Remove 15 year old electric water tank and replace. Have two, one in garage worse shape. Better deal if I do both at same time or no difference in cost? Both same age. Approximate cost for licensed plumber? Have two heating elements in each. Thanks

Look into ON-Demand hot water heater(s).
You only pay for "heat" when you turn on the
hot water in your house.
With tanks you're paying to keep that water hot
all the time.
You can also buy low cost control (Home Depot) where you set the hot water tank to come on ___say at 5:am so you'll have morning shower water and then set it to turn off__say at 9:AM if no one is home during the day.
I'm replacing my natural gas hot water tank with
an On-Demand unit. $600 + for the On-Demand unit and $1,500 labor.
If you're young enough and plan on staying in your
house for enough years..... These typically save
you 40% in heating costs.
I prefer the elector On-Demand but it'd have cost me way too much to beef up my electrical. So, I'm staying with a gas On-Demand.

^^^Electrical cost for on demand will be way higher than any savings, plus the plumbing costs to go from two if even possible to single unit. Wild stab in dark for heavy up from 200-400a service plus running (4-6) new 40a electrical lines is insane somewhere in the $6-8k range, plus plumber, plus paint and drywall guy.

^^^^
Looking for best value over course of 10-12 years. Do not need on demand, electric cost here not yet outrageous. The two GE mid range from Home Depot have done OK, although I am using my own install guys due to some past issues with their hired help.

Your best bet is to stay away from box store price-point equipment.

Bradford White is my choice after 30+ years of inferior price-point heaters.

10 year guarantee, you get 10 years and two days of operation, typically 1/2 that.

Delighted to have recently tossed our 5 year old Whirlpool we bought at Lowes. It was awful! Burner was doing some VERY strange stuff. Whirlpool "forgot" to send me recall info on the burner problem and when I called them after replacement they told me to take a walk.

Whirlpool I bought at Lowes before that one had burner issues and a recall at the 5 year mark as well. Tank blew at the 9 year mark.

Stay away from box stores for your major appliances.

Bradford White

Then comes State/ A. O. Smith (same company)

Any model of Bradford White?

Bradford White guy here also. I install a lot of them and work on many others, most trouble free of all of them.

quote:

Originally posted by wreckdiver:
Bradford White guy here also. I install a lot of them and work on many others, most trouble free of all of them.

This is what I have.

I just replaced the 40 gallon unit in our beach house with a Bradford White.
It was relatively easy to do myself so I just had to pay for the unit.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Any model of Bradford White?

The 6- and 10- year warranty models are identical. This comes directly from BW technical support (20+ years ago there may have been differences but not now).

The local supply probably will stock mostly the RE340S6 (or whatever model is most commonly used in your area), with a few tall and low models besides. If you buy the 10-year model, they will change the last number on the invoice to a 10-. For example: RE340S10. The invoice should have the serial number(s) on it.

Here's the spec sheet from BW. https://s3.amazonaws.com/bradf...t_specsheet_1201.pdf

Do as I say and not as I do? I'd sweat/glue ¾" male adaptors on the feed/supply lines above my existing installation and use ¾" FxF flex lines for the connections.

With a diameter of 22", I'd use ¾" x 12" galvanized nipples and elles hand tight, no dope, to get the relief valve discharge over to the edge, then a stick of ¾" PVC glued to a ¾" pvc male adaptor (screwed hand-tight into the galvanized elle) to pipe it to within 6" of the floor.

Come replacement time, the relief can easily be disassembled and reused. The S/R lines can be handled with a pair of Channellocks.

Definitely put some flex line in above the new one, and a valve on both sides...it’ll be easier to change out in the future.

We always just got the best deal at Lowe’s, as the things only have a lifetime of around ten years anyway....yes in know some that have made it to 15-20, but if you think of a water heater as a consumable item it will be better.

My dad’s a plumber. Though nowadays he sells and installs sewage pumps.

Flush them once a year and check the anode, and it will last a long time.

Great help guys. Both still working,but you think best to replace at same time? I am thinking labor cost. One is elevated and the other is ground floor garage. I remember the guys were annoyed that they did not know one was ground level.{Poor communication with Big Box}. Had to wait while it drained. I can add more work to the ticket faucets etc. That should help with overall cost of labor???
Thanks

Had a Rheem Marathon installed in 2011. It's been good so far and expect it to be far into the future with its non-metal tank and lifetime warranty. Just another option to consider.

https://www.rheem.com/innovati...esidential/marathon/

You can speed the draining by opening in the safety valve on the top...this will let air into the system. Make sure you have the water to the house turned off before hand.

