Arrghh water heater

[cavalierowner]

Before I retired, I saw a lot of A.O. Smith in the mechanical rooms of our commercial projects. So I bought one for a duplex I owned when the old WH died. I had to replace the A.O. Smith after about 6 or 7 years when it started leaking. Either the residential A.O. Smith are not as good as the commercial size heaters or I just got unlucky. My engineers told me I was unlucky, maybe that's what's going on here too.

[CAMAN]

Upnorth, did you get a chance to inspect the dip tube on the bad one?

[upnorth]

No there some sort of plastic fitting on the top where the cold went in and I wasn't going to mess with it too much as they were bring it back to Lowes. I could somewhat feel a plastic tube, but couldn't pull it out.

[Tom7227]

I could be wrong but I think the dip tube is supposed to pull out pretty easily. I'm betting that it was boogered up.