[quote=walterwhite]shoot man. we had no hot water last night. luckily it just needed to be reset. but what if I needed to replace it? would be a bummer if I had no extra cash at all. and it does look kinda old. probably almost dead…[/quote]
scaredy, check the rust around your HW heater, especially around the controls and gas line inlet and junctions. You don’t want it to explode or break, causing hot water to gush out, especially if its in the house! This is a safety hazard to people and pets! If it is in the garage, it can still cause flooding and damage its surroundings if it bursts, including damaging any vehicles parked in close proximity.
It’s only about $450 or so to get a new GE 50-gal tank at Home Depot and maybe about $150 to hook it up and strap it if you can’t do this yourself. It has to be installed on a pedestal 18″ off the ground, IIRC. I would advise looking into this ASAP, especially if your HW heater is more than 20 years old. If you can still read the serial number on the mfr sticker, the mfr date is directly across from that. It was likely installed within one year of that date.
In the past, I ignored (a 21 yo old) one until it was on the verge of bursting. By the time we emptied it and took it out, it left a pile of rust in the garage that would fill half a trash can. As we took off the hose hookup after draining it, the whole hose bib crumbled off the tank with it. In rolling it around dry, we could hear all the sediment and rust shaking around inside. You have a bigger family than me. I would replace it if I were you!
