I live in Middleville, MI, which is where Bradford White water heaters are
manufactured. I can't say anything scientific about their relative
quality, but they have a large manufacturing plant that was recently
expanded and it's another brand to consider.
-Paul
On Tue, Dec 10, 2013 at 5:25 PM, Karl Vacek <KVacek@ameritech.net> wrote:
> Are there any truly good, durable, natural-gas-fired conventional water
> heaters made nowadays? It appears that most of the major brands come from
> two main conglomerates: Rheem/Ruud/Richmond/etc. and
> A.O.Smith/Lochinvar/State/etc. I have a top-of-the-line Lochinvar that I
> installed in 2008 to replace a garden-variety 1986 Rheem water heater which
> had lasted 22 years. The 5-year-old Lochinvar is bad now, though it hasn't
> blown (yet). Since the large local distributor I bought from went out of
> business, my warrantee may be void. The current distributor will only deal
> with licensed contractors, and it appears the factory approves of that. If
> they eventually honor the 6-year warrantee I'll be good for a few more
> years, but I'd really prefer to put in a better unit now. If I have to pay
> a, "approved" plumber to come inspect this and tell the factory it was
> indeed installed properly, and then handle the warrantee and install the
> new
> one, it'll cost more than a new heater.
>
>
>
> I've also learned that many water heaters aren't glass-lined any more, and
> indeed this one doesn't say anything on the labels about glass lining.
> Never thought to ask when I bought it from a trusted friend. We're in the
> Chicago area with Lake Michigan water, which is supposed to be pretty good
> for plumbing, and we've never had water-induced corrosion issues or heard
> of
> them. I hope there's an anode in the factory-installed outlet fitting, but
> I don't know. There's no other place one could be screwed in. The
> factory-installed inlet has no anode - just a plastic dip tube, which I had
> to replace yesterday as it was corroded. All things I'll look for and
> upgrade as possible in the next water heater.
>
>
>
> I know there are many tankless water heater adherents on the list, but when
> I last checked tankless heaters have short warrantees, cost 3-4 times what
> a
> conventional water heater does, require direct venting, and most require
> "professional" installation. I only have my clay-lined brick chimney and
> no
> reasonable way to relocate the water heater to a better location. The
> economics just don't seem to work at all anyway. Probably a better option
> for those who have electric water heaters.
>
>
>
> Thanks!
> Karl
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