How old is my water heater, and when should I replace it?

A water heater does not usually fail with a warning. It fails with forty gallons on the garage floor, or worse, on the floor of an interior closet with carpet on the other side of the wall. Knowing how old yours is turns that surprise into a scheduled replacement.

Find the age on the label

Every water heater has a manufacturer’s label on the side, usually near the top. It lists the model number and the serial number. The manufacture date is inside the serial number, and each brand hides it a little differently. Some newer labels simply print the manufacture date, so check that first.

• Rheem, Ruud, Richmond. The first four digits are the month and year: a serial starting 0318 was built in March 2018.
• A.O. Smith, State, American, Kenmore, Whirlpool (recent). The first two digits are the year and the next two are the week: 1712 is 2017, week 12.
• Bradford White. The first letter is the year and the second is the month, using a letter code that skips a few letters. The manufacturer publishes the table; a quick search of “Bradford White serial number date” brings it up.

If you cannot decode yours, take a photo of the label and text it to us. We can read it in seconds.

How long they last in Southwest Florida

The national rule of thumb is 8 to 12 years for a tank water heater and up to 20 for a tankless. Around here, plan for the short end of that range:

• Hard water. Much of Lee and Collier County water is on the hard side, and well water in Lehigh Acres, Alva, and eastern Estero is harder still. Minerals settle in the tank as sediment, insulate the bottom, and cook the steel.
• Heat and humidity. A garage water heater spends half the year at 95 degrees in 80 percent humidity. Fittings and the outer jacket corrode faster.
• Salt air. On Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel, and the islands, salt speeds up corrosion on every metal part.

None of that means your heater will fail at year eight. It means that after year ten you are living on borrowed time, and it is worth deciding on your own schedule instead of the tank’s.

Warning signs to replace it now

• Rust-colored hot water when the cold is clear. The inside of the tank is corroding.
• Rumbling, popping, or crackling during a heating cycle. That is water boiling under a layer of sediment. The tank is being stressed every day.
• Moisture or rust at the base, water in the drain pan, or a rusty ring on the floor. Tanks weep before they let go.
• The relief valve drips or has left a puddle at the end of its discharge pipe. The valve may be failing, or the tank may be over-pressurizing.
• Not enough hot water from a tank that used to keep up. Sediment has taken over part of the volume.
• Repairs adding up. A thermostat or element on a five-year-old tank is worth fixing. The same repair on a twelve-year-old tank is money toward a replacement.

Why replacement is a licensed job here

In Florida, replacing a water heater is permitted work, even when the new unit is the same size in the same spot. The inspector checks the things that make a water heater safe: the drain pan and where it drains, the temperature and pressure relief valve and its discharge line, the expansion tank where the home has a backflow device or pressure regulator, seismic strapping where it applies, and the electrical or gas connection. A licensed plumber pulls the permit, does the work to current code, and schedules the inspection. A replacement without a permit can surface later as a problem in a home sale or an insurance claim.

Insurance is the other reason to know the age. Florida insurers increasingly ask for the water heater’s age at renewal and during 4-point inspections on older homes, and some treat units past a certain age as a reason to require replacement.

Tank or tankless?

Both are good choices in the right house. A tank is simpler, cheaper to install, and easy to replace like for like. A tankless unit lasts longer, saves space, and never runs out, but it needs a larger gas line or a substantial electrical circuit, and it must be sized for how many fixtures run at once in your home. Tankless units also need regular descaling in our water, or a filtration system ahead of them.

If your label says the tank is past ten, or you have seen any of the warning signs above, send us the model and serial number and we will tell you what you have, what it would take to replace it, and whether there is any reason to wait.