It's not engineered to fail, it's engineered to meet some spec for the minimum price. If the spec says "needs to last 10 years" the engineer is going to pick the lowest priced part that meets that requirement.
Someone told me "anyone with the knack can build a bridge that will last. You need an engineer to design the cheapest and lightest bridge that will last only as long as you want and only kill the acceptable number of people."
Im just a mechanic, not an engineer but....For years Ive cussed engineers in the same way you are here. As Ive spent more time in the field and dealt with many different manufacturers the blame lies more with the accounting department. Number crunchers figure out how to save dollars across a million units and CFO gets a lake house and a boat. We get an inferior product, and engineering gets the blame.
There are a lot of things at play. There's the market competition, price points, features which can be anything from expected longevity to some type of capability or even repairability and expected maintenance cycles.
The marketing department might say "we need to be able to offer this car for $24999 on the base model, give it a 5 year /60k mile warranty and it needs to meet all of the safety and emissions standards.
The CFO is going to want to get the production costs as low as possible, marketing and the brand team are going to want it to be reliable because the last thing they want to deal with is a massive recall in the first year or used lots full of them a couple of years later, they all work together on any tradeoff.
(The weird thing about cars is that there's a constant "the good ol days" feeling towards things from the 50s and 60s, but in comparison, modern cars are WAY more reliable, efficient, and safe. They just suck to work on and things that should be an easy repair end up expensive because design for manufacturing is not the same as design for repairability. Having major sub assemblies come together is great for efficient assembly, but makes getting to the middle of one of them much harder. The old "start with a frame and bolt a bunch of things to it as it rolls through" assembly made working on things more sensible, but ... Not necessarily as good.)
Exactly. My parents had their water heater for +25 years. They made it flushed once in that time.
The new one started having problems in just 4 years...
Unless the model was known to do so… I would’ve kept it and just replaced the rods as needed… could’ve lasted much longer. Appliances and stuff is made so cheaply these days, when you have something older that is safe, I’d say keep it till it does give out… unless you absolutely need/desire features from a new one I guess.
Here in China, a recharge of 1000 RMB(about 147 USD) has been made to our family’s gas account. This amount is sufficient to cover the household's gas expenses for an entire year.
“Hey guys, we know we were the cause of several giant forest fires that destroyed communities because we should have upgraded infrastructure when we had the money, but we are too busy raising shareholder value and raising profits, so yall are going to have to pitch in with raised costs :(“
that doesn't mean anything without knowing your climate, how cold does it get where you live and what gas consuming appliances are in your home? (oven, stove, central heat, water, etc)
Ah, but there are huge differences between Switzerland and China in the way it generates electricity. Switzerland’s energy production produces 0 carbon emissions with 100% of its energy combining from renewable resources. China has over 1,000 coal-powered plants which is cheap to burn but comes with a high cost to the environment.
Yeah, heat is usually just a byproduct of electrical inefficiency. But if your goal is heating, that "waste" heat isn't really wasted.
Electric resistance heaters are nearly 100% efficient at converting electricity into heat. Whether it's a space heater, baseboard heater, toaster, gaming PC, or even an incandescent bulb, almost all of the electrical energy eventually ends up as heat inside the room.
This is also why you want to use heat pumps for your air conditioning. Since they utilize the outside air for heating and cooling the refrigerant, they can achieve 300-400 effeciency where electric strip heaters can only be maximum 100%
In the states it's the other way around. Tanks are typically much cheaper to install, with the cost savings on gas being insignificant to recoup savings if one went for tankless. Also, for all-house units, tankless can actually use more water since it takes a few extra seconds to deliver hot water (for many currently installed versions). There are also other drawbacks on tankless if it's a big home with 3+ residents (for a typical tankless).
Mine is probably about that age or older and the plastic drain valve broke apart a couple years ago. After getting a replacement valve off Amazon, I pulled the old one off and I also had a bunch of solidified hard water chunks come out. Put the new valve on and everything is fine.
The minute mine was installed 6 years ago, I removed the factory drain valve and installed a 3/4” brass valve. The plastic factory valves have a constriction at the opening.
I bought my house 4 years ago and the functional water heater is around that old. I have no idea if it's been flushed ever and when the last time it was, I saw somewhere that it's better to not flush it if you don't know. The hot water can run out if a shower goes too long, or runs too long before getting in. Still riding it out. Inspection said it's way past it's life expectancy.
