Q. I was told by someone that the insulation around the water heater caused it to sweat and rust at the bottom. This is the reason why the water heater is leaking. Any information would be very grateful. I am having an arguement with the company who came and insulated my home. This company wrapped the water heater saying it would help. The water heater is about 13 years old and still looks brand new except for the rusting that is now on the bottom which wasn't there before the insulation. Thanks for any help!! The insulation has been on the water heater about 2 or 3 years. Who should I vote for? Everyone gave about the same answer that it needs to be replaced. So, I don't have an option to choose everyone as best answer. Good luck all in the voting!!!

A. No.Water heaters rust out in a dozen years on average,and always on the bottom.

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Q. It is time to replace it; how difficult will it be to put the new water heater in the garage which is attached to the house; but on the other side from where the current water heater is. And, does anyone recommend waterless heaters that give instant hot water?

A. It shouldn't be too difficult if you know how to solder and reroute the pipes. You may want to consider an insulating blanket for the water heater in your garage if you live in a climate that gets very cold in the winter- otherwise your gas/electric(depends on what kind of heater you have) bill will go up. If it is a gas heater be sure and double check for gas leaks when you reroute those too. I don't know much about the tankless, but know an acquaintance that is happy with hers.

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Q. I just recently was fired from a plumbing and heating company and I am suing them for some other reasons. I was doing some research on the CT state labor site and I was searching the licenses and found that half of the techs we have are not licensed. I found one plumber who has no license and has worked on gas water heaters in the past. Is there anyway I can use this to get them in trouble? The company by the way, treats its employees very badly and overcharges the customers way too much.

A. I practice in Florida, not Connecticut, but I think that in most states only people with a license to work on LP lines can touch a gas line. While plumbers may understand "lines" their work sometimes has lethal results. I worked on a case where a well meaning plumber took out a woman's gas hot water tank (thinking it was the only gas appliance in the house) and replaced it with an electric one, at the customer's request. A week later the woman's stove would not ignite b/c the plumber (thinking there were no more gas lines in the house) turned off the gas at the tank and crimped the gas line to the hot water heater shut (or almost shut....) The lady goes out to the tank, turns her gas tank back on, gets her cake mix out, bends in her stove to light her pilot light and kaboom! The entire mobile home exploded and she went airborne, ending up in a yard of a home about 1/2 mile from her own. If that is the case in CT, working on LP lines w/o a permit can get them into big trouble. Instead of bad mouthing your old employer though why not go work for the competition and do good work for fair prices. The customers will follow.

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Q. I had a plumber come out and look at the water heater, but the sounds did not occur while the plumber was inspecting the water heater. The plumber turned the water heater down and said that he may have to come back out to "flush" the water heater if the sounds continue. Afterwards, I went several months without hearing any sounds at all. But, recently I have began hearing them again...any homeowners out there that can share their experience with water heaters? The water heater is only 2 years old.

A. I have to assume this is a gas water heater, although you don't mention which it is. The reason I assume that is that an electric unit only makes a sizzling sound, like bacon frying, when it's heating water. The gas heaters, if, as a couple of the previous answers have suggested, you live in an area of high calcium, lime content in the water, accumulate this lime in sediment form on the bottom of the tank over the years. When the burner kicks on and heats the water, it heats the calcium buildup too, when the calcium gets to a certain temperature it explodes like popcorn does under heat. The noise can be annoying if it's audible from the upper rooms, but it's seldom dangerous. If your unit is making that much noise, it's unlikely that you'll get much out of it by draining. The lime accumulates in large chunks in the bottom and the small spigots that the manufacturers put in most tanks won't let out much of anything bigger than a BB. I've taken chunks out of the element holes of electric units the size of a 50cent piece. If if gets too annoying, get a new water heater, and have the installer put in a 3/4" full flow ball valve as a drain. That will let out large chunks of stuff when it's drained. That shouldn't cost more than an additonal $10 - $15. There is no real way to effectively clean a serious lime sediment buildup from a gas water heater.

