I appreciate the advice, and looks like im going to settle on a new water
heater and alarm very soon. I was looking on home depot's site just now and
they have all these tank-less water heaters. Any good or no? They sure are
expensive.

btw, I dont understand all this drain pan stuff. I've never had a leak on
the thing. Not a drop. I figure, if its going to go bad, its going to go
bad very quickly.... like a volcano ? I couldnt imagine the drain pan
doing much rescuing there.