"Stacia" wrote in message
...
Hey all. I have a question: what is the average lifespan of a water
heater?

Until it dies. It can die from lots of things, each individual and varies
in your area. Mostly the water. But the water heater can make a
difference, too. Some are built better than others. Yours is the
equivalent of a 90 year old person. It might make it for a while, but the
odds are against it.

We have one (40-gallon, gas) which is original to the house, so
about 14-15 years old. We noticed lots of corrosion on the top water
lines and the occasional small amount of water on the floor, and planned
to have the thing inspected. Unfortunately, since Sunday night there's
been a larger amount of water leaking from the very bottom of the heater,
so instead of an inspection it'll probably be a replacement.

GIT R DONE before you got 40 gallons of water everywhere it can get and
you're trying to get it dried out in cold weather.


I guess that leads me to other questions: how do you drain a water
heater? I've heard you should drain it once a year for maintenance, but
have no idea what that means or if it's effective. Also, how can I keep
that corrosion from building up on the new one?
And yes, this is our first home :P

Stacia

Read up on it and visit local shops in your area, mostly water softener
shops. Take a water sample to see how good/bad your water actually is.
Take the same sample to a pool store, and see if the results are the same.
They'll try to sell you overpriced systems, but you can ask questions about
water heater electrodes and such while there. Maybe even get lucky and
actually find someone at Lowe's or Home Depot that knows something.

VERY IMPORTANT: When you put in your new one, be absolutely certain to put
a pan under it unless it sits next to a floor drain or somewhere you could
shoot it with a shotgun and the water would run out safely without messing
up a bunch of carpet and drywall and stuff. It's real simple to do it at
that time, and impossible with the heater full of water. It's also cheap
cheap cheap compared to a catastrophic cleanup.

Water heaters ALWAYS fail at 2AM local time. I wonder why that is.

HTH

Steve