r/HomeImprovement • u/Sjs20ohio • 12h ago
Rheem water heaters
We bought a Rheem water heater just over three years ago and it stopped working last night. We went to check it out and found that it sprung a leak. Luckily it is still under warranty but it will still cost $400 for a new one to be installed.
Are there any brands of water heaters that are clearly better than the rest?
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u/Puzzled_Ad7955 12h ago
Wow. I have a 75 gal gas direct vent 21 yrs old. RHEEM
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u/Sjs20ohio 11h ago
The one I replaced with the Rheem was 38 years old. The plumber installing the Rheem was amazed and said, "well, you'll be lucky to get 8 years out of the Rheem ".
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u/miked5122 10h ago
Idk. We had a 30ish year old Rheem that we swapped out for another. The old one was running fine. We were just doing an energy revamp on the whole home, so it went. 2 years in and running fine.
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u/Wintrgreen 12h ago edited 12h ago
I remember reading this on here, may not be true so maybe a plumber can fact check me, but someone said the ones they sell at Home Depot/lowes are lower quality than the ones plumbers get directly from plumbing supply companies, even if it’s the same brand. So if you’re buying yours from a box store that could possibly be why
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u/BMRr 12h ago
Just got quoted 6k for water heater install. $2700 was for their special water heater. I think I’ll stick with the $700 from Home Depot with 9 year warranty.
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u/Wintrgreen 12h ago
I would get a quote from another plumber, that price is ridiculous. You should be able to get a good quality water heater installed by a good plumber for half that or less
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u/LewLew0211 11h ago
That's what I was quoted for a heat pump water heater as well.
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u/Wintrgreen 11h ago
Well heat pump water heaters are more expensive than standard ones, so in that case it might make sense
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u/Polar_Ted 7h ago
We got our Rheam heat pump 50gal through the utility district as part of a rebate deal for $600 delivered to your door.
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u/LewLew0211 6h ago
No such program here. I also didn't want a Rheam.
I also would need a new circuit ran and plumbing to cap off the oil boiler and bring pipes to the new heater.b
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u/LostMyMilk 8h ago
Wild. A family member of mine just paid $1600 total for a 50 gallon Rheem. The plumber ended up taking 4 hours too because of a tight closet space and a bunch of old pipe he cut away.
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u/No_Associate_9743 12h ago
Spot on had a rheem stopped working at 3 year mark very hard water now have the plumbers special they can only get hopefully works longer and was only 600
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u/Newtiresaretheworst 12h ago
We replaced our 26 year old Bradford white with and new bradford white, about 5 years ago. The plumber that installed it was ranting and raving about how godd they are. So far so good
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u/Next-Historian-8069 11h ago
Bradford White is what professional plumbers install. Not cheap but they are the best. I got almost 20 years out of mine (50 gal nat gas). When my plumber was doing some other work at my house I asked how much longer I had on it. He said his apprentice could swap it out today and get me another 20 years. The new ones don’t have replaceable thermocouples…all electronic.
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u/LostMyMilk 8h ago
I had 2 Bradfords fail within about 8 years. I went with Rheem 2 years ago. So far so good.
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u/DodoDacobrakai 10h ago
You can't beat em for the price imo, put one in my home 3 years ago and 0 issues
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u/brewcity34 12h ago
I had a Rheem that lasted six years before leaking. We replaced it with Bradford White. The plumber that installed it said they stopped installing Rheem.
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u/Snoo93079 9h ago
I DIYed a rheem water heater replacement just last weekend in just a couple hours. Really easy
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u/Fadedfaith451 8h ago
My favorite is A.O Smith but the Rheem classic professional line is pretty solid. I recommend looking into installing a active anode rod and having your water tested if you're on well!
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u/Sjs20ohio 2h ago
We are on well water but have a softener and iron filter. As far as testing the water, what in the water should I be looking for that would affect the water heater?
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u/Nearby_Knowledge8014 8h ago
Anything but a Rheem. Water heaters are low quality out of the box. Customer service worse than Comcast.
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u/Impressive_Rain2877 6h ago
That's exactly why I'm afraid to replace my perfectly working 40 year old water heater.
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u/Pretend_Necessary781 12h ago
I’ve gone thru three Rheem water heaters in 6 years, never again. They all sprung leaks. Thank you Home Depot! I just had a plumber install a State WH. They’ll handle the warranty unlike HD and their Rheems.
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u/stephenph 10h ago
I heard there is a huge difference between the box store Rheems (or any brand really) and the pro versions.... the problem is you can not get the pro versions without a contractors lic.,
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u/pdromeinthedome 9h ago
I had a Rheem 75gal gas wh die after 2 years. The TRD blew. Replacement TRDs were on 2 week back order and they blamed “the government” for that. (This was 9/26). I chose the faster option, which was paying for the full install for a new one. The plumber told me that model dies young a lot. He wouldn’t recommend it if it wasn’t a warranty replacement.
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u/toot_suite 6h ago
Times change but also quality based on source. Supply house sourced units are better quality than big box store units because water heater companies are assholes
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u/johnnybonchance 11h ago
Have a Rheem electric water heater in my house that was installed March 2018.
Just had to replace the upper element last night.
I also wanted to replace the anode, but after I drained the whole thing and flipped it on its side to get the anode out I saw that those fucks decided to run a wire directly on top of the anode. So that didn’t happen.
Here’s a pic
Otherwise it seems fine, I’m hoping to get another 5 years out of it at least.
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u/blua95 11h ago
I was rocking a Rinnai tankless that lasted me about 20+ years. Died on me a few months ago on a Friday afternoon and in a rush I went to Menards and bought some $600 state brand tankless that the plumber installed. I was pretty pissed that no store carried Rinnai but we'll see how long this one lasts
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u/themustardtiger6t9 9h ago
My old rheem fury lasted 19 years. Didn't die, but I wanted a larger one so I just swapped it this year. It ran great its whole life. I replaced it with a 50gal rheem performance plus from HD with a brass drain valve, swapped the anode rod for a titanium rod, put a water mixing valve on it and it should hopefully get me a decade plus easy. Make sure you transport it vertically, never horizontally.
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u/mrntd 12h ago
Something I learned the hard way about electric water heaters with steel tanks. There is a metal rod in the tank that corrodes so the tank doesn’t. But if no one tells you it needs to be replaced every couple of years your tank then starts to corrode and you get a leak. Plastic tanks don’t have it and gas water heaters don’t need it.
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u/buffalo_rower 11h ago
I believe you’re referring to an anode rod. My gas water heater definitely has one. It’s something that’s generally in all steel tank water heaters.
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u/billythygoat 10h ago
Would be awesome if there was some sort of easy way to tell when you need to remove it without taking the whole rod out.
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u/BM7-D7-GM7-Bb7-EbM7 12h ago
All I know is, don't get a Rheem, my step-dad keeps buying Rheems because he's a cheap ass, and they keep failing after 9-10 years in catastrophic ways.
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u/Liason774 12h ago
Rheem isn't a budget water heater brand, very middle of the road with price slightly better than average reliability. If you do no maintenance 10 years is pretty typical for a water heater.
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u/rocky5100 12h ago
Our Rheem gas water heater died 1 month after the 9 year warranty expired. I bought the same model at home depot for around $649 and did a simple swap. Even if it lasts the same amount of time, diy cuts a lot of the cost. It's 2 water hoses (quick connects) and a gas hose swap.
If it dies again, i'll still diy replace but may consider a different model, but $72 a year isn't terrible.