Originally Posted By: Brons2
what about tankless? how long do they typically last?
Hopefully a long time! Our Rinnai will only be 4 years old in March. They are "rumored" to last longer than the tank heaters, but time will tell..... there's certainly a lot more to go wrong with them, vs. a traditional tank heater (not including the heat pump/hybrid models)
We replaced a 17 year old 40 gal gas fired tank unit in '09 that sounded like explosive popcorn when you opened the hot tap on anything. Amusing once you got used to it. But I can only imagine how scaled up it was inside. We're on rural city water; hard as a rock without a softener, and I don't know how long the softener was in the house before we bought it in '08. But the heater still worked fine if you could get past the "popping"..