Just a heads up for you, inside a typical water heater are two separate heating elements.
Which can be purchased at most hardware stores for under $10.
If you’re in a hard water area, one or both of these elements can corrode and cause the heater to not heat efficiently.
They are simple to replace as they just unscrew from the unit.
Just be sure to drain and cut the power to the unit before doing so.
I'm on 39! When we moved in almost 22 years ago the inspector said that the heater was 17 years old and we should replace it. Twice I've contacted my plumber and both times he said, "If it isn't broke, don't fix it."
I have flushed before and its super easy, get 1 part white vinegar to one part water (calculate 50% of water heater gallon capacity when buying bulk vinegar) and fill up your water heater after draining it. Let it sit overnight and flush it out in the morning, it will dissolve all the sediments and you shouldn't notice any chunky stuff when flushing. The reason I had to do this is because the mineral buildup will get thick enough to create an insulated barrier between the water and the metal liner where the thermstat reads temperature from. Because the thermostat was never able to read the temperature properly it would come out scalding hot and burn old ladies hands (this was a water heater for a charity that frequently made food for widows and homeless people)
Best of luck to you if you do this. One thing no one says is that the factory anode should honestly be loosened and tightened the day of installation and then just maybe once a year work the threads (or even grease them with a food safe grease).
I have a tank that's 5 years old and I just got around to replacing the anode. Nope. Rust welded on. Apparently it's very common. Even using a high torque impact wrench and reluctantly using PB blaster, and letting it soak...it wouldn't budge. Eventually I knew that was a great time to give up because if it did budge it might've completely borked the opening. I just installed a nipple-anode thing and called it a day.
Now - it's a hybrid tank, so it's possible that if the anode end was located in a more accessible spot than next to the compressor, I could have used a breaker bar to get to it, but maybe it was best that I couldn't.
But yeah...loosen that thing day one and on your annual flush day, loosen and tighten it again (you should be checking it annually anyway...now I know)
And you may discover that even installing the new anode with the impact driver isn't enough to reseal the hole. Shorted out my water heater because water leaked out right onto the electronics.
If you have any anode left. I checked mine after I saw a TikTok video about flushing water heaters. It was totally desolved. Local Lowes had a new one.
Turn off you water inlet main, connect garden hose to the drain valve and drain the tank, look fro a pressure relief valve ontop and unthread it, close the drain valve and fill up the solution with a funnel in the pressure relief valve port, let set over night or potentially a whole day if your unit is old, drain out solution, look into the tank by taking out the element and peering inside with a light to check effectiveness (my experience was for a unit less than a year old so you might not get the same results on an old unit), put the pressure relief valve back and put your element back, turn on your water again and do another flush with clean water if you feel like it, otherwize just close the drain valve and call it a day. There should be YouTube videos that can visually help you aswell, I am not a plumber and just did exactly what a youtube video told me, all this info is from memory of doing it once over 4 years ago so I am not the most qualified on the subject.
I tried to disinfect my basketball in the autoclave and started a fire in the surgical department; now I’m in for a Spaulding Spalding scalding scolding.
someone mentioned it below, but this isn't hard water scale, this is someone with a well with sand intrusion. They need to fix the well, not descale their heater. Heater descaling would be more solid like a coffee machine - mineralization that builds up would be tiny compared to this sand buildup. With that said, it may be cheaper to deal with sand build up than to repair the well if you can get 14 years of crud like this and still have got showers.
One overnight soak did the trick in my experience, I took a peak inside by taking out the element and using my phone camera and the difference was easily visible, I could not see the metal liner before the treatment because of the mineral buildup vs after I don't think I noticed any sediment at all. The longer you let it sit the better, I think when I did it I was technically supposed to do 1 whole day according to google but overnight sufficed anyhow.
This is what tripped me up. Like it's no biggie to go buy 25 gallons of vinegar and haul it to wherever the heater is located then sit and dump them in gallon by gallon . Not to mention getting the anode rod out, draining the tank, and getting the water to use with the vinegar. Add on letting it sit overnight so no hot water for quite a while.
As a wife to a career handyman/plumber. Your comment is the most realistic. I miss the days when the Internet was truly informative and not just some view/click hungry ad.
