This is another common topic on the interwebz, and one that almost burned my house down this time!

Bought our current house about six and a half years ago, and had the interior completely renovated before moving in. Part of that renovation included a new laundry room, and a new water heater located in one corner of it. After the renovations were complete we moved into the house 6 years ago this past Thanksgiving, so we've been here for 6 years and 2 months now.

About two months ago I started randomly smelling hot wiring (if you've ever smelled melting insulation, you know the very distinct odor). I could tell it was coming from the laundry room so I switched off the two main circuits in there and the smell went away (I failed to include the water heater circuit in my tests because of a brain fart). I then switched them back on individually for a few hours at a time to see which one was causing the problem but didn't smell it again until a week or so later. This happened 3 or 4 more times over the intervening weeks until a few nights ago it got really strong! I shut everything down as usual but the smell didn't go away this time. That's where I realized the power was still on to the water heater so I shut it off also. After an hour or so I turned each circuit back on, spaced about an hour apart. When I turned the water heater back on I noticed a small tendril of smoke come out of the upper cover for the thermostat and upper heating element!

After shutting that circuit back down I removed the cover to see what the heck was going on and discovered that I was only minutes away from a full-blown fire! A good portion of the thermostat housing was melted, one of the wires going to the lower element was literally burned off of its contact, insulation on another wire was seriously melted off, and other signs of serious overheating were present. The insulation covering all of this was soaked with water from what I eventually discovered was a leak higher up on the tank, and the wet insulation was shorting things out!

The heater had been in service for just 6 years and 2 months, and guess how long the warranty was? Yup... 6 years! Dammit...

My wife is still unemployed due to this damned COVID, and I've been on disability for several years so have a VERY meager income, and the LAST thing we needed right now was to buy a new water heater! I came incredibly close to posting one of my pistols for sale here to raise the $600.00 needed for a new one, but managed to secure alternate funding right before posting the ad.

Back in my youth 1960's and '70's, when you bought something, it normally lasted LONG past the warranty expiration, and was usually easy and cheap to fix if/when it did fail. These days we're stuck in a "throw-away" society where few things are fixable without enormous expense, often exceeding the price of a replacement, and longevity just barely makes it past the warranty period. Good God, what has happened to us???

I've been on both sides of this one.

Ages ago I bought a killer car stereo. Two disc changers, six channel amp, secondary controls, graphics generator, everything.

The retailer was offering a four year warranty for $19.

3 years and eleven months later, it wouldn't read recordable discs, only a prerecorded disc.

Took it back to the retailer. They accepted the warranty claim and the head unit spent two months in Japan to get fixed.

Poor electrical grounding and bonding can result in plumbing leaks from galvanic corrosion.

Makes sure you, or have a qualified contractor check things.

My mom just had her well pump die. Install was done in 1968.

But yeah, I hear you on stuff crapping out like that. I’ve been getting extended warranties on a few bigger ticket items in the last few years.

First, a shorting failure of a water heater after 6 years and 2 months, with the risk of causing a fire is a significant issue.

In the general case, though, regarding just-out-of-warranty failures, there's another perspective that may be worth considering.

If you ran a company and your engineers told you that, given the design, materials, tooling and workmanship put in, that your product lasted 5 years in service, how long would you set the warranty period for?

Most people, if offered identical products at identical prices but with different warranties, would buy the one with the longer warranty.

So, in a competitive market, the longer the warranty period a product offers, the more business it'll generate.

As a manager, wouldn't you set the warranty to cover the entire expected useful life, and try to get the most business from the investment of design, materials, tooling and workmanship? It would seem odd, and sort of cheap, to offer a short warranty for a product with a long expected service life.

An update: Got the new heater installed yesterday, a Rheem... supposedly one of the best brands, and the sucker is leaking!!! I am so irritated and upset right now that I just want to cry!

I am on disability for a reason; I am physically NOT in a good place, and the thought of having to repeat yesterday just brings me to tears! Good God why???

quote:

Warranty Periods vs Product Failures...

When I saw the title of this thread (I thought it could be about almost any product) and figured I would post my experience with water heaters failing within months of the end of warranty. I think almost every one I've bought has, along with those that friends and family members have as well. They must have it down to a science!

All of the best products are programmed to remember when the warranty expires.

Some come equipped with a "sense of humor" chip, capable of monitoring human activity and creating havoc at inopportune times.

Product warranties seldom (if ever) include labor costs. Since parts and materials are usually less than 1/3 of replacement costs the better manufacturers offer a special toll-free number to discuss your little problems with the "why the hell do I have a warranty anyway" department, available 24 hours per day and staffed by courteous and helpful people who are struggling with English as a second language.

By the way, I am also retired and disabled. Few options remain other than gritting your teeth, writing the checks, and reminiscing about the good old days when I could do it all myself.

That really sucks. If I were closer, I’d be happy to come by and give you a hand.

I wonder if any other members are local.

Another update: For whatever reason, the new heater quit leaking after a day in use. Not sure what the issue was, but I'm watching it very closely for the next week or so! The manual said something about condensation from new heaters when first put in service, but didn't state where that condensation would be coming from. The water that came out of this one was seeping out around the top cap, so I don't see how that could have been condensation... but I suppose it could have since the thing sat on the front porch in the cold for two days before being installed.

Could have been water pooling during hookup.

I was a Product Manager for a Fortune 500 telecommunications company for many years. My job consisted of new product introduction as well as product lifetime management. One of the requisites in R&D for a new product was to determine a fair warranty period.

This was done using statistics. Each component has a "Mean Time Between Failure" component, derived by testing and and actual field failures. Engineers determine the MTBF and the Product Manager determines the warranty period that favors the manufacturer. As was mentioned earlier, competitors also have a warranty on the same or similar product. The brand name also has an advantage/disadvantage in the market.

Water heaters are hit or miss. The chemistry of your water can affect the MTBF of the water heater: too much of one chemical can accelerate deterioration of the heater.

I've found that the "average" water heater will last 6-10 years. You are right in this spectrum.

Rheem is a very good choice, however, have your water source analyzed (tough on a slim budget) to determine if your water might be causing premature failure.

Some of the comments about water heaters are interesting.

I bought a water heater for my old house in 1985. When I sold the house in 2005 it was still going strong.

In another state entirely, in my current house, I decided my water heater should be replaced but not because I was having problems, just because of the age. It was 21 years old.

I'd never drained either one of them or done any sort of maintenance and when my last one was replaced after 21 years, the guy drained it and I went to look at what came out because of all I'd heard about how you need to flush them annually because of sediment. Turns out I got around 1 cup of sediment and no more.

OTOH, I don't run them extremely hot. I keep it where if you run hot only in a shower it will almost burn you but not quite so maybe that helps.

quote:

Originally posted by odin:

have your water source analyzed (tough on a slim budget) to determine if your water might be causing premature failure.

The city where I live (Altamonte Springs, FL), monitors the water quality and will provide a copy of the analysis on request at no charge.

To Flash-LB's comment about sediment...

I live mostly full time in an RV. RV water heaters are easy to maintain - you get to them from the outside, and to drain and replace the anode, it takes a 1-1/16" socket and drains directly on the ground.

When I was in Hobbs NM, I'd replace about every year or two. There was so much sediment that accumulated, I had a #6AWG piece of copper wire I'd use to pull it out. It was white, pea-sized, and easily about a gallon volume-wise.

I'm in the Augusta area (Jackson SC) now, and I do the same thing. But there's almost no sediment here.