Telltale Signs Water Heater, Furnace Will Soon Die

by Kevin and Bill Burnett, Inman News

Q: After reading your column on noisy water heaters I was left with a question that has been worrying me since I was widowed and no longer able to depend on my husband to know such things. The issue that sparked my attention was your estimated life span of water heaters as determined by their warranties.

I know my furnace was new, and I think the water heater was too, when I purchased this house in 1973. I am haunted by the idea of one of them suddenly breaking down, but also would hate to replace an appliance that I have found to be so reliable. Are there estimated life spans for such things? Or warning signs of demise? If so, what are they? Somehow furnaces and water heaters are much more mysterious to me than my kitchen appliances.

A: Let’s do the math. Installed in 1973, your furnace and water heater are 35 years old. The water heater rivals Methuselah for longevity. The furnace is a ripe old age. Even though they are senior citizens, we don’t recommend rushing out and replacing these venerable stalwarts without doing a little investigation — “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

We recommend that you do two things. First, give Pacific Gas & Electric a call and ask them to send a service person out to inspect the water heater and the furnace. This will be a safety inspection. The service person will make sure these appliances are operating safely. If not, they will be “red tagged,” and you’ll either get them fixed or replaced.

Second, if the furnace is functional, have it serviced. This will extend its life.

Realize, though, that your water heater, especially, is on its last legs. The good news is that you can run it till it dies, then replace it in relatively short order. The estimated life of a gas water heater is about 15 years. That you’ve gotten two times that is incredible.

Water heaters usually give up the ghost by springing a leak at the bottom of the tank. Hopefully, the appliance is in a garage where the leak can be contained. If not, consider replacing it before it leaks. As part of the replacement process have a drain pan installed, if there isn’t one already. A drain pan is a shallow metal pan that the water heater sits in with a drain hole with a pipe in the bottom directed to the outside of the house.

The two biggest things that go wrong with furnaces are a cracked heat exchanger and — if it’s a forced-air unit — a blower motor that quits. A heat exchanger takes the heat produced by burning natural gas and transfers it to the duct work for distribution throughout the house. What usually makes heat exchangers inoperative is a hole or a crack that allows the hot water to escape, or exhaust from the combustion fuel to escape into the interior air of the home. This is carbon monoxide and in sufficient quantities can be deadly.

Constant heating and cooling from years of use will eventually cause a heat exchanger to crack, but some last longer than others. Under some conditions, many survive well beyond their predicted life spans. Yours appears to be one of those.

Blower motors receive return air from the interior of the home, force it through the heater and blow the warm air into the living area. Blower motors can collect dust and dirt, making the motor work harder. Failure to regularly clean the dirt can cause the motor to burn out prematurely.

It’s important to change the furnace filters and vacuum the blower area regularly to prolong the life of blower motor. These are two of the things regular servicing will accomplish. An annual internal inspection by a licensed HVAC will include cleaning and testing for exhaust leaks. It should cost in the neighborhood of $100 and is money well spent.What’s your opinion? Leave your comments below or send a letter to the editor. To contact the writer, click the byline at the top of the story.
Copyright 2008 Bill and Kevin Burnett

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1. AAOA - American Apartment Owners Association » Tankless Water Heater a Wise Investment said at March 9th, 2009 at 12:50 pm

   [...] by Bill and Kevin Burnett, Inman News Q: I read with interest your recent column on water heaters. Mine went out recently, and I have been considering going to a tankless model. Since it would cost about three times more than a conventional heater, I was wondering what you thought about tankless heaters? Is it a smart way to go?   A: A tankless or “on-demand” water heater simultaneously provides unlimited hot water to sinks, showers and dishwashers. Any man who has endured a cold shower after his teenage daughter drained the tank doesn’t have to ask if this is a smart way to go.The question gave us pause to consider the way Americans have provided domestic hot water for the past century. Filling a 30- to 50-gallon steel tank with cold water, slowly heating it with a flame or electricity and letting it sit and re-heat until we needed it just isn’t the best way to go. Granted, there are boilers and the odd tankless system out there, but tanks have been the norm for as long as we can remember.Tankless water heaters are commonplace in Europe and Asia where they became the choice more than half a century ago. Energy limitations and space constraints compelled people to adopt more efficient ways to heat their water. In the United States, homes were large and energy was abundant. There was no pressing need to replace the standard water heater.Demand water heaters do not store hot water. When a tap is turned on, a gas burner or an electric coil heats the cold water entering the unit as it passes through a series of coils. The amount of hot water delivered is determined by the flow rate of the unit. A higher flow rate allows a greater volume of water to be heated from “cold” (say around 50 degrees) to hot (say around 120 degrees).Increased volume of hot water allows more fixtures to be served simultaneously. Since water is heated as it is used, a tankless heater is more energy-efficient than a traditional storage tank water heater. According to the United States Department of Energy, in homes that use 41 gallons or less of hot water daily, demand water heaters can be 24 percent to 34 percent more energy efficient than conventional storage tank water heaters. They can be 8 percent to 14 percent more energy efficient for homes that use a lot of hot water — about 86 gallons per day.For more from the Department of Energy, go here.A tankless unit delivers an unlimited amount of hot water, provided demand is not too great. In theory, depending on the capacity of the heater, taking a shower and running the hot water in a sink will allow the hot water to gush forever. But add a washing machine to the mix and the increased volume may reduce the hot water to one of the other fixtures to an unacceptable level.Most gas-fired tankless units can provide up to 5 gallons of heated water per minute. When deciding which tankless heater to purchase, it is critical to keep hot water use in mind. It’s important to determine the number of fixtures that typically will require hot water at the same time. Each fixture will have its own demands.On-demand water heaters cost more — two to three times that of a conventional water heater — but they can pay dividends in the future. Many tankless water heaters have a life expectancy of more than 20 years. They also have easily replaceable parts that extend their life by many more years. In contrast, storage water heaters last 10 to 15 years.To answer your question, we do think that going tankless is smart. But with a caveat. Do your homework. Make sure that the unit you purchase is sized right for your usage. We can’t think of anything more irritating than to plunk $1,500-$2,000 down and the thing doesn’t produce for you.What’s your opinion? Leave your comments below or send a letter to the editor. To contact the writer, click the byline at the top of the story.Copyright 2009 Bill and Kevin Burnett   See Bill and Kevin Burnett’s feature Telltale Signs Water Heater, Furnace Will Soon Die.   [...]

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