[Shop-talk] Natural gas tank-based water heaters?

[mayfield+shoptalk at sackheads.org (Jimmie Mayfield)]

Not really shop-related but...

My current water heater is approaching 20 years old so it's probably time to
preemptively replace it before it suffers a failure.  This one is a 40gal Rheem
Fury and given its resilience, I might be naively tempted to buy another
Rheem and be done with it.  But the cynic in me says that a lot can change in
20 years.

So what brand/models of tank-based gas water heaters should I avoid?

Do they still typically use pilot lights or do they use hot-surface or spark 
ignition (meaning that I'll need to run a circuit to the water heater's closet)?

Thanks!

JM