electric hot water heater

[w.bob]

I am in the market for a 50 gallon electric hot water heater. Narrowed the search down to an A O Smith, Whirlpool or GE made by Rheem.

All of the prices, ratings and warranties are about the same. Does anyone have any experience with any of these brands, good or bad. Thanks

 

[Cavalier]

All are good units. Shop each one for price.

 

[ljwhit]

I had a Rheem which rusted out in 5 years ---at the top---- and just replaced with a Whirlpool.

 

[UWSurfer]

Father-in-Law used to install water heaters here for Sears. He got us a blemished one at our old home with the Sears label which we used for 12 years. Ended up replacing it with a GE, just prior to listing the house for sale to make the house more attractive to potential buyer (along with copper repipe, new roof, carpet, paint inside and out, updated kitchen bathroom, landscaping....).

Moved to the new house which had a 16 y/o water heater and he & my wife declared we should get ahead of the curve and replace it. It was a little undersized for our household.

He specified the AO Smith for our new home and felt very strongly that it was better quality than the GE. We've had it for 2-1/2 years with no issues.

All of these water heaters however are natural gas units, which is fairly typical here in SoCal.

 

[sandcastles]

I was a service manager for a plumbing and heating co. for 17 years and I always recommended the AO Smith. I'm sure the others are good also but my plumbers had a preference for AO Smith and the company was so easy to deal with on warranties. I replaced my AOSmith about 2 years ago. My old heater was around 22 years old.

 

[Htoo0]

I have a 50 gallon Whirlpool 5500 Watt Lifetime which has a 'programmable' control board on it. (Has different modes of operation.) IMHO, this has been a big mistake. It died on me in less than a year and although a new one arrived the very next day, it simply doesn't do a good job of maintaining temperature anymore.

 

[AwayWeGo]

All U. S. Gas Water Heaters Come From Just 2 Factories -- True Or False ?

I was told -- seriously -- that all Made In USA gas water heaters, regardless of brand, come from just 2 manufacturing facilities, & 1 of those is in Johnson City, Tennessee.

Is that for real ?

Or is that just local Johnson City boosterism -- i.e., baloney ?

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[SherryS]

Our condo repairman just told us last week that there were just 2 water heater manufacturers.....Didn't say where they were located......

 

[somerville]

I can't help you on the electric, but I replaced my gas water heater a few months ago. The old one was a Bradford-White and was 15 years old. It was not leaking at the time. I replaced it with another Bradford-White, because my plumber told me that it was 100% American made. He also recommended AO Smith, which he said was made in the US, but contained some foreign parts. He also said that he had his best experience with the Bradford-White heaters.

 

[suzanne]

We just replaced our old heater with a Whirpool this week. It was the best price. As I have owned Whirlpool appliances for years with good luck on them all, we decided to go with it for the hot water heater. Our old one rusted and blew out the bottom. It was over 10 years old and an off brand that came with the house.

We have always had electric heaters, never had a gas one so can't say if one is better than the other. I do know that we replaced the heating elements in the old one with ones that were always ready, thats not what the technical name is, but they kept us from running out of hot water. Which we were always doing with the old elements that were in the heater. We will do the same with the new one if we find we are not having enough hot water. We have problems with this since we live in an older mobile home and have to use a smaller tank size than a traditional or newer mobile home takes.

Suzanne