Whirlpool water heater

[Steve-Maine]

I"m looking at a Whirlpool Electric hot Water Heater at Lowe"s. 50 gallon lifetime warranty model 161802 for $444. Is this a good heater and is price good? I"ll only be using it in warm weather as we use hot water off boiler in winter. thanks

 

[Stan in Oly, WA]

Hi Steve,

When I looked at water heaters in Lowe's (or maybe Home Depot) a few weeks ago I was surprised at how much more expensive they seemed to be than when I bought one just two years ago. That makes $444 seem like it's probably a reasonable price, even without the lifetime warranty. That warranty might be worth a lot, particularly considering the reduced usage the equipment will get. A limited time warranty would not be in your favor because the clock would be running even when the water heater wasn't. Be sure to examine the warranty to make sure it isn't full of exclusions or nearly impossible requirements. I have trouble understanding how a major company could offer a lifetime warranty on a piece of equipment that seems to be selling at a price near to that of one with a more normal 5 to 10 year warranty, especially a piece of equipment which normally fails due to conditions which are beyond the owner's control---namely the chemical composition of the water it heats.

All the best, Stan

 

[Steve-Maine]

To STAN,

I got a copy of warranty and they will replace whole unit or any part hust once, which is OK. They might have you ship old unit back. Still sounds good to me. Thanks for info
STEVE

 

[bshannon]

Does an electric cooperative supply your electricity? If so, they often have excellent prices and rebates on water heaters.

 

[lucas boy]

last 50 gallon elec i bought last year was from ace hardware for 148.00 . it has a year warranty and has the name rheem on it. ive used them for many years.they last about 10-12 years at my home and in rental house. lucas

 

[Anonymous-0]

As an unrelated caution , I just shelled out $550 for a top of the line Whirlpool Gas w/h at Lowes. This is a "Flame Lock " type. The pilot lite wouldn't stay lit , called warrantee plumber , who made an adjustment to thermocouple flame. He says many of them do this , and it requires having the burner screen removed at six mo. intervals to clean it, the warranty only covers labor for the first year, this means I face 10 years of $100 service calls to maintain this screen. I googled several class action suits regarding this defect. I'm just trying to decide wether to return it....anyone else affected ??

 

[Steve-Maine]

We buy power from a regular power company and I checked, they don't have any rebates right now.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I also was going to buy a Whirlpool at Lowes until I did a little research on it. Google customer reviews from both the G.E. from Home Depot and the Whirlpool at Lowes. My choice was the G.E. after reading the reviews. The old one was 10 years old and back then it cost $135 but the new one was about $450 so they have jumped in price as does everything the gov'mint gets their hands into. Now they have a flame arrestor system so fumes don't get in and go boom.

 

[El Toro]

I have a Sears Kenmore Survivor gas fired water heater I bought new from Sears Surplus. It had a list price of $800.00 and I bought it for less than half in 1992. It has a lifetime warranty against leaking and the tank is fiberglass. Sears said if it ever leaked they would give me another water heater that has a 12 year warranty.

It has electronic ignition and it has a circulating pump. Both of these were replaced during the warranty and a check valve. No problems so far since then. They quit making these water heaters about the time I bought this one. You have to be very careful when tightening
the water lines on the tank so you don't cause any leaks around those fitting on the tank. The first tank installed in the house when the house was built had a 5 year warranty and lasted 15 years without one service call. I'm on public water which may help. I see the 12 year Kenmore water heaters are over $400.00. I still have my sales receipt too. Hal

 

[Bob - MI]

I have a gas unit but I did a bit of research on them before buying it.

Whirpool and GE are the more popular brands that you will find at Lowe"s and Home Depot. You may also want to look at Sears. Under the Kenmore brand you will end up with a similar unit to what Lowe"s and HD will have. I found the warranties to be similar on all that I looked at and it really started to come down to energy efficiency. Do some searching on "water heater ratings" and see what comes up.

I ended up with a Kenmore unit that had a 10 year warranty and has good efficiency. Often there will be some weekend deal that you can get 10% off if you use the Sears card. Since you are only using this part time no matter what you get it should last a long time.

Friend of mine has a gas power vent unit that he recently replaced. He has had nothing but trouble with both the old and new one. Seems that the control boards go south quickly. I am guessing that he needs a surge protector on that line but it"s his house.