Basic topics regarding water heater longevity, safety and preventive maintenance

What you'll find on this page: the keys to understanding how water heaters work, what makes them fail, what can be done to save them, the ups and downs of tankless, how to get your hands dirty (and maybe your feet wet), and how to choose a new heater if this knowledge comes too late for your current one, as well as safety and emergency preparedness issues.

Until Larry and Suzanne Weingarten began experimenting, more than 20 years ago, not many people in the United States knew that water heaters could be economically serviced and made to last.

Somebody called the Weingartens to an apartment complex because the water heaters were making strange noises. All anybody knew to do then was replace them.

They learned what caused the noise -- sediment -- and how to stop it. They learned about the part that really controls the life of a water heater -- the anode rod. They invented a unique vacuum cleaner, the Muck-Vac, that cleans the tank while it's full of water, and a special tool that makes it easier to remove anodes. Then they wrote a book, the Water Heater Workbook. Finally, they and an associate began teaching other people how to do this work.

Our goal is to save a good chunk of the 6.5 million water heaters that fail each year and wind up in the landfill. We hope yours is among them. We also want to influence you to make wise buying choices.

To us, preventive maintenance includes buying the right tank in the first place, setting it up in a unique way, and then maintaining it. Or retrofitting the one you already have to do the same thing.

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The following topics tell you about the construction of a water heater and why it's necessary to make some changes to permit maintenance, as well as describing what that entails and how to do it.

The Inside Story -- Time to learn a little about the innards of a water heater. Then you'll understand how construction affects maintenance and longevity.

What Kills Water Heaters -- Here is a quick list of things to be concerned about. Rust is the most usual and obvious cause of water heater failure, but there are other causes, some of them subtle.

Anodes -- A matter of life and death to your tank. Even though practically every water heater has one, scarcely anybody knows that they're there -- and that they can be replaced.

Sediment -- It lowers energy efficiency, helps harm the tank bottom, causes odd noises and burns out recirculation pumps and heating elements.

Safety -- Codes vary across the United States, but here are some of the basics.

Emergency Preparedness and Water Heaters -- Your water heater could be the only drinkable water around in a disaster, but unless you heed some of our advice, you may not be left high and dry.

Tankless Water Heaters -- Instantaneous water heaters sound like a big improvement over tank-type heaters. But are they? Here's the nitty-gritty. Also described here are some cool new technologies for saving energy and water.

Choosing A Water Heater -- When you go shopping, what should you be looking for? This section is about determining what you need and how to compare different models. And we strongly recommend that you read this and The Best Water Heater right now. When your water heater breaks, all you're going to be thinking about is avoiding another cold shower. When you're in a hurry, it's easy to make bad choices.

The Best Water Heater -- While this might sound just like the preceding topic, it's a little different. This is more about how we think a tank should be configured after you've made your buying decision.

Preventive Maintenance -- Using one of our heaters, we talk you through what is involved in maintaining a water heater.

Know-How -- This is the hands-on guide to inspecting your tank to determine its condition and the details of how to perform preventive maintenance.

Insulation and Energy Efficiency -- Comparing water heaters has gotten more complicated, but it can still be done, and should be done.

Water Heating According to Larry -- Larry Weingarten, who pioneered most of the ideas, tools and techniques encompassed on this website, uses our forum, The Tank, to not merely answer people's questions, but also to elaborate his ideas about how things should be. This page constitutes some of those questions and some of his answers.

Tools -- We tell you to use certain tools to do certain maintenance on water heaters. Here is a description of what those are and what they do.

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