"Marilyn & Bob" wrote in message
news:AJcDd.19600$113.9510@trndny03...

In general, gas water heaters do not fade away.

I disagree. Usually tank corrosion kills them


While they do accumulate
gunk on the bottom which makes it use a little more energy to heat the
water, you usually can keep your heater until it starts to leak (and just
hope that it starts as a little leak and not a catastrophic one.


Or you can be a little pro-active. If simple maintainance is done once in a
while, you can get 25 years out of the 5 year warrantee heater.


However,
as Joseph Meehan points out, in the late 80's, early 90's there was a
problem with the longevity of the plastic dip tube used in water heaters.
This is the tube that bring the incoming cold water directly to the bottom
of the heater. If the tube is broken, the replacement cold water comes in
near the top of the heater and mixes with the exiting hot water, causing
your problem. There is no reasonable way to replace the dip tube on a 15
year old heater, so it is probably time for a new one.


No way to replace a dip tube? They just slip in under the cold inlet.

Read about water heaters he

http://waterheaterrescue.com/

This site will explain all about sediment, dip tubes, anodes, etc.

I am not affiliated with these folks in any way, but there information is
top notch.

--

Roger Shoaf

About the time I had mastered getting the toothpaste back in the tube, then
they come up with this striped stuff.