Rheem lifetime electric water heater tanks ?

[grsthegreat]

Every water heater ive ever had are 6 year warranties. They have all lasted nearly 20 years. Earlier this summer i had to replace both of my rudd (made by rheem) power vent units with newer rheem power vent units. They are way more expensive now than i ever remember seeing for a water heater. And hard to find in propane version. I had to order and have them shipped to me. Took 3 weeks to get.

 

[lman]

I replaced our 30 year old electric water heater with a Rheem heat pump water heater this spring. The old heater was still working fine but I discovered that my electric co-op had a rebate for new heat pump water heater replacements. They paid for about half of it. I use about $8 electricity/month with this water heater.

 

[bdhsfz6]

I replaced our 30 year old electric water heater with a Rheem heat pump water heater this spring. The old heater was still working fine but I discovered that my electric co-op had a rebate for new heat pump water heater replacements. They paid for about half of it. I use about $8 electricity/month with this water heater.

I did exactly the same thing 2 years ago.

The Rheem heat pump worked fine during that time but it's now throwing alarms. The unit shuts off until something inside cools down and then starts up again. Still provides plenty of hot water but I had to shut off the annoying alarm beeper.

It's likely going to fail in the near future but there is still 8 years to go on the warranty.

 

[Danno1]

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I have found you can extend the life of conventional gas water heaters by draining off the rust in the bottom once a year.

I get 18 yrs of service out of a 6 year warranty unit.

I could prob extend that quite a bit longer if I replaced the anode on a regular basis. But so far, I haven't done that.

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[ultrarunner]

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I have found you can extend the life of conventional gas water heaters by draining off the rust in the bottom once a year.

I get 18 yrs of service out of a 6 year warranty unit.

I could prob extend that quite a bit longer if I replaced the anode on a regular basis. But so far, I haven't done that.

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Most don’t… only did it once and it needed it but it was a wrestling match and I needed a cheater on my breaker bar and a second person to bear hug the heater…

Maybe if the manufacturer would have used Teflon tape instead of some kind of compound?

 

[grsthegreat]

Ive always needed to use an impact wrench to remove an anode rod. On my 2 new units, i installed a corroprotect electronic anode on each one. Wont have to worry about replacing the anode every 3-4 years.
I also installed full port drain valves to drain them 2x per year.

 

[Cycledude]

I never heard of a lifetime warrantee on water heaters. I wonder how you collect on it 30 years from now? If you buy a water heater at Lowes or Home Depot, they wont let you return it the next day if it doesn't work. You are supposed to call their "technician" and have them come out to fix it.

The way I understand the rating on how long a water heat will last is based on the metal rods used to heat the water. You get better metal for more money, and they give it a longer warrantee.

In my experience with warrantees, if you have a claim, they give you a replacement of what failed. I've had this happen with flooring several times. Also with plumbing fixtures, and lighting fixtures. In every case, the replacement arrives at the clients home, and the company is done with their part of the warrantee. Now the client has to hire somebody like me to replace what failed. With flooring, this is always very expensive!! So far, in every case, they hate the flooring so much that they switch to something else and throw away the brand new warrantee flooring that they got in order to buy something from another manufacturer, or totally different type of flooring.

I've never been involved in a water heater warrantee job. It makes me wonder how that is handled, and who pays for the labor of replacing it?

The lifetime warranty only covers the tank against leaking, the heating elements are I believe only covered for 6 years.
The lifetime warranty tanks are made of some kind of plastic so they won’t rust . I believe rust or cracking is probably what caused my 30 year old True Value tank to start leaking.
I do believe tank leaks on the new plastic lifetime warranty tanks will be an extremely rare occurrence

 

[Cycledude]

Ive always needed to use an impact wrench to remove an anode rod. On my 2 new units, i installed a corroprotect electronic anode on each one. Wont have to worry about replacing the anode every 3-4 years.
I also installed full port drain valves to drain them 2x per year.

Always drained the old water heater a couple times per year and it always drained pretty well but after it started leaking the drain didn’t work very well even with the faucet completely removed.

 

[grsthegreat]

I got these drains off of amazon. They allow full port drainage under pressure. Really empties crap on bottom of WH tank

 

[newbury]

Looks good, here's a link
linky