem.

I can't say anything about how long the new tank will last with the powered anode. The one it replaced was still going strong after about 26 years. And I found that the anode was removed at least 10 years prior, before we bought the house. I'm pretty sure if the tank fails within the 12 yr warranty the mfgr will not honor the warranty. I don't care. If I were to do it again at this house, I think I would buy the lower warrantied heater and install the powered anode from the get-go.