I need to replace one of my water heaters. Natural Gas, 50 gallon, 40000 BTU is what's there. Anything to look for or look out for? Any preferred brands or steer clear of?

Thanks.

My plumbing bud said to get one from the plumbing supply house. He said it’s better than a box store

Bradford White is good. Try Apex in Richardson.

I just sold a new old stock Bradford White 75 gal 76000 BTU today for $450. If you're ever in the Houston area I can hook you up.

Tankless, Rinnai is what I’ve had in last 2 homes and they have been great

BigPig, is that the type of system that gets installed at the point of use?

I believe that's the way I'll be going when my 2 tanks go.

Those are installed in place of your water heater. As far as a tank type water heater there all the same in my opinion.

get a tankless water heater. only way to go

No. What you’re referring to insta hot, it’s just a crutch to use for when your hot water has to travel a long distance from the heater.

Tankless can be installed in the same place your tank was, in most cases

Thanks, BigPig.

I'm watching videos on the pros and cons of tank vs tankless.

My plumber recommended the old school tank. Apparently they are mostly made in the US. The tankless he said are all China made and if supply chain issues keep up and yours goes down, you’ll be in a long line waiting for the boat to arrive.

99% of higher end homes I do that are new construction and have gas available run tankless Rinnia twins in the garage or attic. They are a solid

If they are running twins, that’s a lot of hot water. The biggest strain we’ve put on the system was running the dishwasher, washing machine, and I was in the shower with both spray heads going. Water was still hot, but pressure was down a little.

We went with a tankless propane fired unit on our current house, I will never go back to a tank type. It will keep up with multi hot water uses at the same time, and uses around 180 gallons of fuel per year. That number will go down now that we are empty nesters.

How many of them froze up and split during the winter storm of 2020?

People were living in hotels for months waiting for tankless units, after that debacle I wouldn't install a tankless.

Prob because a lot are installed in garages with no insulation and the owners didn’t turn on the recirculation feature.

Hard to do when there's no electricity.

From what I understand 2K plus for tankless if your home is older compared to 1k for the traditional gas water heater.

I watched a number of videos discussing the pros and cons. I'll have somebody come to check things out.

Superduty, my house was built in 2011.

We thought about tankless, but being empty nester no problems as all.

Tankless , never look back.

Well, then I guess a tank heater is just as useless and still prone to freezing and bursting

Yes, that has been a issue as of late, just getting parts. Plus I understand it take hours to get a service rep on the phone to walk you through to find out the issues.

Add to the fact you are required to flush you tankless unit yearly or your loose your warranty, so there is another $250 to $350 per year maintenace fee, Tank water heaters you just install them and forget out them.

Most tankless I see are in the Attic.

Vast Majority of the Water Heaters in my area are Natural Gas, no electrical needed