The best PSA for maintaining your water heater ever. If your T&P valve fails and your water super heats because of an element fouling out, this can happen. Ive seen a few over the years that have blown out, although not to that extreme
Not as good of an explosion as the cement truck, but pretty impressive.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Stiebel-E...5yc1vZc1tyZ86c

What do you know about this unit. My brother is looking at this on his remodel. I was shocked at the need for 150a and 300 amp service. Any recommendations similar to this?

The stiebel is the only electric model we install. If you have to go with electric, that's the one I'd get. Do yourself a favor though and have him test his water to see if he needs a softener and make sure he gets service valves installed

Its either electric or propane. No natty gas in his hood. I'll be doing the install I'll have him get his water tested. He has pretty soft water and planned on doing away with his water softener. What is the threshhold before he needs to put a softener in?

Go with propane. It'll be much more efficient than electric. I really can't tell what the manufacturer max on hardness are. Our water is so hard, it's just a given that you'll need a softener. I'm sure you can call tech support of whatever maker you're getting and they'll tell you

New question about tankless heaters...I need to get a water softener and because of the limited space in the utility closet, I need to replace the old water heater with a tankless. I got a quote for a Navien tankless unit. Is anyone familiar with these? The only brand I've heard much about is Rinnai.

Nm. thread is old as ****.

No.

Heard of Rheem, Steibel, Eccotemp, Takagi, Ecosmart, and Rinnai.

That's probably 6 of the top 10 there are out there off the top of my head.

It must be hard reading a thread.

Couldn't agree more. I had a very interesting conversation with a Sears appliance repairman of over 35 yrs who was getting ready to retire within weeks that came to my house to fix our Kenmore Washer(top loader) that was only about 4 yrs old(conversation happened 8 yrs ago mind you). I asked him, "why is this Kenmore already going on the blink now, I thought Kenmore's were the workhorse for a minimum of 15-20 yrs before there were any issues? I said my parents still have their Sears Coldspot Refrig of 40 yrs that I grew up with still working.

He simply replied, "all appliances regardless of the name have all inferior foreign parts with the majority of them coming from South America like this transmission for your Kenmore that I am replacing with the same inferior transmission." He said, I have nothing against foreign parts IF they work but I have yet in this industry find any foreign parts worth a damn" He said gone are the days of truly American made innards that you and I grew up on with Kenmore that actually lasted." He said, all these appliance companies whether high end or affordable, I have worked on all of them. Now you are seeing electronic companies like Samsung and LG getting into the game "all use these inferior foreign parts". He used this term that has stuck with me since and called all appliances just "candied up sh**". He said people fall in love with the chic slick look and the computer bells and whistles and pay a boat load of $$ only for me to make a visit within the first 6 months. He said he was glad he was retiring because it used to be in the day people were glad to see him because they had no issues with their appliances until at least 10yrs into it. Now he just gets an earful because these appliances nowadays are just crap. Understand this guy was very quiet and soft spoken and humble. He told me, back in the day you didn't need to buy the extended warranty but he said now you are stupid if you don't and you want to keep extending that warranty because it will only get worse over time.
I asked, so there isn't any real brand that is superior over and above the rest"? He said, NOPE !!

Sure enough he was right. We upgraded to a fancy Samsung front loader and dryer a few years ago and did get the warranty. We literally in 4 yrs had 4 service calls on both. And the repair guy who came out said almost the exact same thing and especially with our brand and model that the heating element of the Samsung dryer only lasts 2 yrs. He showed me how to fix it which was easy and just get the part from a Sears part store or online.

Just my experience with the "candied up sh**".

Holy cow....hot water heater went out.....1100-1400 installed for a new 50 gal. natural gas unit. Looking around, that sounds in the ballpark, but man that sounds high.

That is all.

Damn....I need to get into the water heater installation business. Replaced mine in an afternoon last month. A 50 gal. one was around $700.

Yes you do....it does seem like the installation is the costly part.

Yeah, mine went out a couple years ago. 40 gallon Natural Gas.
I bought the cheapest one from all the big box stores. $350 from Home Depot on sale.

Took me about 3 hours including a trip back to the store for a piece of threaded steel pipe.

I hate doing that kind of work anymore, but I can't get myself to pay someone $500-$600 to do something I can do in a few hours.

I paid $1700 two weeks ago

Sucker

My current one is twenty-****ing-nine years old and still going.

Bump^

I'm pretty sure you just jinxed yourself.

Even money on it popping the relief and filling your basement with water

:D

At least that's how things work in my world.

I cant wait till the water heater goes out at my rental house. Free basement remodel.

Probably. But the utility room has a floor drain and I have a brand new water heater sitting in the garage ready to go.

Have you made sure the drain isn't plugged? :D

Shazaam! Found an old friend that does plumbing....50gal natural gas unit....$800.00 installed.

Yep. AC condensate line drains into it all summer long. :)

Two summers ago, my 3 year old hot water heater went out. Since it was a defective unit from GE, I was given pro-rated dollars from Home Depot towards a new 50 gallon model. This time, I purchased a $700 dollar Rheem but it only cost $150 dollars.

My guys de-installed, returned the old unit, purchased the new unit and installed it in less than 2 hours.

Total cost was $450 dollars.

Rheem? Did you go with the Marathon?

LOL, I don't know. The guys picked it out for me.

I've been using the same contractor for everything in my house since 2004.

I trust him and he's become a good friend.

I just checked. It's a Rheem Platinum Performance 50 Tall. 12 year warranty.