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Q. If I buy a Rheem/GE water heater at Home Depot, I can compare a bunch of different water heaters there, and choose which one I like best according to its features, such as how fast it heats the water, how good its warranty is, etc. But if I buy a water heater from a plumber, I just get a total cost including installation, and no information at all about what water heater I'm getting. Even if the plumber gives me the model number of the one he plans to install, it's different than the model numbers at Home Depot. For example, some of the model numbers at Home Depot start with 42V but the ones from the plumber seem to start with 82V. Are 42V and 82V equivalent, or is 82V old, or what? Oops. The 82V is electric vs gas. That's why I couldn't find it. The plumber made a mistake when he gave me the brand and model.

A. A good plumber should be able to give you the years of warranty...the btu recovery rate name/size and all. The brand name should have a web sight and his model number should be in their info. Match the warrenty years and the BTU recovery rate. IE.. A 40 gallon heater with a 12 year warranty and a 37,000 BTU recovery.

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Q. The small, on-demand gas water heaters are great for saving on energy if you don't need lots of hot water, and the Europeans have been using them at least since the 1960's. They haven't really caught on here, and some plumbers I've talked with don't have a lot of experience with them. I you have such a water heater, is it reliable? If something goes wrong how difficult is it to find someone to fix it? And are you saving a lot of energy?

A. Yes mine runs off propane and tell you what ill never go back to the big tank again . Real easy to hook up did mine myself no problems out of it for the last 2 years anyway . They also have them that run off of natural gas and electric. They come with instructions I'm sure your plumber can read if not get a new plumber

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Q. So the landlord did a lot of work on the place, from the basement floor all the way up to ours. Before this, we NEVER had a problem with running out of hot water (and we had an extra roommate). Now, with one less roommate, we run out of water quite quickly. Here's the catch. The apartment is a 3 apartment brownstone- one basement apartment and then 2 floors. The basement and the first floor are on the same gas meter, so the landlord pays their heat and hot water. We're on our own up here. What I have noticed as of late is that when the tenants downstairs are home (and they are gone for days at a time) the hot water runs out quicker. This week, they are not here and the shower is STEAMING HOT and it never gets cold. I suspect that the landlord has played with the plumbing so that our hot water heater is feeding the first floor, as well as ours so that we are stuck flipping the bill for the first floor's hot water. My question is how could this possible if it is? Any plumbers out there know if this would be an easy thing for him to pull off. I find it quite odd that all of a sudden, with one less person in the house, our hot water runs out quicker. Oh, and I went into the basement to check it out myself and I do not know enough about this to make a claim. I did however turn up the temp on BOTH hot water heaters bc the first floor complained how their water was colder as well. That said, when they are home, my water just doesn't get as hot. Ideas? Suggestions? I want to get to the bottom of this, but I do not know where to go with it. Thank you. FYI he has been "tricky" with "white" lies in the past.

A. If he CLAIMS that your place is on its own water heater just wait till the building is full and go turn off YOUR water heater and see how long it takes everyone to start screaming at the top of their lungs! That should out him and the problem pretty danged quickly! Good Luck!

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Q. Our gas water heater is going out and needs to be replaced. Our insurance will cover the water heater and installation, but not the additional costs to bring it up to code, about $900. We can take the cash out and make our own arrangements to get it fixed instead of having it replaced with an equivalent unit. We are thinking about a tankless system. I presume we would put it in the water heater closet, and we do want gas, not electric. Most of our plumbing is in the "core" of the house, so none of the hot water lines are more than 20 feet, and only the kitchen sink/dishwasher line is that long. If it matters, our house was built in the early seventies, and the current water heater is about 14 years old. If you have replaced yours this way, what do you think? How do the costs of the two systems compare? Is there a difference in your gas bill now? What about maintenance/repair/reliability? Would it still have the same code requirements, or would most of that stuff not apply? Would it still need the new thingamajig to cut off the water if there were a leak? Would it still need a pan installed? (Either way, we're going to have to change out a couple of gas lines.) Are there any brands much better/worse than others? What else do we need to know? All words of wisdom appreciated! Thanks!

A. I only know what my plumber told me about these when we were building our house and considering the tankless heaters. He said the gas was the best/fastest/most reliable and that we would would need one for each bathroom that had a shower/bath and one for the kitchen/laundry. We opted for a large electric hot water tank and do not run out of water, and are very happy with it. (I don't mean a huge tank, just one capable of handling our needs). You might want to check to be sure your needs can be met when you want hot water, and not have to stagger what you wish to do to ensure enough hot water.

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