On Mar 26, 5:45 pm, "Trail Blazer" wrote:
My gas hot water heater is 25yrs. old and works fine but looks its age
with a little rust around the bottom, should I replace it soon or wait
until it actually fails. How dangerous is it?

It's definitely earned its keep -- time to get a replacement. BUT --
what sort of furnace do you have? Is it old, too? Are they vented out
the same chimney? This may make a difference -- I've learned the
painful way that the new water heaters require more combustible air
(which they pull from the room they're in unless they are direct vent)
-- and, if like me, your furnace is old, too -- they will compete with
each other. And if the water heater is vented out/up its own chimney
-- and that chimney is on an outside wall -- it could spell trouble in
the form of poor draft and condensation.