Talking to my neighbor Frank about his 30 year old water heater changed my mind on everything

I was over at Frank's place helping him move some furniture and noticed his water heater in the garage. It looked ancient, like from the 80s or something. I told him he was crazy for not replacing it before it floods his whole garage. He just laughed and said he replaced the anode rod twice and flushed it every spring like clockwork. Said that old tank will outlast any new plastic lined junk they sell at Lowes today. Drove me nuts hearing that because I just bought a new Rheem last fall and now I'm wondering if I got played. Frank's unit is still humming at 32 years and mine already has a weird rattle when it kicks on. Makes me think all those YouTube videos pushing brand new installs are just feeding the consumer machine. Has anyone else gone the route of nursing an old heater along instead of swapping it out?

3 comments

3 Comments

brianm669d ago

Frank's got the right idea honestly. Those old tanks were built different, and if you stay on top of the anode and flush it every year they'll just keep going. That Rheem rattle is probably just sediment, but it's a pain to hear compared to a 30 year old unit chugging along like nothing.

owens.anthony9d ago

Ever had to deal with one of those old tanks rusting through at the bottom?

the_piper9d ago

Good for Frank man. It's wild how we've all been trained to just throw stuff away the second it acts up instead of actually taking care of it. You see it everywhere, not just water heaters. My buddy @owens.anthony has an old fridge in his basement that's been running since the 90s without a single issue, meanwhile my parents bought some fancy new Samsung and the ice maker broke after two years. At a certain point you gotta wonder if the whole "just replace it" mindset is a trick to keep you spending money you don't need to spend. Frank probably saves more in a decade than any of us do on our fancy new units.