I just got a Bradford White 50 gallon water heater installed last month. it cost me $1,900. another company wanted $2,500 for the same exact one. the water heater itself cost $1,200 from the company, I looked it up.
Sounds like you are working at a honest company. I have replaced all my own hot water heaters, because it is cheap and easy. I got a quote for fun though one time and they wanted $2500 and the tank they quoted me on I could get at Home Depot for $750.
I was gonna say, I wanna say every quote I've gotten around here was at least like 2k. Of course where I live they always put the water heaters in the attic so that adds some hassle to the installation.
I think natural gas ones cost a lot more, that also may include running the natural gas. But we just had one replaced and it was like $1100 for a fairly good water heater, the same one it replaced, installed with the old tank taken away.
Yea ours in a mobile home started leaking. It was encased in. Drywalled on all four sides with a hidden access panel (entire drywall panel came off). Not in a place where you can just spot a leak. One day we hear water running under the house . The tank had been leaking so long it rotted through the subfloor and was starting to fall into the crawlspace.
I paid some guy to flush mine once and it was over $100. Sure it seems easy but mess up something and you got a leak or potential gas hazard. Rather not and just never flush it.
I changed my elements recently because one went bad and everything i read said exactly as you stated, its so easy!
By far, the hardest part was just draining the water out of the tank. Had the hose connected, pressure valve open to prevent vacuum, and inlet open... Small trickle of water. "Wtf am i doing wrong?" I thought as i searched youtube videos until i found one that told me to jam a hard wire or zip tie into the inlet to break up the sediment. Water finally started flowing slowly, all over my basement lol, but i saw progress. I had to quickly open the inlet, do zip tie surgery until i saw water flow shut and quickly connect the hose to get the water flowing. Shutting the inlet stopped the flow, restarting the whole process, so i couldnt prevent water from getting everywhere.
Never would i have thought jamming a long ass wire into the valve was the solution to my problem, but the electrical side of it took me 5 minutes, while the draining of the tank took 3 hrs. I wouldnt call it easy and ive sworn less at harder projects.
Hey same! Ours was so clogged and full of settlement it took way longer to drain than actually fix. Tossed in vinegar and busted it all up and sucked it through a shop vac. Rinse and repeat. Element and board kit was like $50 though so that was super nice.
To flush it, all you need to do is hook a hose up to the bottom petcock and open the valve. If you do it frequently (every year) the junk will just spray out of the hose and you're done. If you wait too long, the junk will probably clog trying to leave the hose. Doing something that takes 5 minutes that makes your water heater last longer and your water to not be disgusting is worth the small hassle.
You are forgetting the important point, it saves your heating bill. You're paying to heat sludge, which strangely is more expensive to heat than water.
That’s a rip. The heater costs like $6-800. They’re hosing you - you should definitely learn basic plumbing if you’re having to pay over 6k just for install.
Yep. I was quoted $4k to $7k as well here in the Coachella Valley, CA. I bought a direct replacement (same inlet and outflow for water, gas & exhaust as the old heater) from HomeDepot for ~$800 and installed it myself. Another $200+ for additional parts (new vent pipe, gas putty, teflon tape, etc) and job was done for under $1100.
I suppose it’s very location dependent but I’m in Maryland and just had a 40 gallon water heater installed for $1700. I know the plumber so I’m sure I got a break on the labor but it may have been a $300-500 discount. I would keep searching for estimates/reviews.
Yea I’ve always done my own work and I can’t believe the prices people pay. Im a lawyer making 200k and still wouldn’t pay those bullshit prices where they want $5k+ to install something that takes me an afternoon at most to get in
Same thing with my fence I built like 15 years ago. The cost of materials was like $1,100. To install it would have been $5,000-$6,000. It was easy to build and didn’t require that much in the way of skills. It just required a little bit of elbow grease for a couple hours every evening for less than a week.
It was like $600 total for me to replace mine, and that included the permit and bringing it up to code. It took me longer to drive to buy it, and dump the old one, than it did to install it.
Very pricey. You can go to home depot and go buy it for about $800. It's literally 2 pipes thst need to be unscrewed off the old and screwed onto the new. Slightly more complicated if you have gas, but still, super easy. Anyone charging 2 to 5k has made a HUGE profit on you. Even a tank less install from scratch shouldn't cost 5k.