I’d replace them at the same time. But I’d also do the work myself, as it’s not too difficult. Hardest part about a water heater is removing the anode, which takes two grown men and a cheater bar about three feet long. It’s a weird size too, 1 1/4 IIRC, you may be able to borrow the socket from a car parts place for a once a decade thing...at my old place in NC I had to replace the anode every three years. Also used anti seize so I could do it alone after that.

Doing them both at the same time would at least let you have confidence for 10 -12 years, the AO Smith and Bradford are good models.

Changing them out isn't really that difficult, with Shark Bite connectors it's now a DIY project since you don't have to sweat connections to install new units.

Lots of utoob videos on doing it. You can save 100% of the labor on a DIY tank to tank.

SharkBite Water Heater Kits

If you go that route, do the garage unit first to get your feet wet in the how to part of the project its really not difficult.

Kill water supply
Kill power
Disconnect the power
Drain the tank
Cut away the supply and return lines
Remove the tank
Clean up the area

Install new tank
ReConnect wires
Use sharkbite hoses to connect tank
** replace the old on/off turn knob with
a new sharkbite 1/4 turn on off valve.

Its really not difficult.
Since you are in the deep south and temperatures are warmer, base water temps higher than up north on demand water heaters work well. Eliminates running out of hot water, and the only concession is start up times from cool on to hot, which can be addressed with re-circulation units or just learning to turn on the water and brush your teeth, take a pee while it heats up, which really isn't that long.

Since you have two, you could run a 40 gallon tank in the garage and an on-demand for the other unit, at least cutting down on the space used inside, eliminate having a tank in the house and the benefits of reduced power consumption keeping 80 gallons of water heated.

quote:

Originally posted by marksman41:
Had a Rheem Marathon installed in 2011. It's been good so far and expect it to be far into the future with its non-metal tank and lifetime warranty. Just another option to consider.

https://www.rheem.com/innovati...esidential/marathon/

I've got one that was installed in 1999. Only had to replace 1 heating element. Still working just fine.

Just be aware that the elements for a Marathon are not standard elements (much larger thread diameter), and may have to be special ordered. Mine was. Had to wait 3 days for Grainger to get one in.

Because I'm on well water and had some softening issues this year I had a plumber come out do the recommended maintenance on the unit. I ordered all the parts from Rheem's website then learned the local electric co-op (from whom it was purchased) had the parts on hand for less money. Even with the cost of shipping back to Rheem I still came out ahead.

As for the parts replaced (both heating elements, temp/press. relief valve, and vacuum valve assembly), the plumber said to keep them as all of them are fine. In fact the old heating elements looked just as good as the new ones, so I have spares even though I doubt I'll ever need them.

The plumber asked why I wanted all the work done and I explained about the water softening issues and maintenance recommended in the manual. He said it's a good idea to follow the manual and have the two valves replaced per the schedule but that he rarely has any customers do this unless those parts fail which, by then, is too late.

I was glad I read the manual and talked with the plumber before draining the tank. For these models (after turning off power to tank and before turning off supply) you have to run the hot water from the fixture closest to the heater to make sure the heater has cold water in it before draining, otherwise the internal bladder might collapse. The plumber said he's seen this happen a number of times because people didn't read the manual. I don't know how new the technology is on these Marathon water heaters but they are more advanced in construction than the majority I viewed at Lowe's and Home Depot, so it stands to reason that there might be some differences to be aware of when it comes to maintenance.

Anyway, I had this maintenance done to get a baseline for when (or if) it would need to be done again, and with as good a shape as the replaced parts still were I, like hairy2dawg, expect 20+ trouble-free years in addition to the nine it already has.

I'll probably still have the temp./press. relief valve and vacuum valve replaced at or near the recommended schedule just for peace of mind, but if I forget and let them go for 10+ years I suppose I'll have the same chances of them going bad as those that never have that maintenance done.

The bigger question is the # of users on this heater.
Just me and the dogs for the last 22 years.
Had a fifty,it died.
Well I thunk its just me so save some scratch and get a forty.
Money saved and happy about that ,hot water supply for one damn nice shower ,NOT SO MUCH

It’s been said a million times, but Bradford White.