How old is your water heater?
I know you don’t want to think about it, but really. How old it the thing? Is it in the attic over your bed? Or maybe it’s in the attic over the wood floor in your living room (Shudder). Well, lets look into it a little. We install a lot of State water heaters. If you look at their serial numbers, normally the first 2 digits are the year model of the heater. The next question is… How old is too old? Ask ten plumbers, and you will get ten different answers. My recommendation is. If your water heater is 8 years old or more, change it! If I am at your house to repair a 6 year old water heater, I will recommend a replacement instead of a repair. If your water heater is 5 years old or younger Go ahead and do the repair, you should have a few years of life in the tank.
Did you know that you are supposed to flush your water heater at least once a year? That will certainly help your situation. Good luck if you are going to give it a try after a couple of years! You might find that you cannot get the valve to open, heater drain is clogged, or worse you cannot get the drain valve closed. 263-9988 by the way when this happens you are probably want some help. Any water heater that is installed by Radiant Plumbing Service has been retrofitted with an upgraded drain valve. This bad boy wont let you down when you are doing your annual water heater drain three years too late.
On a side note, we have found that recirculating systems in water heaters greatly reduce sediment formation and buildup. In my last house I had a 75 gallon propane that I drained two times in the three years that we lived there (I know. I am as bad as you.). We had a recirculator, and it had very little buildup.
The long and the short of is…. Why not change the water heater on your schedule? Not when Aunt Betsy just hit town to stay with you for a week.
FYI…
Below is an example of a water heater ID sticker. On most water heaters the first two numbers of the the serial number indicate the year of the heater. The heater below is a 2004.