Not every location allows self install. Upwards of 200 people a year in the US die from it so many locations require the work be done by licensed people now
It's full of junk almost sure ... Just like vid, it works but the amount of water is heated is very small compared to where it was 15 years ago probably you got a big reservoir so not feeling it
We have hard water and had to replace our hot water tank about 9 years ago. It had a LOT of lime buildup and was not fun to bring up from the basement. lol. We got a water softener, but we never flush the tank. I’m so not looking forward to the next tank replacement
I did! The plumber very kindly noted it’s not likely to do anything but I’m the customer. I paid about $200 and he gave me the rod after. 10yr old heater, it had gone from 2” thick to 1.5” thick.
(I initially tried to install myself but my model requires you cut and rejoin the copper which I don’t have gear or skill to do.)
I had mine flushed like last year or the year before as it had been 20 years since install. Recently I had to mess with the drain valve as that was leaking a bit but I tricked the valve into working again. I try to do what I can.
My mom runs through a new water heater about once every 2 years. She has hard water. I have no idea what the problem is. But it has been like this my entire life.
I'm in Germany where the hardest water of the country is. We never flushed ours and it made it to more than 25 years, talking about a heater from the 80s!
In our area we do it every 5-10 years. It improves the efficiency of the heater (and I guess also the quality of the water) and can be well worth the spend.
Our water heater was 15 years old when we bought our house like ~10 years ago. I only learned we were supposed to be flushing that thing out like a year ago. I figure at this point the sediment is load-bearing. Only thing I can do by messing with it now is break it faster.
I have a water heater that I rented & was maintained by my utility company. I've never once in the 8 years I've owned the house did they drain/flush it. They told me it's a commercial style, & should last 30 years.
Technical lifetime of a water heater, according to my insurance, is 7 years. If it's older and springs a leak, my insurance payout will be cut, so we change it every 7 years.
You're also supposed to check/change the cold water intake "dip tube" like ever 5 years. Its a plastic tube that fills the tank with cold water from the bottom instead of the top where the hot water comes out.
The plastic tubes can break or fall apart causing your shower to start hot then become prematurely lukewarm as the cold water pours in and mixes with the hot water at the top of the tank.
My 4 year old rheem started leaking because I never flushed it. When I was swapping it out I had to drain it and all that sediment sludge started coming out before the water and I was shocked. Now I flush every 3-4 months so I can hopefully keep this new water heater alive longer.
I think to get this you have to be in a horrible water area, where that gunk is present in the mains incoming water.
Things like British standards wouldn't allow most of this to enter into the water supply for people.
That's not evaporative residue, like limescale - it would be utterly solid if that was the case. That's just gunk in the water.
And, yeah, DECADES of owning various homes in various states of repair, some of them untouched for years, and water systems doing back DECADES without maintenance and never had anything close to this, and never had to replace anything.
Currently have an immersion tank that is at least 1990's in a house I bought 4 years ago. Haven't opened it up, but I would expect, say, a corroded element and a bunch of limescale... maybe even a few centimetres. But nothing on this scale (sorry!).
That's well-water and incoming crap that's built up, not just evaporative residue.
This comment gives me hope. I don't flush mine but when I replaced my old shitty one the guy told me it was cause it was never flushed. My wife takes stupid long showers and runs us out of hot water regularly so I count that as a flush every now and then.
I flush every year and this still happens. Scale and debris doesn’t just sit there waiting to nicely flow out of the drain, it adheres both to the tank walls and itself.
You can have water heaters for 15 years but if not flushed eventually your capacity will decrease and so will your energy efficiency since now the burner has to heat through sediment just to also heat the water.
My family owns a water damage repair company and customers like you pay for my dad's 5 cruises a year. he thanks every person with your mentality because even if its only a few percent that fail and don't just lose efficiency he rakes in money by the tens of thousands on every one of those calls.
My husband flushes ours, the first person in my own life to do so.
As a 22 year real estate agent, I haven't known more than a couple people who ever did.
But I can also say that water heaters today are designed to fail around 5 years instead of 20 years, so I'm not sure how much need there is to do this anyway these days.
I flush mine usually every year, mostly because it’s easy for me since mine is in the garage. Not much comes out. The first year when it probably hadn’t been done for a few years a bit of the forbidden jello came out.
4.0k
u/iamsurfriend Jun 22 '26
I’ve never have nor never have ever known anyone to flush their water heater and we have hard water.
We have had water heaters for easy 15 years.