21 year old Electric water heater

Curious what my fellow Tacoma owners would do. Still seems to be working ok, recovery is not that great though. 2nd water heater was replaced 3 years ago before we moved here.

It's in a cement room with a drain, so failure wouldn't t be a huge issue if I was home.

I'm leaning towards replacing, but the frugal side of me says get what you can out of it.

 

If you have the money change it. Why wait for the inevitable?

 

Dual or single element?

The slow recovery is a symptom of either sediment burying the bottom element or a burt out element. Problem is you go messing with that repair and youre likely to shake things up enough to start you leak.

Old heaters lasted much longer than these modern ones do, at least leak wise
Its one reason i made the jump to a NG tankless.

 

Solid point.

Not sure in element, probably 2, thought about tankless, but haven't heard great things about electric ones (my only option).

 

Drain it and see if it's slam full of rust... if so replace it if it's decent inside keep on keeping on!!! Or replace the heating elements of you want while it's drained they are only 10$ a piece

 

But what do i know my central ac unit is a 1970 model and runs like top.... uses a lot of power but will keep my house 67 degrees when it's 100 outside and doesn't have insulation in he walls!!!

 

I would not do an electric on demand

 

Agree. Gas or don't bother.

 

Agree. I do like my NG one though......

 

you'll save a lot more on electric with a newer model. so it doesnt run full hot all the time. just during peak hours.

 

Thanks everyone, plan on picking one up next weekend.

 

As stated, I would drain and replace both elements, shop vac everything out you can, rinse and install elements. Will outlast the newer units by far if it's lasted this long.
Will be good as new when finished, a bit of work but worth it.

 

Worth looking into a gas on-demand. Look into Rinnai, most likely a R-75 will take care of you perfectly. The things are tanks (pun intended) and will save you a bunch of money in the long run. Plus endless hot water is an awesome thing.

 

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Put in a new one ... only takes a couple of hours ... good electric unit (with good efficiency) at HomeDepot is about $400.00 USD.

I switched out 1 NG water heater and changed to electric and love it since I am by myself and easy to turn off and on.

Hoverer, like OZ said, never put an "on "demand electric water heater" ... IIRC, that takes an insane amount of power.

 

Just ended up getting a new one. Rheem performance platinum, 12 warranty.

 

I would have gone that route, but don't have NG.

 

Mine is old. Like 20+ years.. drained it last year, everything looked great.

Not touching it until I have to, my fiancee's aunt went through 4 electric units in 3 years - I don't want to borrow that kind of trouble.

 

$555 a year! Holy shit!

 

Me too with the new one, old one was pretty rust once I got it out.

 

Is that a lot? Old one was $405 a year 4500watt in 96' terms, this one is 5500 watts in 2017 terms at the high end of efficiency for electric.