They Don't Make Em Like They Used To

[Fishindude77]

Did a full home rebuild / remodel two years ago so everything is pretty new.
Yesterday the two year old, gas, Rheem water heater puked, had a leak in the tank so repair is not an option. Plumber that put it in was very responsive and he got it replaced this morning.

He switched and started selling AO Smith brand as mine is one of several he has experienced this with. Had an AO Smith in stock so replaced it with that.
He tells me Rheem will probably replace it no charge, so all I'll have to pay is labor and incidentals, then he will sell the new replacement Rheem on another customers job.

[Jluke]

While it can happen to any brand I would lean more towards Bradford White or AO Smith.

not pretending I know more than the average homeowner.

[disneysteve]

In the process of remodeling our kitchen in June, our contractor discovered that our 2-3 year old dishwasher had been leaking for some time. We were totally unaware as the mud bed of the old floor was sucking up all of the water so we weren't seeing any signs of a leak anywhere. We would have eventually but we're glad we found it when we did before it had done any significant damage to the sub floor. We could have tried to get it fixed but I wasn't taking the chance of putting it back into our brand new kitchen only to have it leak again so we got a new one.

[riverwed070707]

100% agree with this. Every time I have HVAC out to repair my 1980s furnaces, they try to convince me "they won't last much longer" and "its not worth the cost to repair" - they're straight lying. Those beasts may not be efficient, but at least they don't have 5 year lifespan.

[disneysteve]

100% agree with this. Every time I have HVAC out to repair my 1980s furnaces, they try to convince me "they won't last much longer" and "its not worth the cost to repair" - they're straight lying. Those beasts may not be efficient, but at least they don't have 5 year lifespan.

Well, they're not entirely wrong. When we replaced our old furnace, our gas bill dropped by 50%. You can't just look at the equipment cost. You also have to look at the operating expense.

[Fishindude77]

No doubt the newer equipment is more efficient, but It would take a lot of gas / electric savings to justify replacing working HVAC equipment with brand new.

Money spent on weather sealing and insulation would probably go further.

[ua_guy]

Maybe it was just a bad batch of water heaters.