Quote:
Originally Posted by Bay Kid
My hot water heater is a 2004 located in the garage. It looks great and heats the water well. It doesn't have an expansion tank. Should I be looking to replace this now?
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If you have performed regular maintenance on the tank, there is no need to panic and spend money unnecessarily. That's IF you have regularly drained and flushed the tank and IF you have regularly replaced the sacrificial anode.
If you haven't regularly drained the tank, and do not have a water softener, you have a layer of sediment in the bottom of the tank that is several inches thick and hard as stone (which it actually is--do your shower heads and faucets have a lot of white "crust" around the edges? if so, your water heater has the same). If it is a gas model, heating the several inches of hard sediment at the bottom is very inefficient and your monthly gas bill will go way down with the new tank.
If you haven't regularly replaced the sacrificial anode, your tank has been rusting away from the inside beginning on the day that the anode installed by the manufacturer was used up (probably 5 years). In that case, your water heater is living on borrowed time and should be on a death watch.
When you install the new water heater, do yourself a favor and also install a Watts recirculating pump which will give you nearly instant hot water throughout your house. Also, bite the bullet and install a water softener. You'll feel cleaner after a shower or bath; there will be no soap scum on the shower walls; no white crust or deposits on the shower head and faucets (and inside the pipes); your laundry will be cleaner; and you'll use less soap and detergent.