I’m sort of a house info geek, so I was excited when I found a site this morning that taught me how to decipher the registration plate on the front of a water heater.
Turns out, it’s usually the first couple digits on the serial number. Some are the month and year, some are the year and week, and some are in opposite order as others. There’s examples at the site.
Keep in mind that the date on the plate is a manufacture date; water heaters are most likely installed within a couple years of that date.
Also, because of the hard water that we have in Tucson, you’ll often hear a bubbling noise inside the unit. Some people call it knocking or gurgling - you’ll know it when you hear it!
Usually, that’s caused by a build-up of sediment and minerals at the bottom of the water heater. I’ve been told that if you drain the unit once a year, it can help with that, but I haven’t confirmed that with a professional. In my experience with water heaters in Tucson, most make some mild bubbling noises after a year or two. When the knocking gets very loud, it can be a sign the unit is about to die.
Luckily, replacing a water heater is one of the cheaper home repairs for being such a vital appliance, at least relatively speaking. My last couple replacements ran between $600 and $800 for the new unit, installation, and removal of the old unit.
I think next time, I might try a tankless water heater. Anyone with experience with those?
Photo via Flickr, courtesy of geekmojo
January 2nd, 2008 at 5:49 pm
we recently purchased a house that came with a tankless hot water unit. it is awesome! endless water as hot as you want it is very luxurious.
ours is electric and it requires a LOT of juice. ours has a dedicated 70A circuit and other whole house units can require up to 120A. tucson ground water is relatively warm, though, so you can usually get by with a smaller system than one would need farther north. still, even though the costs of these units have come down considerably, one needs to take into account the likely costs of upgrading the hot water heater circuit and possibly the electric service to the house (to 200A at least).
gas powered tankless heaters appear to be more prevalent in the shops around town (e.g. lowes & home depot). there, also, one needs to shop carefully since larger units may require upgraded gas lines and venting. from what i’ve read gas units have a disadvantage of requiring a certain amount of flow before they kick in so that some low-flow faucets may never get hot water.
so far i can definitely tell the difference in electric bills between the new place with tankless and the old place that had a normal water heater. we’re saving about $20/month on electricity at the new place on average. while i had the old place listed, but vacant, i turned the water heater off and the electric bill dropped over $30 the next month. that’s how much we were spending to simply keep that tank sitting there heated up even during the middle of the summer!
needless to say, i’m sticking with tankless as much as i can from now on.
tim
January 2nd, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Hi Tim - thanks for the review of the tankless water heater. I’ve got a friend that installed one a couple months ago, and I’m starting to see them more and more in local homes. I didn’t know they required that much juice though! Might be a consideration, especially for some of the older homes.
January 2nd, 2008 at 6:40 pm
it takes a lot of energy to cook water so you need to work real hard to do it in real-time. i noticed at home depot that they now have gas tankless units that can mount outside. that at least can easily solve the venting issue. a friend of mine backed out on going tankless because installing a larger, stainless steel vent would have more than doubled the cost of the project.
tankless systems are also well-suited for backing up solar hot water. they measure the input and output water temps and only use the power required to reach the desired output. if the input is already hot enough, they don’t do anything.
January 3rd, 2008 at 12:57 am
No, but real estate is a tankless job. Does that count?
Actually I only hear through the grapevine that they’re good to have, as your comments seem to bear out.
January 3rd, 2008 at 2:24 pm
> Anyone with experience with those?
Take a look here:
http://paragoninspects.com/home-inspection-tankless-water-heater-installation-problems-faq.html
January 3rd, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Wow, that’s a great article!
January 3rd, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Thanks. Hope it helps people out.
January 5th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
It’s amazing what I learn on the weekends.
It’s this kind of post that makes me want to come back to a blog.
Count me as a new regular, Kelley.