Best and worst Water Heaters?

hundzu

What brands of residential water heaters are better and which ones are not good? Thank you.

pyper

I'd say avoid the tankless kinds, unless you have special circumstances.

D'Brie

Bradford-White = tank
Rinnai = tankless

About the best you can get.

Whirlpool, G-E = CRAP for tank
Bosch = CRAP for tankless

rudolph58

i think there are only 2 or 3 u.s. heater manufactures.all they do is slap different stickers on them.you pay for the warranty.you pay for a 6yr.warranty,the manufacturer hopes it last 6yrs and 1 day and so on.the best thing to remember is that to keep the heater above 120 deg.F,ad a exp. tank sized for your heater and set to the incoming water pressure if you have a backflow preventer,pressure reducing or a water meter with dual check valve on the supply line to your house.thermal exp.tears up water heaters.

rudolph58

forget-you don't a exp. tank on a tankless heater

pyper

Maybe I'm just lucky, but mines about 10 years old now and works as well as it did on day 1.

rudolph58

what brand is it?

hundzu

Rudolph,
Thank you very much. Scouring the internet led me to believe that Bradford White was better quality than all the others. you confirmed that. Can only get a Bradford White from a licensed plumber? No one sells them to the public?
Did you get much snow in central Illinois? I live in St. Charles, MO. We got 4-5 inches of snow and the temperature is dropping!
Neal

rudolph58

about the same here.waiting for the wind and frigid cold

gbwillner

I concur. I recently installed the ES 800 GWH (NG) model. Installed it myself without problems. Works great. It's so efficient I was able to vent it with PVC pipe.