Old Dip Tube, New Water Heater (Ugh)
In the course of working on the plumbing for the first floor bathroom, Paul (our plumbing & tile guy) discovered we have a bad dip tube in our water heater. Quite a bit of small white material had settled at the bottom of the tank and came out when he drained the tank down to install a new hot water return line.
Now all our hot water valves are clogged up and little white plastic pieces are visible in the upstairs shower head.
Sure enough, a quick search for "dip tube" on Google revealed that pretty much everyone with water heaters from the '90s now is having problems with bad dip tubes. A few of the highlights:
- The "dip tube" is designed to direct incoming cold water to the bottom of the tanks so it heats properly.
- Basically every manufacturer used dip tubes that were created defective materials in the '90s.
- The tube disintegrates and small particles of plastic end up settling at the bottom of the tank and and clogging up all the faucet screens and filters throughout the house. (Sure enough...most of ours are completely clogged since the hot water was reconnected).
- The tube can be replaced, but this often requires completely draining the tank and putting it on its side. (Most of the time the basement ceiling isn't tall enough to pull it out standing up.) Even then the whole system may need to be flushed several times to get all the junk out.
Paul's recommending we just replace our water heater. Besides the bad dip tube, it is also over 10 years old (a point at which they may need replacing anyway) and it's somewhat small (40 gallons) for a full size family.
We'll probably go ahead and do it. Another quick Google search provided a consumer guide with top ranked gas water heaters by capacity. They rank Bradford & White and Maytag models highly, but we think we've also found a 50 gallon Kenmore model from Sears with very similar efficiency ratings and a 12 year warranty.
If anyone has had a good experience with a particular make or model of water heater, we're all ears!
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Comments
I always preferred Rheem, but Kenmore is good also POPS"30"
Posted by: POPS"30" | February 3, 2004 4:17 PM
My sister just had a tankless water heater installed in her place - very awesome and efficient (doesn't heat water unless there's a demand for it). But that probably wouldn't work with your system....
Posted by: LisaB | February 4, 2004 10:27 AM