I live in my condo the 4 summer months a year, and it is vacant otherwise.
Each year, I shut off the breaker to the hot water heater and shutoff the
water. When I turned things back on recently I notice a small leak on the
bottom of the hot water heater that the plumber said required replacing,
which I did. I also have a water softener which I also shutoff when not
there.

The previous hot water heater was only 8 years old when it failed. That
seems relatively a short time. The plumber said that water softeners reduce
the life of a hot water heater.

Am I doing something wrong? Should I be doing something else? I have never
drained the waqter from the valve on the bottom of the hot water heater.

Your comments / suggestions would be appreciated.