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Mike Hartigan

In article . com,
says...

Don Phillipson wrote:
"Mike Hartigan" wrote in message
.net...

The life expectancy of a mainstream consumer type heater
is, perhaps ten years. I have two, which means that I can expect
such a puddle an average of once every five years.

This is not likely.
1. You will get longer life out of your water heaters
if you flush them out (removing precipitate) every summer.
2. Leaks are only one form of failure. Others include
deterioration of replaceable parts (e.g. heating elements)
and irreplaceable parts.
3. If you really believed every heater will leak in its 10th
year you could simply replace them at nine-year intervals,
thus avoiding all leaks.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

theres no telling when one will leak but I replace mine early. saves
inconvenience and a mess my current tank is nov 2000. time does fly
I write the install date on the tank with a marker for easy reference

heres MY theory, new tank is under 500 bucks. assume it lasts 10 years,
thats 50 bucks per year. Less than the cost of a candy bar a week. why
not replace it al 8 years? saves a mess and a hassle done on my
schedule not the tanks

You must be eating the King Size Snickers ;-) A replacement schedule
like that might reduce the odds of seeing such a problem, but
consider that one of the five year heaters that the builder provided
with my current home failed after three years. It's the
unpredictability that keeps me awake at night (ok, I'm exaggerating
just to make a point).

There are water heater drain pans the heaters sit in with a outlet to
drain them, add a water sensor so you KNOW its in trouble.

Sounds perfect! Unfortunately, I used solid copper pipe when I
installed these, so I wouldn't be able to simply slide them under the
tanks without doing some plumbing work. While not a BIG problem, I
was hoping for something simpler. This may, nevertheless, be the
route that I eventually take.

or you could move your heaters to a better less damaging location where
a leak wouldnt matter direct vent models are available so noi chimney
needed

They are under the stairs, alongside the furnace. This is the
perfect spot for them, IMO, so I'd really rather not move them.

or buy 2 new long warranty heaters NOW, and when the first fails
replace the carpet. and the remaining tank after all it will probably
be 10 years or longer due for new carpet anyway by that time 12
year warranty tanks are out there...... so long life is available.

Coordinating it with the carpet replacement is definitely thinking
outside the box. That's an interesting approach.

we replace most things before they are completely dead at very large
expense like a car. a hot water tank is a mere nuisance in comparison
to a 25K vehicle that liokely doesnt survive 10 years

Agreed. However, despite experience and gobs of evidence to the
contrary, a water heater is one of those things that we truly, with
our heart of hearts, believe will last forever. I don't know why we
believe that, we just do. Far be it from me to break with tradition.