We have an 11 year old 50 gallon tall gas water heater. It has a 12 year warranty and has operated flawlessly. It is installed in a closet in the middle of the house in a one story home. If it were to start leaking we would have an expensive mess on our hands. I am thinking about changing it out but I see the 12 year warranty tanks are twice as expensive as the 6 year ones. What is the difference between the two? Is there a difference in how they are made or is it just the warranty? Is double the price worth the money in either case?
Thanks
Mike
Tom: Yeah. Here’s a lot of issues I’m going to answer. One is a warranty on your water heater, if that thing starts to leak whether its a 12 year warranty and it’s 12 years old or 1 year old, it doesn’t cover any damage in the house. That’s why you have homeowner’s insurance. The only thing it will do is give you a prorated access to a new water heater so don’t think that’s some kind of safety issue when it comes to cleaning up your house.
Secondly, I don’t know if a 12 year old is ever going to leak or if a one year old is ever going to leak. You could buy a brand new one trying to avoid a problem and end up creating a huge problem. No one can see into the future. We’re not genies.
The last thing is anytime you get a longer warranty you are going to spend more money for it. It is the same tank, same parts and pieces, same regulations they are all built to with the government regulations and you are just buying a longer warranty on a tank which I don’t think is worth the money. If it works good for 6 years, I don’t think it’s going to break on the 7th.
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