Quote "We have a 40-gallon tank (electric) that is 26 years old and seems to be in perfect working order."
So you are one of "Those Guys" who is going to wait till your tank fails to get another and brag that it lasted 30 years LOL
Here is what you need to think about:
1) Unless you are changing the anode rod in the tank every 5 or so years, its long gone and becasue the inside of you tank is now rusting, you are washing and possibly drinking with all that "contaminated" water.
2) Because the tank is literally eating itself from the inside out, when it does fail it has a good chance of being spectacular meaning it's probably going to be a large leak or flood due to all the corrosion.
If properly maintained, meaning yearly flushes and changing the anode rod every 5 or so years I guess it's possible it could last that long but not many ever do both of these maintenance tasks.
Time for a new water heater, if not, please let us know when and how it fails and how much it cost for you to fix all the damage.
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