Hot water heaters/electric

[bernie g]

Heater blew lower element(second time in three months).Major scale build-up. Replacing today. Opinions on better manufacturers would be appreciated.Tips from consumer reports suggest longer warranty and higher first hour rating.Absent subscribing to report ....that's all the info. they give.PLEASE,someone name a manufacturer!

Thank you!!!
Bernie

[HayZee518]

Rheem, Chromalox, AO Smith

[LazyPup]

In my experience when we examine the anatomy of an electric water heater there is not enough noticeable difference to even warrant consideration.

As a rule the water heater manufacturer builds the internal pressure vessel, insulation jacket and the outer sheet metal skin, but aside from that there are only five internal working component, which are manufactured by a third party manufacturer and they are common to all electric water heaters.

By example, almost without exception we find that Robertshaw Inc manufactures the Upper & Lower Thermostats, while Chromalox Mfg manufactures the heating elements and Watts Mfg makes the TPRV (Temperature Pressure Relief Valve) As a rule these components are interchangeable between electric water heater brand names and OEM (original equipment manufacturer) quality replacement parts can be readily found in nearly all hardware or home supply stores.

As far as the active components go my only reservation would be to check how the heating elements are mounted. Heating elements are made in both a screw in mount and a flanged four-bolt mount. As the water heaters age the screw in mounts often seize from internal mineral scale and they can be extremely difficult if not impossible to remove whereas the flange mount type remain free of scale on the mounting threads and they remain relatively easy to change.

Almost without exception the thermostats are mounted by means of a metal spring clip. The only consideration here is that when changing a thermostat we must be careful not to bend or distort the spring arms. If the spring arms are bent the thermostat will not remain in firm contact with the heater vessel and you will have erratic temperature problems.

Now if we assume for the moment that they all have basically the same thermostats and heating elements then the measure of quality comes down to the quality of the pressure vessel, the insulation blanket and the outer skin. Fundamentally the pressure vessel is a welded steel tank, which generally has a Glass lining to prevent rust. Here again, the manner of making the glass lining is common to nearly all water heater manufactures. They coat the interior of the tank with a powder coat material that is baked at a high temperature to fuse the powder into a glass material. The exception to this is that some high-end electric water heaters have a stainless steel pressure vessel, which is impervious to rust. While most water heaters have a 6yr warranty it is not uncommon for an electric water heater to last 20 years and even then, if the pressure vessel is not leaking it is relatively inexpensive to replace the active components. (Consumer Reports magazine published a report that said the average service life of all water heaters is 12 years.).

One word of caution when servicing an electric water heater, the heating elements in a water heater is technically classified as a water-cooled device. After installing a heating element we must make sure the tank if completely full of water before restoring the electrical power to the unit. Operating an immersion type heating element for even a few moments without being completely surrounded by water will result in premature failure of that heating element.

The Plumbing Code now requires that all water heaters must have a minimum of R-5 insulation. In order to meet this new specification almost without exception the manufacturers are using a cast in foam insulation material the meets and generaly far exceeds the code minimum.